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videogaems · 4 months ago

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A post about Celeste, because I can't stop thinking about it.

If you follow the indie gaming scene at all, you've no doubt heard countless praises about Celeste, a 2018 platformer from Madeline Thorsin, under her studio Maddy Makes Games. Until recently, all I really knew about Celeste was that it boasted tight platforming, and was critically acclaimed, landing on a number of top 10 lists that year.

Personally, Celeste did not seem terribly up my alley; the platforming reminded me of Super Meat Boy and other masocore (a portmanteau of massacre and hardcore - a genre name that I just learned and love). I've always bounced off of these sorts of games, so I passed Celeste by.

I would later give it a shot when receiving a copy in the 2020 Bundle for Racial Justice and Equality available through itch.io. I played through the initial levels, up until a point where the main character, Madeline, sees a dark version of herself in a mirror and a chase ensues. The tight platforming combined with the pursuit in a way that I found stressful and unenjoyable, and once I completed that level, I quickly closed and uninstalled the game, deciding it wasn't for me.

Fast forward to 2024, I had the privilege of attending Summer Games Done Quick, a speedrunning convention and charity marathon that takes place in my city. I've always wanted to go, but this year I actually did, and it was an interesting look into a subculture I've always had a deep fascination with.

It was here that I got to see a runner by the name of carrarium do a speedrun of custom Celeste Maps called Monika's D-Sides. I strongly recommend checking this out if you get the chance and have an interest; you don't need to know much about the game to have an appreciation for the lightning-fast timing and twitch reflexes needed to accomplish what carrarium does. Afterward, I found myself thinking about Celeste a lot for some reason, and before long I was watching YouTube videos on how to get a .exe from Itch.io onto my Steam Deck (This was also a very educational process).

So that is how I came to play through the core game of Celeste in the year of our lord, 2024, and I must say: I finally get the hype.

I'll start at the beginning - a strange place to start for someone this far into a blog post, but follow along if you will. Celeste opens with you playing Madeline, a young girl who has absconded from the stress of her day-to-day life to, you know... climb a mountain, as one does. An old woman at the summit warns her that the path ahead will be strange, and possibly too much for our protagonist. Undeterred, she carries on.

The game plays simply... You, as Madeline, navigate through each screen by jumping, clinging to walls, and utilizing a mid-air dash that recharges on touching the ground. Navigation is difficult, but the difficulty is lightened by the fact that upon death, retries are instant, and the controls are incredibly tight, something mandatory in a game like this.

Soon, you make your way to Chapter 2, and it becomes apparent that each chapter in Celeste introduces new mechanics, the one for this Chapter being voids that maintain your direction and velocity as you travel through them, as well as crystals that recharge your mid-air dash. These voids are activated upon seeing that darker version of yourself that I referred to (introduced to Madeline as Part of You, but referred to affectionately by the community as 'Badeline') in a mirror.

Madeline soon meets this darker version of herself face to face, engaging in conversation, and even accidentally criticizing Badeline based on her first impressions (This will be important later). Badeline insists that climbing the mountain is a mistake, but Madeline insists she must, and the chase sequence I mentioned earlier begins.

Something was different this time around for me though. I was trying to determine how Badeline kept catching me, and through a bit of toying around and testing, I realized quickly that Badeline does not chase you. Badeline (and her later clones) simply does the exact same actions you do on a delay. What I had thought to be a stressful chase sequence previously was merely me quite literally running into a past version of myself that was taking the same actions I was.

This seems so small, but it's just the tip of the iceberg - at it's core, this is what the game of Celeste is about. Trying to escape your past, trying to suppress the parts of yourself that you feel are less desirable. Trying to escape who you are.

Chapter 3 sees the introduction of moving hazards in the environment, as well as the strange ghost Mr. Oshiro. As you navigate through this chapter, you travel deeper and deeper into an abandoned Resort Hotel, with Mr. Oshiro trying desperately to ensure Madeline enjoys her stay as a guest. But again - The Hotel Resort is abandoned, it's been closed for years. Much like you, Mr. Oshiro is clinging to the past. He refuses to accept the truth, that everything he knew and loved is gone, and it's time to move on.

I've heard it said before that the kindest thing you can do for a person is to be honest with them, even when honesty is the thing that hurts the most. Especially when honesty is the thing that hurts the most. Madeline, like most of us, does not follow this, and instead tries to help Mr. Oshiro, likely out of the kindness of her heart. It's not until the end of the chapter that Badeline appears, and tells Mr. Oshiro the harsh truth, and not in a kind way. Even so, Mr. Oshiro still takes this hurtful action as a reflection upon himself, asking why you're leaving. Asking what he did wrong.

Badeline responds that Madeline only helps people to make herself feel better. Really, isn't this something we all worry about, deep down? If there were no social contract, if there were no watching eyes, would we still be as kind? Are we only kind out of self-gratification? By this point, Badeline is quickly establishing what she is: self doubt. Negative self perceptions. The part of us that scrutinizes ourselves. The part that, for lack of a better word, hates who we are and what we have done.

Now is a good time in this rambling to talk about Ludonarrative Dissonance, a term that has been in the back of my mind since first learning about it. The simple version is this: With movies, books, and other types of media, we don't need to worry about our actions. For all intents and purposes, our actions don't exist. We are simply watching a narrative unfold. With the advent of video games, we now have a new layer to think about with the narrative being created: There is the story being told, and there are our actions. If the story being told is about how violence is bad, but the way you engage in gameplay is through violence (whether it be shooting or fighting enemies), ludonarrative dissonance is created. Thus, video game creators have a new level to consider for their audience: How do I make the player feel what the character is feeling in that moment? If this character is supposed to be scared, how can I make the player feel scared? How can I simulate anxiety to the player when the character in the game is experiencing anxiety?

I bring up this heady topic particularly because I think Celeste does it incredibly well. Madeline is facing a challenge, and the literal voice in the back of her head is constantly popping in to tell her 'You can't do it, it's too hard, you're not good enough.' You'll note that earlier I mentioned when this game came out, I passed it by because it was too hard. My own Badeline throughout this game was in the back of my head, telling me that this was too difficult. That I couldn't do it, I didn't have what it took. Celeste is about success through perseverance in the face of a daunting task, and the way that you beat the game is by persevering in the face of a daunting task.

The game continues into the next few chapters, continuing to throw new challenges and new mechanics at you the whole way. But you persevere, and overcome.

Eventually, you find yourself nearing the end of your journey, close to the top, and have a heart-to-heart with Badeline as you overlook the Northern Lights. Madeline tells Badeline she realizes what she is: The parts of herself she needs to leave behind. Her controlling aspects, paranoia, cruelty, all of the undesirable traits that reside within her. Madeline posits the two going their separate ways, freeing one another, and being happier. Badeline reacts poorly, informing Madeline that she cannot choose to simply blame all of her problems on the bad parts of herself, and divorce herself from them.

And it's true. We can't walk away from the bad parts of ourselves. Immediately, Badeline casts Madeline down the mountain, undoing all of her progress so far. It's there, at literal rock bottom, that Madeline meets the old woman from the beginning, who suggests that instead of abandoning the worst parts of herself, she seeks reconciliation.

After more chasing, Madeline catches up with her shadow self, and the two have a heart to heart. This time, Madeline offers compassion, acceptance, and love to Badeline. She accepts her self criticism, all of her mistakes, and acknowledges it as part of her. This unlocks a new mechanic where certain powerups, when hit, will result in Badeline appearing, and further flinging Madeline upward toward her destination, ultimately helping her reach the top of the mountain.

It's a really beautiful story about how oftentimes trying to ignore, discard, or abandon the worst parts of ourselves is counterproductive. Trauma, for example, is a mechanism that your body develops out of necessity. Over time, perhaps the need for the traumatic reaction is no longer necessary, but your brain does not know that. It's just a learned behavior at this point, and only through work and acceptance of yourself and your past can you move past it.

In the book Iron John, Robert Bly notes that in the eponymous fable has a moment where the protagonist pinches his finger in a cell door that he opens. Later, when that finger bothers him, he dips it into a lake where it turns to gold. Bly notes that this is an allegory that with proper effort and direction, our greatest injury early in our lives becomes our greatest strength. Someone who was abused as a child can overcome that and become an incredible teacher. Someone who was abandoned by their father may go on to become a passionate father in their own right. There's good reason that many sponsors in addiction programs are often people who have gotten sober themselves - They have healed their injury, and they are hoping to help others do the same. Madeline, by accepting the 'bad' parts of herself, is given the strength by those exact same parts to ascend the mountain; She is able to achieve was she was told by herself was an impossible task.

Am I reading way too much into this indie game? Yeah, probably - But the cohesion between this really great lesson and the gameplay is second to none. Celeste is absolutely worth the hype, and I would recommend everyone give it a play - even if you're bad at platformers. Especially if you're bad at platformers. After all - that's the entire point of the game.

#celeste #madeline #badeline #video games #steam #pc #steam deck #games done quick #sgdq 2024 #itch #carrarium

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videogaems · 1 year ago

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Steam Next Fest - June 2024

Dungeons and Degenerate Gamblers It feels easy to say 'Balatro Clone'. BUT if you say that about this game, you are openly admitting that you only see playing cards and have no nuance, just like everyone said. Dungeons and Degenerate Gamblers (Or D&DG as I'm going to refer to it, to save my little fingies the typing) is a roguelike blackjack battler. Those words feel confusing to stitch together but just follow me.

You choose your suit (different suits have different abilities, and the game equates this to difficulty) and begin playing blackjack against an opponent. You are always able to see their cards, unlike regular blackjack, and whoever of the two players wins does damage to the other players health pool, amounting to the difference between your final hands. Going over 21 results in your hand value being reduced to zero, in which case be prepared to take 17 full points of damage to the face.

As you win against opponents, you will acquire new cards for your deck, much like Balatro. Your opponents will also be acquiring these cards, much unlike Balatro.

There is also a mechanic of some cards being manually 'Exploited' (Read as: Activated), but in order to Exploit a Card, you must have Advantage (Read as: Points). This isn't explained well in the game *at all* in my opinion, but as you can see I figured it out using my brain and eyes, much to my chagrin.

I don't think I'll be Wishlisting D&DG, but it does the thing I like: It's a weird spin on a concept you know. And it works! I'll be curious to see if this catches on with the Balatro crowd, but I will certainly recommend it to roguelike and deckbuilding fans.

Dungeon Clawler I won't lie, when I saw that this was a dungeon crawler where you play a crane game to fight people, I automatically assumed this was my shit. I will say that it's kind of my shit, but it's not as 'my shit' as I originally thought it would be. Gameplay is cool and straightforward, you get two chances per turn to drop a claw into a claw machine and pull out symbols. The symbols you pull out will have some kind of effect (swords do damage, shields block damage, etc). By winning fights, you amass coins and new symbols to add to your crain machine that have varying effects.

By and large, the game is a cool idea but I'm not wild about execution. Now, Baron Mind® that this game is still in development so the following critiques may not apply someday BUT:

The art style is that kind cel-drawn images squash and stretch to imply movement, but it ends up kind of looking chinsey. It was the first thing I noticed, but maybe that's just because of how offput I am by that artistic choice.

Second, a banger of a soundtrack, even if it is just a remix of the Type B song from Game Boy Tetris, it's pretty good. But, zero sound effects. None at all, which filled me with discontent. I'm seeing attacks, I'm getting shields, I need noise.

Again, probably not a Wishlist for me but good execution on a great idea.

Tactical Breach Wizards

This was probably the breakout hit for me this Next Fest, and I will absolutely buy this day one (And hope the demo works after the fest is over). The third in the Defenestration Trilogy by Tom Francis - Which also includes Heat Signature (maybe one of my favorite games of all time) and Gunpoint (A game that, years after it came out, I found out I have a friend whose brother did the music - small world).

In Tactical Breach Wizards, it is the modern world, but magic exists. You are a team of magic users who are also a SWAT team. And when I say SWAT, I want you to imagine all the straight-to-DVD action movies that are marketed to the people who are military nerds, but never actually joined the military - It's that. I mean, one character is effectively Gandalf in Desert Camo with an M14 that has a staff sticking out of it, another has a wand with a laser sight and a silencer. It whips ass.

Gameplay is a lot like XCom, with one cool feature being that your wizard can see one second into the future, so after finishing your turns, you can forsee how the enemy will react, and rewind your turn as far back as you like, as many times as you want in order to achieve your desired outcome.

Honestly, I could rave about this game for a while. The gameplay, the style, the writing, everything is just aces, and this immediately breached the door to my Steam wishlist and killed everyone inside. Can't wait for August.

Caravan Sandwitch

I was unsure how to feel about Caravan Sandwitch. You play a girl who is returning to her hometown after a long time away, and reuniting with friends while driving a van.

The art style? Fantastic. Really just an absolute dream to look at and play. The setting? Eh... Now, don't get me wrong, I'm a big fan of games that don't hold your hand to explain the world lore, and just kind of let you figure it out through context. Caravan Sandwitch does try to do that, but it falls short, and you end up feeling like a third wheel to these characters, rather than being in the shoes of the character you're playing.

While you explore, the game will have pillows sitting about in hard-to-reach places that effectively serve as collectible lookout points, where your character will just chill and observe the surroundings. These moments are peaceful, and personally I'd love to see more games do something like this, in an effort to make the player really observe the effort put into the environment (A thing I fail to do often)

However, other than that, Caravan Sandwitch didn't really grip me and I probably won't keep up on it.

Dustborn

Another entry in forgettable-single-name-game-titles-that-are-portmanteaus. Dustborn has you follow a group of characters in a band, traveling across the country on a tour in an effort to get to Nova Scotia, which seems to be some kind of safe haven in a military-state America.

Again, the Art style in this game is fantastic, everything is very comic book stylized, even the button prompts, but the demo jumps between moments in the first couple hours of the game without giving you a lot of info as to what is going on. I was surprised when combat was introduced, and thrilled when it included a baseball bat that you can throw and retrieve like the Leviathan Axe in God of War. Well, not quite like the Leviathan Axe... it's posited that way, but ultimately ends up being a ranged attack that just automatically returns to you. Combat was very floaty and just didn't have that je-ne-sais-quois that makes combat feel good.

The game also contained a rhythm action sequence that was reminiscent of Gitaroo Man, another fave of mine, but that wasn't enough to make me want to follow up.

BUS: Bro U Survived

I dislike this game on name alone, and playing it didn't really help much. Points to it for having customization options to let me have a handlebar mustache, but this game just kind of boils down to a co-op zombie survival game in a cartoony style where you have to drive a bus sometimes. I only clocked 26 minutes in this game, and to be fair, I was playing solo (What, I'm supposed to make friends?), but this game didn't hold me for very long. Even as I write this I'm trying to remember much about it, and it just ended up being very forgettable.

Wizard of Legend 2

Hell yeah. HELL YEAH. I forget how I even found out about the original Wizard of Legend, but it's a fun roguelike that I recommend. I was unaware that a sequel was even in the works, so this was a delight to find out about, and an even bigger delight to play.

Players will play the role of a wizard attempting to complete a legendary challenge, with the idea that each run is a new wizard's attempt, since the last one died. Choose spells of different elements, speed, and power, and try to find combinations that mesh well together. I had a lot of fun using a wind vortex to pull all enemies to me, and then hitting the lot of them with chain lightning. Even for a demo, I could see myself sinking a lot of time into this (and I'm hoping it's still playable after Next Fest). This one makes the Wishlist for sure, and I'm looking forward to the release.

Aloft

I found Aloft very disappointing. Yet another first person crafting survival game with the hook being that eventually you make a glider that you can use to zip around the world.

The demo is in Alpha, as the devs will make known quickly, and the game made known to me quickly, since I encountered a bug early on that I had to visit the steam forums to make sense of. While going through the tutorial prompts, after collecting leaves and wood and shit like that, I was prompted to craft a Glider at the Glider station. Oh boy, it's finally my time to fly! But wait, I don't have a Glider Station. What's more, I can't build a Glider Station. Where is the Glider Station? Is this 'Glider Station' in the room with us right now?

Eventually I learned that this is a bug - the game is supposed to give you more prompts to guide you up the mountain in the game, where you will learn how to make the Glider station, and THEN you are supposed to get the prompt to build your glider. To drive that point forward: The. Tutorial. Is. Bugged. The thing that teaches you how to play the game does not work correctly. I know it's Alpha, and I know I don't make games, but this seems like such an oversight.

Finally, I made my Glider, and took off. It was... fine. The camera cuts to third person when this happens, but your character is so stiff and rigid flying around. It felt cool to zip around, but it didn't feel good if that makes any sense.

Maybe I'll circle back around on Aloft when it's in Beta or 1.0, but this just wasn't it for me.

Goblin Cleanup

But this was!!! Play as a goblin henchman whose job it is to clean up and reset all the traps in the dungeon before the next group of heroes arrive! For some reason, gamified mundane shit always gets me, and this game was no exception.

Goblin cleanup is almost beat-for-beat a reproduction of Viscera Cleanup Detail. Instead of a mop, you stab a slime and poke bloodstains with it until it soaks them all up (and dies?!). Instead of washing the mop, you feed the slime to a mimic, so on and so forth. Some improvements include:

Structure. You're given a list of tasks to complete, and they are checked off as you complete them. As a person with ADHD Inattentive Type, lists are key for me, so this was a big improvement over Viscera Cleanup Details approach of 'Clean until you're done and we'll tell you if you did good'. I'm neurodivergent with a praise kink, you've gotta tell me I'm doing good while I'm doing good.

Scanning. Hitting Q at any given point will highlight on your HUD where there are still items to be cleaned up. Massive improvement over Viscera Cleanup Detail, where you just have to kind of eyeball it.

I liked this! A lot! I could see myself buying this, or even just going back and trying to finish the level proper before NextFest is over.

Pawn Planet

I'm a massive mark for shop-owning games, and even more so if the game has a mechanic for haggling. Pawn planet has both, and by and large, I enjoyed it. The premise is simple, you run a pawn shop on a remote planet. Aliens come in an buy the stuff you have, or try to sell you things. When they approach the register you are given stats on the customer, like Anger, Knowledge, and Greediness. Using this, as well as the condition of the item you are buying or selling, you haggle on a price until one of you coughs up the cash. After the day is over, you can buy supplies to repair the items to make your money back.

Some days, there will be an auction at a storage planet where you roll the bones and bid on a Storage Locker of random items, storage wars style. Not going to lie, this had me hyped until I got fleeced on a board game I paid way too much for.

Other days, you will travel through a portal and ostensibly raid an alien base in order to murder civilians and take their stuff to sell. Okay, so the game doesn't say that, but the game also doesn't explain who these people are or why you are shooting them in the face. This section was underwhelming - The shooting isn't super tight, and you just sort of strafe and click on the aliens until they blow up. Not to mention there was some confusing placement of items in the alien base; Why are you putting what is obviously a safe in this room if it is not intended that I should try to crack it open and steal the rest of whatever was left in these creature's will?

Other bugbears included the fact that when you buy an item, only that item will come to your shipping bay, and you must remove it before you can buy another item. So in a situation where I needed three separate items, I needed to leave the computer, go to the shipping bay, retrieve it, and return to the computer... three separate times. Also, when traveling to the storage planet, I had to click where I wanted to go on my computer inside, then go outside to the spaceship to leave. These are small grievances, but the question and the sometimes vowel remains: Why?

This one gets a rec from me, I didn't spend too much time with it but I did enjoy it overall. Hoping that the finished product has a bit more polish.

The Alters

From the trailers I've seen of this game, it seems cool, but I didn't get far enough in the demo to really see the meat and bones. Which is to say I didn't get far enough to see any of the titular Alters. I, instead, ran headfirst into some radiation at some point, and lost about 10 minutes worth of progress that I just didn't have the nerve to redo, so I bailed. Luckily, these NextFest demos seem to not have expired, so maybe I'll go back and give it another shot.

In the meantime, there are a lot of Death Stranding vibes, a game I loved, and a base building mechanic similar to XCOM, yet another game I like. I think this has legs, and I enjoy the idea of alternate versions of the main character helping him out, but again - I didn't get there.

I dunno... seems neat.

Demonschool

This came at the recommendation of a friend, and I simply could not wrap my head around it. I'm a real sucker for teenagers at a weird school doing paranormal stuff, but the combat system felt very obtuse. One character only buffs, and two characters only attack. You choose the actions they will take but just kind of clicking around (not actually selecting the skills, just sort of running the character into targets), and then they play out those actions once your turn has concluded. Which I sort of get why, but it's still very disorienting. I only stuck around for two combats, so I can't say this is for me, but if you're into visual novelesque storytelling with Into the Breach Combat, this may be your cup of tea.

Reka

I think I remember seeing a trailer for this game during the Wholesome Direct or Cozy Direct or whatever the hell in 2023, but it seemed cool, and it is. This is effectively a base building game, except you're a young witch training under Baba Yaga and the base is a giant chicken house that you can drive around. It's pretty tight. Your character only looks like a haunted doll, regardless of what features you choose, and the controls are very floaty but I think this has a lot of potential. My first action once getting my Bird House was to see how big I could make the platform it sits upon, and the answer is 'pretty big'. This was one of a few demos that I actually saw through to the end, so I think that says quite a bit. Hoping the full release has some meat on these Chicken House Bones.

Thank Goodness You're Here!

I'm going to file this one under Biggest Disappointment of the Fest. I typically try to give games about 15 minutes at least so I can get a feel for what they're doing. This demo was 13 minutes long. It being by the creators of Untitled Goose Game had me excited, but ultimately you just kind of run around and slap things and everyone has a funny British accent. I was very un-wowed by the game, and very wowed when the demo ended so abruptly. Oh well, I suppose.

Tiny Glade

Not so much a game as it is a toy, but oh boy is it a fun one. Intuitively whip up little castles with no problem, and then walk around with them in the first person. I was so charmed by this that I called my artist wife in to sit down and take a look at it, and I didn't need to explain anything about it before she had build herself a little castle. You build little castles! What's not to love? I'm hoping there's more to it in the full release, or at the very point that the price point reflects what it is exactly.

Tiny Bookshop

Another one I saw in a cozy direct that I had my eye on that ended up kind of falling flat for me. This game boils down to a shop simulator, which I'm a huge fan of, obviously. But then there's the whole aspect of have percentages of book genres, and how many books you have affecting your likelihood to sell... it just didn't hook me in the way I hoped. The art style, however, was very good, and it's a delight to look at. This might be another one I take a stab at when I'm in the right headspace.

Wild Bastards

I heard Void Bastards was good, but I never actually played it. Wild Bastards seems pretty neat though... you are a couple of Wild West Robots (hell yeah) who are venturing across the galaxy and resurrecting your dead team members with a magic ship. Levels consist of beaming down to a planet and taking out enemies meticulously while not being killed yourself. You can only take down two team members at a time, but you can hotswap between them which is a neat mechanical way of changing weapons. Unfortunately, once I got my third team members, I was summarily shithoused by a bunch of plants and my run was ruined. Still, I had a lot of fun and I will be keeping a close eye on this one. Maybe not a day one buy, but certainly something to pick up.

That's my NextFest, folks. Love it or hate it, I love videogames and I like that demos are coming back in vogue. Til next time.

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