Interesting take on a survival game.

http://caiysware.com/echo-of-the-wildss

I was just messaging another forum member about this game. I stumbled across this and the developer's other game, Ilamentia, just a little while ago. I picked both up while they're on sale.

*edited for spelling

Is it interesting?

Looks amazing, gonna keep an eye on it.

Awesome thanks.
:D

I just squeezed in 20 minutes or so, as the curiosity was killing me. I'd need more time to say how the survival aspect plays out in the long run, but after making it through three days in story mode, I imagine it's going to be challenging to find enough food to get by. The art work is fantastic, and the story is quite charming so far. The sleep sequences are just gorgeous.

The controls are quite simple, and you can pretty much play with one hand on A,S,D,F and the other on the arrow keys (by default, anyway... looks like you can customize controls.) It's hard to say how long the story mode will be, but there's a story-free survival mode as well.

I haven't put enough time into it to really give much quality feedback, but after spending just a bit of time with the game, I adore the art and the music and the simple gameplay mechanics. There's a sense of exploration that's nice, the scenery is a delight, and the audio is very nice so far as well. I recommend playing on headphones.

I'm not sure how much depth the survival aspect has. There is simple tool building and food collection, but I'm not sure if it goes beyond that. This may result in the survival mode feeling repetitive sooner rather than later, but I'm quite fond of the game so far.

Thanks much, this is interesting. I played the demo for a bit just now and am intrigued enough to ponder whether to shell out the $4.99 it goes for at the moment. One thing that has me hesitating a bit is that while the text is worded in some dry poetic fashion (which I like), there are several typos I found, that always tends to kill the atmosphere/immersion for me. Is the full version more polished?

I just put another hour or so into it, and I'm really enjoying it. It's got a great atmosphere. I found it really frustrating at first, as I kept dying of hunger within the first couple days, but I'm farther along in the story now and I'm thoroughly enjoying it. I still can't speak for how long an experience it'll be, but it's really enjoyable. The dream sequences get more interesting, too.

As for chevkoch's question about the typos... a lot of the spelling and such is intentionally incorrect, but there are also occasional grammatical errors which can kind of spoil the mood. Nothing major so far, but it did grate on my nerves when an apostrophe was added unnecessarily to the word, "its." One or two other times I'd say were likely typos rather than poetic use of language, but no more than that (so far, at least.)

Thanks to akhliber for messaging me about these games. I've picked up Ilamentia and hope to try it out soonish. From the sound of things I may need to pick up this other game too!

I'd love to know what it's actually about, because that game had the most useless trailer I've ever seen.

Thanks for elaborating a bit about this. That one "it's vs its" incidence particularly annoyed me as well. The game's really tempting, still have to think about getting it. It's just baffling I found, deliberately picking a poetic tone and then not properly spell-checking the text.

Having just given it a quick play, I can summarise the game mechanics as a 3D platformer at heart. Basically you need to navigate floating platforms to reach objects that need to be shot to be collected, and when all are collected you can move to the exit. One of the interesting aspects are that the "rules" of the levels change each time. For example, in one of the early boards, the more objects you collect, the higher you can jump. This means finding the optimal sequence to collect them so that you reach each ones.

There is also a relentless, unstoppable enemy, a la Evil Otto or Baron von Blubba, who approaches you. While it doesn't kill you on contact, it makes the level harder and harder to complete. So that acts somewhat as a timing mechanism.

The aesthetics of the game are a large part of its appeal, it being another of the minimalist art games out there that tries to create a different environment for you to explore. I personally like those kinds of games very much, but you'll have to decide if that's a positive factor for you.

It is, but since you otherwise describe the game as one long series of jumping puzzles, it's definitely not for me. I vehemently hate jumping puzzles.

Although the boundaries of the term '8-bit' are somewhat blurry, it does specifically centre around a number of systems, primarily from the 80s - such as the NES, C64, Master System, etc...

Things like Oniken or even VVVVVV would be examples of 8-bit-inspired modern games.