Sometimes games come out of nowhere and bowl you over with their beauty, originality, and general coolness. And while this game has the beauty, originality, and coolness down, it certainly didn’t come out of nowhere for those of us involved in the indie game scene. We have been given weekly, nay, daily updates on the progress of this game on various development blogs for so long I feel like a part of me has died now that the game is finally out. That being said, I am ever so happy to report that it is a absolute piece of art, and you really should go play it.
The game is a match 3 of sorts, but instead of swapping gems, you have a number of runic tiles on the board in front of you, and you are constantly given new sets of runes to lay down next to them, trying to make a match. In the beginning it is dirt simple, but as the boards get bigger and you get more and more rune types to match, it can get more challenging – but never som much so that it gets irritating. The gameplay experience is somewhere between Wonderlines and Ocean Express, if that makes any sense, but it likely doesn’t. It’s a game better understood by playing than describing, which is a pretty good indication that it’s original. Which it is.
And the game has minigames – which are always a good addition to a game. There is a “rune matching” subgame that is a hoot to play – it’s like mahjong, but… different. Like everything else in the game, it is beautiful and fun. In another small minigame you have to release a giant rune by placing a number of runes on all sides of it, which is trickier than it looks. There are also jigsaw-type puzzles to solve, and some other neat little things along the way, but I won’t spoil it for you. Go find ‘em yourself.
Let me say again, this is a truly beautiful game by any measure. I liked the choice of futhark runes as a genre, as it gave the game a mystical feel that was quite mature, and I liked the deep saturate colors the game used as well, which gave the overall composition of the game a rich, beautiful feel. Overall, the game looks like it plays: it takes itself way more seriously than you do. There is that feeling of real love in this game, like someone spent way too much time thinking about every little art choice in it, which is a good thing – but every now and then, you think, “did this game really need to be this pretty?” I don’t usually complain about overkill in polish, but honestly, this game is too pretty for its own good.
I should also note here that all of the levels are hand designed, by which I mean there is no random placement of gems in the levels. The designers have gone through each of the levels and hand placed every gem to make interesting and beautiful patterns for your to interact with - which takes time and effort that a lot of casual game designers refuse to put into their games. Like everything else in this game, it shows a love for the product and a respect for the audience that makes a real difference. It’s something we would like to see a lot more of, especially from indie developers.
As for the story… If you are into long stories with almost comically serious voice acting and some beautiful but somewhat creepy 3D models, Anawiki totally has you covered there. It has wizards, and hot chicks in peasant blouses (always a good thing), and lots of names that sounded vaguely Arthurian, but beyond that I can’t remember much. To be honest I spacebar-ed through most of them after the first few, but that has more to do with the fact that I can’t stand to have something read to me than any real criticism of the story itself. While overkill in game design and art polish is an absolute good, overkill in story writing can often be a hindrance, and here it is. Had the stories been 1/4th as long I might have actually read them - but maybe not even then. In general, I would suggest casual games skip the voice acting and concentrate on just writing a fun story that fits into no more than a screen or two.
But story issues aide, this is a shockingly solid little game from an indie developer, and as big fans of the indie development community we’re pleased as punch to say that after a few thousand blog posts about making it, Anawiki has actually made a fun and compelling little game. It’s a success story for other indie developers, and we hope it gets the love and attention it deserves. Go play it and give it some yourself.
Review by
Nick Kojima
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