Checking Out Some Game Demos

Blood Lily Loop, Fowl Damage, LOK Digital, Tiny Cauldron, Townframe

Some more demos! So many demos. Too many. Why did I have to write so much? Anyway, if any of these still have demos when I post this, they’ll have a (*).

Fowl Damage*

Out now

This one was pretty interesting. Fowl Damage is a platformer where instead of playing a sturdy character, you’re playing as a weak egg. Yep, you play as an egg that has a cute face on it and can move and jump. However, just like normal eggs, this Egg’s biggest weakness is height…and jumping into the bottom of platforms. Instead of going for the easy platforming path, you need to go the long way so you won’t break when you fall down the platform ledges. In addition, you need to make sure that when you jump, you won’t fall too far down to the platform you want to get to. This can cause you to go back a ledge or two so you can safely make the jump. Sometimes, you have to be careful so you can fall straight down, but sometimes you need to have some momentum to get to a platform slightly lower to the one you’re on that’s also more to the right rather than under you. As you get to the end of the demo, which is the end of the first area, an enemy (a boss?) will start attacking you as well. Making the levels harder as you’re on a time crunch. Either having you wait so the enemy will aim to where you just were, you rushing off the platform before the enemy attacks.

Like I said before, Fowl Damage was pretty interesting. It’s an interesting twist on the genre and the levels so far are designed well around this. Another game to look forward to and seeing what the rest of the game has to offer.

Blood Lily Loop*

Out now

A time loop game with an interesting visual twist on the RPGMaker visual style? Say no more! I don’t play many RPGMaker games, but the way the visuals were handled caught my eye instantly with how it zooms in to a 2.5D style when investigating things. Anyway, Blood Lily Loop brings you into the midst of a bloody time loop story. It opens right as Lily forces a loop by reciting a prayer and killing herself right in front of her friend, Sally. A mysterious disc falls out of her bag, but Sally is only focused on Lily and she soon falls unconscious anyway. Then, we see Sally waking up. However, what happened before time looped seemed to not have fully left her as what happened lingers like she had a nightmare that she can’t exactly remember. Nonetheless, today is the day of her friend, Lily’s, birthday and she bakes cookies as a gift. Another friend, Wiseman, comes along to celebrate too. It doesn’t take long for us to learn why Lily wanted to loop time as it turns out that Lily has a crush on Sally. Wiseman tries to get her to confess, but Lily is worried that it’ll ruin their relationship. Either way, Lily’s birthday continues and Sally continues to be oblivious to Lily’s crush. That is, until Lily loops the day again.

We don’t know how the original timeline went, or what loop we’re on, but the prayer does seem suspicious. Especially with the gross being we can see in the trailer. I wonder if Lily’s health is taking a hit every time as she does get stomach pain, which causes the CD to fall out of her bag when she gets up to go to the bathroom (which causes Sally to get a flash of the previous loop). With how Lily reacted, I feel this may not have happened in the previous loop(s). I do also wonder if the boys came previously too, which I feel they didn’t based on Lily’s reaction. Plus, with how thoughtful and protective Sally was, I totally see why Lily wanted to loop again despite probably telling herself she won’t do it again.

As you can probably tell, I enjoyed Blood Lily Loop and I’m already theorizing on the story. I like the story so far and I really like how they handled the RPGMaker visuals and the character artwork for everyone is pretty cute. I can’t wait to see what’s going to happen next when this comes out in September.

LOK Digital*

When I was catching up on all of the game showcases, LOK Digital was one that interested me, but I was iffy on it. This game is the type of game you can’t pin down the gameplay just by the trailer and I wasn’t sold on the words you’re supposed to be finding. Well, when I saw it had a demo I decided to try it out anyway.

I unexpectedly ended up liking it. Basically, each level comprises of a mix of blank and lettered cells and your goal is to black them all out. How do you do this? Well, there are words that you can find that will help you out. Each word you find and select will black out additional cells, but they do differ in how. Like the basic “lok” will black out one while “tlak” blacks out two adjacent to one another. In addition, in terms of adjacency, it doesn’t count blacked out cells as in the way. So, if a cell is in between the letters you need, you just need to figure out when the black it out. Seems easy, but it does get complicated the more you go on as more cells and words are added. After all, it wouldn’t be a puzzle game if you have to figure out the right order to find the words and which cells you need to black out. There is a hint system here, if you get stuck, which tells you what order you need to do the words in while leaving you to figure out which word (if there’s multiple “lok”s for example) and which cell to black out. This demo only has the first three worlds (comprising of at least 6 levels), but based on the demo, it looks like it’s going to get a lot more complicated and perhaps each world will introduce a new word or mechanic. In addition, there are also three daily puzzles you can do and it looks like the leaderboard is based on how fast you solve it.

Townframe*

Coming October 8

When I saw that Townframe had a demo I was so excited. Back when I first saw this during one of the game showcases last year I was interest, but wanted to see more. I believe I also wished for a demo so I could try it out. Well, there was a demo! I was right, I did end up liking Townframe.

Townframe is a game all about you making towns that people remember from their past and framing them. Each level will have your client give you a short description of what they remember of their town, or what their family members remember, and it’s up to you to craft the frame that represents it. At first, the frame only has the foreground and background until you press the house button where everything will pop in. No need to guess where the buildings are! Each building (or tree) can be changed with a click or by going into the building wheel. You do unlock two other features pretty quickly: a magnifying glass to find something hidden (which usually requires it’s own requirement like a sheep being hidden between trees) and a tool to make wind blow. If it’s a request that has multiple aspects to it, there is a completion meter that fills up. This is helpful if you’re not sure whether something is right or not. Once you fully complete the request, the client will then tell you a short blurb of the area or what they remember from their past and give you a coin(s) which youc an use to buy more tools.

So far, I liked Townframe. It’s simple and sweet just like I suspected. It seems it’s going to be a good, short game and I’m looking forward to it.

Tidy Cauldron*

Out now

After some confusion thinking this was called Tiny Cauldron, this game is basically those tetris-like puzzle games where you’re trying to find a way to fit all these pieces, weirdly shaped and not, to fit in the small space you’re given. Except this time with a witchy aesthetic and framing it as you brewing potions. The different ingredients even have their own short descriptor, like how Cats Organized Neatly. Overall, I liked this demo and if you like puzzle games like this, you’d like this one too.