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canmom · 2 months ago

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100%ed neon white.

it took about 32 hours. lots to say about this game...

mechanics/design

it is fr an absolute tour de force of mechanics and level design. call it a platformer or an FPS (it's kinda both), it delivers a sense of speed and flow like few games I've played. since this is a pretty big inspiration for types of game I might want to make (such as the backburned THRUST//DOLL project) let me break it down a bit.

the learning curve is excellent. like many games, it gradually introduces new movement options with interesting ways to combine them, and levels themed around the new movement option. but the shortcut hints system adds an extra dimension. essentially, levels are scored on time, with bronze/silver/gold/ace medals; generally speaking the level will guide you along a route, and a clean run will get you the gold, which will unlock a hint to guide you to a shortcut which will let you reach the ace. the ace times are far from optimal, but do tend to require a bit of execution skill.

the result of this design is that it's hard to get stuck, but you are gradually given an introduction to speedrun routing over the course of the game. I was, inevitably, the type of player to insist on getting an ace on each level (and grabbing the gift) before moving on, but it is totally optional. that said, it's perfectly designed to retry levels until you nail it: restarting is near instant, the music doesn't get interrupted, and it's very easy to get into a flow state, gradually getting more familiar with the level and discovering new tricks.

along with this is the gift system, required to unlock additional dialogues and backstory scenes. every level has a gift box hidden somewhere, and while this isn't timed, it takes on more of a puzzle aspect as you have to figure out the right way to use the level's movement resources to platform to the gift.

the design of the levels has something in common with a Sonic level: a series of rapid dashes forwards interspersed with moments of floating in the air, when you need to spot the next thing to target. generally speaking it's built to facilitate flow: if you're on the main route, you typically get a movement card just at the moment you'll need it, mixing between sections of shooting and using the discard to keep you on your toes. (even so, it does kind of have a rhythm game aspect). the level design, colour palette etc. does a solid job of guiding your eye towards the next place to go.

enemies are stationary, and only barely a hazard - generally more of a tool. they're part of the level design, with many of the later levels designed around specific enemies which either kill other enemies or help you move. since most levels require you to kill all the demons 'when to kill which enemy and how' is a large part of the routing, but generally speaking you kill enemies nearly instantly if you're on pace.

I ended up playing most of the game on controller; there is a pretty helpful aim assist that makes this possible at all, though I switched to kb+m on the last few levels where rapid aiming became more important. in my previous post I said the controls are 'tight' - what I mean by that more precisely is essentially loads of air control. indeed, you have pretty much the same horizontal acceleration in the air and on the ground, making it very easy to steer into position to line up moves.

in general I think a huge aspect that makes this game work is that it's very predictable. there is essentially zero RNG beyond the chaos of physics; enemies have predictable attack patterns and always stand in the same place, so you can plan like 'I'll grab the shotgun and shoot that guy then dash through that guy which will give me the rifle and let me dash into that balloon' etc. etc. it is also very visually readable, making it pretty easy to make a split second judgement of where to go next while hurtling through the air.

this is exactly how speedrunners tend to approach games, minimising sources of randomness and exploiting predictable behaviours; in general the genius of this game is to take the jank out of speedrunning so that you don't have to master complicated tech or rely on RNG to get the experience of gradually refining your movement through a level.

but, it's not just 'easy mode speedrunning'. even just looking at friends' times, I can see there is a huge degree of room for improvement; the global leaderboard even more so. there are special secret red medals if you can beat the lead developers' times, of which I have so far managed to get only one (it took me by surprise on a late-game level), and even then I'm still like forty seconds behind a friend's score on that level. I bet there's some crazy tech in the fastest runs. maybe at some point I'll go back and see if I can tighten up my times on other levels, though I feel pretty satisfied as thing stand.

all in all, should I manage to return to solo game dev projects (or even if we ever make a speed game at work), there is a lot to learn from Neon White.

narrative/aesthetic

so mechanically, very positive. on the aesthetic aspect: it's a very slick game, particularly with machine girl's latter-day breakcore soundtrack (machine girl is the most trans-ass name for a band but is actually two guys, unless some eggs remain uncracked here...). the UI flows very nicely - not quite as flashy as something like Persona 5 but definitely in that direction. it's a game that wants you to know it's stylish; Paradise Killer comes to mind.

and visually it's very solid! the levels are varied and, while generally consisting of 'floating architecture over an ocean', appealingly lit and coloured. the enemies have distinctive silhouettes and there are some cool unusual designs, like the giant laser heads, as well as some classics, like mimic chests (not particularly stealthy).

but of course the main visual aspect is the character portraits, illustrated by Rebecca Ryan. which is to say: white clothes with monochrome accents according to each character's colour name (curiously the characters are known only by colours in both life and death), animesque illustration, and hannya masks. and a bunch of symbolic manga-like expressions (blush, anxiety gloom, etc.) these portraits (plus, here and there, CGs) show up in the visual novel-style story sections and generally speaking, they work - if in a very 'Americans paying tribute to anime' way.

the story... most of what people react to is the whole weebcore thing it's got going on, finding it either cringe or endearing depending on taste. I feel like there is little to say about this that has not already been said. apparently the intent was to fit the style of dubbed anime, and... yep, it does.

instead I want to talk about... the religion thing! because what's going on there!

well, it's not that complicated on one level. the smarmy 'believers' stormed heaven and killed god, setting up essentially an american mall in its place. but this 'heaven' is actually Sheol; God was managing it using two macguffins called the Books of Life and Death. your goal turns into restoring God to His rightful place. these Books come with a Star of David on the cover, with a bunch of smaller ones around it...

the game is also however full of crosses, which generally speaking seem to be the Believers' symbol/weapon, as seen here in the Third Temple area (you know... not clear why this is in the afterlife as opposed to Jerusalem)

so it's fairly easy to read: most of the old school 'Heaven as it should be' stuff is associated with Jewish symbolism, but the dang Christians ruined everything.

the plot, meanwhile, rather heavy-handedly focuses on a theme of the importance of forgiveness. broadly speaking the story is that our lovable MCs - dorky MC White, slightly dommy love interest Red, childish and violent Violet, and laid back bro Yellow - who were all treated as disposable tools by the group's abusive leader Green. who is basically Vicious.

right down to the hairstyle!

the characters in this game, while decently voice acted, are all terribly one note archetypes. the story flashbacks almost all concern the botched job where Green - with White's support - led the whole group to their deaths for the sake of a long held grudge.

later in the story, Green gets a new 'destroy this shoddy universe' motivation, but it is honestly pretty unconvincing. probably the best aspect of his character is the dark yaoibait interactions with his object of obsession White, but this isn't the kind of game to go all-in on that front (its attitude to sexuality is very much a 'tease but don't depict').

all this leads up to a final decision to basically decide whether Green goes to heaven or hell. if you send him upstairs, White also gets to move on (I picked this since the game was blatantly angling very hard towards this being the true end); if you don't, White apparently remains trapped in Sheol until the next cycle. the thrust of it is basically you need to forgive and move on instead of obsessing over those who have wronged you.

Green remains unrepentant throughout - if you Book of Life him, he's not exactly happy about this, going like 'what do you have to gain from this' lol. the point is pretty explicitly not 'your enemies deserve forgiveness' and more 'don't let them live rent free in your head' I guess.

as a theme this is... reasonable enough? probably best not to stay mad about shit if you can avoid it, though certainly easier said than done. but the presentation suffers a lot from, well, telling/showing issues. you know this is the theme because towards the end of the game, the characters talk about it, a lot. ironically for a game in which you get sermonised at by comedically smug preachers in between chapters, it feels very much like sitting in a sermon: abstract ideals that don't really connect because the characters are so one-dimensional.

(it turned out, reading the credits, that one of the co-writers of this game was Aevee Bee, of WKTD/HWBM. I have lingering beef with her because she joined in brigading a friend of mine out of the indie game sphere over spurious vague accusations back in the day - a peripheral player but still very much on the wrong side of it, and to my knowledge she never apologised or anything. so it all feels kind of 'bit rich coming from you' for her to go off about the importance of forgiveness and moving on. but, even aside from that, on a craft level the story's approach to its theme already felt heavy-handed and unconvincing.)

beyond that... I'm just plain not convinced that resurrecting God is all that. the game's presentation of God is basically distorted audio and blurry shapes for text, with the characters reacting as if they understand; the Angels are presented as cute cartoon cats with the explicit conceit that this is just White's brain comprehending the incomprehensible (though we do get a brief wheel of eyes appearance near the end). but the reason the plot has to play out as it does, with God essentially choosing White to put things right because of the remorse in his soul... well, let's just say I don't much like chosen-one narratives in general, and the Abrahamic set dressing does not help. it feels very arbitrary, but also a bit straightforward and comfy for all this vague guesturing towards being strange and alien.

all that said, as much as I'm ragging on it, I do appreciate that it tried for something. a distinctive identity which doesn't fit my taste is better than a game with no identity. the character interactions are generally pretty charmingly silly. White and Red do at least make a convincing couple. Sungwon Cho is there, playing a father-figure office worker angel in his characteristic style.

other observations

the game's team is very small, with one developer (Esposito) doing most of the programming and mechanics; besides that we have a couple of level designers, a couple of artists... However, it had the funding of Annapurna Interactive, who recently made the news for basically imploding, but have been a pretty big player in the indie sphere of late. and obvs Machine Girl are kinda huge in their scene, but really a lot of the names are also pretty familiar ones if you've been hanging around indie games for a while. it's sort of like... indie but by broadly established names. still, small team makes me wonder: how feasible is it to make a game along these lines, either as a solo project or with a similarly small team at work?

what is notable is that it seems to have gone through a pretty long period of iteration; apparently an earlier version of it used randomly drawn cards, before the current predictable speedrunning focus came in as a clearly better approach. which is interesting: it has such a laser focused design that I would have guessed that it would be a speedrunning game from the outset. definitely a testament to experimenting around different ideas, which is really the essence of game dev.

the main thing I feel like I should take away if I return to working on THRUST//DOLL - which had a very similar planned structure, of fast levels that focus on time and visual novel sections to tell the story - is that if you're moving at high speed, it's absolutely essential that the information that you need to make a decision is readable, and acting on it is not too finicky. I might have to rethink the bullet-hell aspect, and introduce similar 'snap to enemy' mechanics to the dash abilities in the later stages. something to think about another day, anyway, I'm not sure when I might be able to continue that project.

all in all, fun game, very addicting, I have so much work to catch up on now...

#computer games #neon white

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justsomeno1s · 18 days ago

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LOBCORPxISAT AU ABNO IDEAS

Made it to Act 3! I now have more information to work with! Hooray!

Current Ideas for Siffrin, The King, and Loop as abnormalities under Read More due to length

ALSO IF YOU HAVE IDEAS/CRITISCMS, LMK PLEASE AND THANK YOU!!! I don't have any Unique Bonnie ideas yet, and I'm stumped, so I'm posting for feedback.

Siffrin

Sif is def an Abno. Formerly human, but lacking some humanity from being in containment so long. Prolly around HE or WAW.

Works best with Attachment, worst with Repression. (He's durable as anything from however many loops he's gone through- I don't think they'd take being forcefully repressed very well, either) Deals White damage in Unit.

Abilities wise, I think Sif would be pretty fun to play with, but also simple! They have a base counter of 3, and if their Counter hits 0, they breach and start attacking people. "WHO CARES?! THEY'RE NOT EVEN REAL!" kinda vibes. Resistant to Black and Red damage, Weak to White and Pale. He'd just tear through the facility until he's defeated, and if health gets to half, they'll start running away. If they aren't attacked for about a second, they'll heal themselves for 1/4 of max hp, and start dealing black and red damage at once. ofc, thats only if they get away.

For Mechanics, it's still basically the same idea as mentioned before; Every start of the day, when the ordeals are chosen, Siffrin chooses a genre of play, which dictates their likes and dislikes for the day. Add some interactions with Retrying Days, the time breaking abnos (I.E: Shelter from the 27th of March and Backwards Clock), and the other ISAT abnos, and there's something fun!

Comedy means they want Good Results, Tragedy means he wants Bad Results. Musicals are Insight, Slice of Life are Attachment, Dramas are Instinct. Nothing selected means they want Repression- Some suicidal ideation, in a way.

Equipment would obviously be based on Sif's things from ISAT: Weapon is a Temperance based Knife, curved and split at the tip, so it looks like a closed pair of scissors. Suit is a black suit with a short white cape and hood, maybe with off-white boots and gloves. (I can't think of any effects TT) For the gift, the Nugget gets a dark circle marking like the Healing Craft symbol, on their cheek, which turns a pale white when spent.

Idea: How about… a "get out of death free" type deal as a Ego Gift? Only once per Employee, a nugget can dodge death, in and out of Containment units. As a counter, it instantly drops their sanity to 0, and any other non-death effects still take place. (So, Counters dropping, breakouts, infections- that kind of deal. Might still be broken, but its fun to think about!)

The King

The King fits really well as an Aleph (idk if he's that powerful in ISAT, but still).

I think he'd be one of the abnos who change reaction based on level. Notable thoughts include: Lv 5 Insight is Bad, Lv 4 Insight is Good, Attachment works well but would be picky (From the offer to the party to be frozen).

Definitely still trying to freeze the world in time, producing tears, and showing visions of the future. For more interesting "gameplay", he could get the ability to create Sadnesses out of his Tears.

When his counter hits 0 and he breaches, he'd head to his department's Main Room, freezing anyone he comes in contact with. Upon reaching the destination, he'd begin to cry, spawning Tears and Sadnesses that spread away from him and begin attacking non-frozen Nuggets and Clerks. Being in the same room as him deals White damage over time. If defeated, the frozen Nuggets will return to normal, but the Tears and Sadnesses will continue to roam- The King is considered breaching until all of them are taken out, making them an end of day nightmare. So, essentially, a tanky Abno that can cause an Ordeal! Fun!!

Equipment: Weapon is a Shield and Mace combo, which lowers incoming damage taken when equipped (Deals Black, Reduces Pale). Suit is a deep blue, almost black set of armor with white strands that float off of it like hair in water (Weak to Black, neutral to all others). Ego gift gives the Nugget tears around their mouth and eyes.

Loop

Loop would be an abnormality, but I have no idea what level. The only idea I have so far is that their containment unit would also have the Favor Tree- The two could be fused in a way? Whether that makes Loop a dryad type deal or two separate entities in the same room, idk.

[I was think like parasite tree at first, but I like Loop being able to leave the Tree]

Maybe the Favor Tree grants wishes, and Loop tries to stop people from making them? Appearing inhuman, celestial, and ghost-like (maybe even scary) to ward people off. Or at least, that's the rumor. "The tree is fiercely protective of its leaves, calling upon a second form to punish those who take anything from it."

I really don't know enough yet to make them accurate to ISAT, so I'll just swing it to horror. Loop is a spirit that is given form by the favor tree specifically to "punish" (Kill brutally) anyone who takes things from the tree. Have them look human, but be able to pull people apart at the seams

In Unit, they deal white damage, definitely. If Loop were playing nice, their personality might only be a mild annoyance, but without that incentive, why not drive a few randos to madness for the hell of it?

Outside the unit... idrk " If high level, Pale. If low level, Black.

I feel like they'd get more aggro if the Nugget working on them had equipment/gifts from the other ISAT Abnos. A bit like Snow Queen, but not insta death. (Could include Loop's gifts too. "I gave you that in good faith, and you use it against me? Well, I guess I'll take it back!"

Would need high-ish Temperance or Prudence to avoid dropping their counter. Probably likes... insight. From the chats with Sif, and the Nugget knowing not to take anything (Thank you, Red Eyes)

Ego Equip would be a Staff with White, Star-like leaves. Deals White damage and slows the enemy slightly. (If high level, maybe heals?) Outfit is a white suit with black arms. If I could, I'd give a mask or helmet to make the Nugget look more like Loop as part of the suit. (Resist Black, Endure Red, Weak to White- Pale Res affected by level, again) Gift? Def a helmet- Imagine a laurel made of stars, that trails down the side of your face and covers an eye. (Raise Temp, lower SP)

#no1sy #in stars and time #lobotomy corporation #isat au #isat spoilers #(i guess??)

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