There is a shit ton of games on Itch.io. The genres range from your traditionals such as action, platformer, adventure, shooter but in addition to this, it is also the home to a lot of gamejam projects vastly increasing its game catalogue.
With this in mind, I have decided that I will play a few games every Sunday morning whilst sipping my coffee and to write some nice things.
Games
The Polaroid
The Polaroid is an escape the room game with a little twist. Instead of your traditional click-around-the-room-to-find-the-pixel-you-need mechanic, it uses the premise of lining up polaroid images with objects in the room in order to reveal interactable items. Some of the objects in the room you can pick up, rotate and move about whilst others act as they were part of a sliding puzzle. This game was made for Lundum Dare 36 whose theme was ancient technology.
You start off with a tutorial photo where you must line up a picture frame on the wall and guitar at the bottom of a bed. It shames me to say this, but this image took me the longest. I had not discovered that items on the wall were also adjustable so spent the majority of my game struggling on this darn first puzzle. After discovering this new form of interactivity, it was smooth sailing from there. Once you have finished with the tutorial photo, you are presented with four more on the wall that you must solve.
I finished the other images fairly quick and left the room. It made me realise, I would definitely like a longer version of the game, perhaps with a bit harder puzzles and multiple rooms.
There you go
There you go is another escape the room game. It employs the common click hunting technique to explore the rooms but however it has added an extra three perspectives to explore. This is down to its isometric art style. With each room, you can rotate it 90 degrees allowing you to investigate each wall discovering doors, paintings or air vents.
I managed to progress through the rooms fairly quick due to some strategic insta-room rotating technique I developed to fully be aware of what was around me. However, there was a room that stood out. Room 7.
This room has some sort of rotating frame in the centre with a basket attached to the wall. There are also two additional rooms connected; one with a tree and a clock, and another with a paint mixer. To progress you must interact with items in all of the rooms. However, I managed to get stuck on the bit involving mixing paint. I continually explored the previous rooms in case I missed something completely forgetting that I could also see the rooms from other angles. To avoid spoiling the solution, once I had solved the puzzle, it gave me the same kick of enjoyment I used to get after solving puzzles in Monkey Island.
The game consists of "10 levels" and I quote that as I don't think it does. The last room displays "Fin!" in the middle but also contains four posters on the walls each referencing an old point and click adventure game. These are:
Monkey Island - I Wanna be a pirate!
Loom - Last leaf of the year
The Dig - The asteroid has been named Atilla
Legend of Kyrandia - Malcolm has broken free
Whether these were inspiration I'm not sure but I am very suspicious as to if this is the end (especially with clicking the ! In the middle of the room causes it to turn into a ?...).