Thursday 6 March, 2008

Gameplay:

The more I play the easier it is to set up strategies. Each level is going to be different every time you play it because the symbols are doled out randomly, but there is still a comforting repetitiveness in having a general strategy.

After having played it for about two hours I am still really enjoying the game. The emergence style of the game makes it easy to stay involved in. The music actually adds a lot to my enjoyment of the game (for the first hour anyway). It is surprisingly unwhiny and very stimulating. The motivational chords make a nice addition to an already adequate game.

Design:

An interesting aspect of the game is the ranking you get according to your score. As you accumulate more points you go from an apprentice to a hedge wizard to a grand wizard. This tiny detail actually adds a lot to the background of the game. As you play and go up in ranking you get this mental picture of gaining knowledge and power and becoming a master alchemist. The game itself doesn’t really have a story as much as a background, but adding the ranking next to the score adds the possibility for player creativity with respect to their view of the game.

In this game players will very rarely experience any kind of exhaustion. While there are many levels the draw in this game comes from self-competition. Once a player has beaten all the levels, he or she can go back and improve their time and accuracy for lack of a better term. It is a never-ending puzzle of entertainment.

This is fine, and I suppose about the best you can get for such a simple game. Good job.

Amy Leek (grader)