Ratings and Reviews by Max Fog

I’m going to struggle to write a lot about this one. I liked it. I liked it a lot. It didn’t quite go on for as long as I’d hoped it would, but it’s all relative, I suppose. The game starts out seeming sci-fi - interesting concept, I remember myself thinking, but surely that makes the game not super fun as there’s no challenge in getting away. So then you go around, trying to get in, and have an odd conversation with a woman before getting into the vault. Good writing, as well, so that definitely helped push it along beyond the extremely basic puzzle which felt a little too much like lawnmower options.

Then, the game flipped. Every single thing our PC had casually mentioned, the odd interaction, the entire concept of the game, suddenly fell into place and made so much sense. How didn’t I see that before? I remember thinking. Now, that is the best way to create a plot twist.

Of course, we are given one choice at the end and I am happy with the choice I was given, so I don’t feel I need to go back and try the alternative. However, I do feel like while the puzzle was only there to slow the pace and not feel like a kinetic novel, I wish there was something more to do in that moment - a clever puzzle that maybe even gave away another subtle hint to the condition of the PC, obviously without giving it away yet, but something to create more investment in the story before the flip.

Okay, wow. That was one confusing romp. I’m getting through all the short games and then seeing what I can do about the longer games later, if I can get to them at all. These days are numbered for me. I start school tomorrow.

Anyway, the game. Immediately, you’re thrown into the midst of the action, falling from the sky. I love the use of stretching to find rhymes in this case especially, because it was actually quite amusing. Then you fall and struggle to find out how to survive, and restart again and again. Most verbs are blocked, as then they would have to be implemented - a shame, absolutely, but understandable to an extent.

I had to use the walkthrough to get through, and it’s so obvious once you get it. Very silly, slightly amusing, but frustratingly underimplemented.

So, just previously I was talking about minimalistic games with a linear storyline/puzzle sequence, and explaining that the rest of the game still needs to be implemented to a sufficient level, in a way that guides the player through. That is exactly what Black Thumb does.

Sure, call me exaggerating: the game in question is very short and doesn’t do anything super innovative or excitingly different. However, what it does do is implement the entirety of the room in detail that allows the player to feel immersed in the simulation. The different parts of the descriptions are given their own responses, and there is subtle guiding through reliance on assumptions the player makes, and then it soon uses these to make the player do things that you never would have imagined yourself enacting, much like the meat puzzle in Coloratura, but on a smaller scale.

The parts about implementation may seem like a bare minimum, and in a way it is, but on the other hand many games that do similarly tend to be puzzle heavy games, and they like to create descriptions that often imply “that isn’t important” or “you don’t need that yet but keep an eye on it”; this game creates descriptions that do exactly that, but without being dimsmissive. I don’t know how to explain it. The descriptions are fairly poetic as well, which helped create this cozy atmosphere about it.

I know that others will likely give this a 3-star or 4-star, but I enjoyed it a lot.

Okay, I am not going to lie, the very start immediately hooked me. You’re on a plane, very minimalist description style. Something in my brain clicked.

But then - the implementation threw me off. There was nothing to do in the scenarios except that which was intended to progress the scenes. And if that was the idea, to have the player focus on the important parts, then unimplemented moments need to have more guidance. Take Portrait With Wolf, for example. While there is only one verb and four objects at any one time, the game guodes you whenever the player attempts to examine things mentioned that are unimportant, rather than just a simple “?”

I didn’t quite understand what was happening in the scenarios, but I quite liked the vibe. I’ll give it that.

This game is an extremely simple concept: wake up, read mail, and gather supplies to go and kill the King! I love the idea of making things more complicated than they have to be, especially when you start with a basic problem and it escalates out of proportion.

However, this game didn’t quite get that. There was no depth or build-up. It was exactly what it said on the tin, but in a way that felt quite unsatisfying. I would in the future try to build a progression of events that brings players beyond what they were drawn in by. For example, if then there was a budgeting puzzle where you had to trick a set of shops into getting you what you wanted with a small amount of money.

Furthermore, the implementation left much to be desired. There were multiple sections where the default responses were left in immediately after a custom response, for example “You can’t go that way.” on the winning move! Beta testers are a really useful tool, and I know many people who would be glad to playtest.

Overall, while there is a long way to go from here, everyone has started here, whether they eventually released it or not.