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October 23, 2011 8:58 PM

A Game About Game Literacy (Flash, some strobe on later levels)
posted by Artw (26 comments total)

(If at first the keyboard does not appear to work click on the flash movie to give it focus.)
posted by Artw at 9:03 PM on October 23, 2011

Huh. Short.
posted by kafziel at 9:04 PM on October 23, 2011

Remember at the end of Half-Life where you got teleported to Xen and immediately got faced with a ridiculous "die a bunch of times to accomplish nothing" jumping puzzle, that, after you fail 90 times in a row, you finally succeed and get to stand on actual ground, which is where you should have teleported to in the first place?

That's the jumping puzzle that, in retrospect, makes you realize where that game went from awesome to lame (yes, the end of Half-Life was lame). There's a reason I bring this up now.
posted by tylerkaraszewski at 9:11 PM on October 23, 2011 [4 favorites]

Gordon Freeman is so going to teleport inside your head and beat up your brain crystal with a crowbar for saying that.
posted by Artw at 9:13 PM on October 23, 2011 [1 favorite]

Nice little game, but I'm not sure I understand how it's about game literacy more than any other game.
posted by cmoj at 9:58 PM on October 23, 2011

I played through a few days ago -- the "last" level with the seemingly impossible jump is actually beatable, so don't give up. I think Grid 16 is a better treatment of the "game literacy" concept, though.
posted by Rhaomi at 10:21 PM on October 23, 2011 [1 favorite]

Rhaomi how do you make that jump?
posted by Peztopiary at 10:36 PM on October 23, 2011

Never mind I'm dumb.
posted by Peztopiary at 10:45 PM on October 23, 2011

I ragequit at crosstrianglecross (or whatever that level was.)
posted by subversiveasset at 11:29 PM on October 23, 2011 [3 favorites]

Huh. Short.

It's not as short as you think.
posted by empath at 11:48 PM on October 23, 2011

I think I am game illiterate.
posted by NoraReed at 11:58 PM on October 23, 2011

Never mind I'm dumb.

Actually, the game's physics model is dumb (even for a universe where double jumping is possible).
posted by knave at 12:19 AM on October 24, 2011

That's a neat mechanic, and the last level was a good challenge. I would have been tempted to spin it out into more levels, but that was probably just about the right length. Also, the little somersault when you jump is great.

Seems like just about every Flash game uses sfxr these days. I do like a bit of blippy blop (and I use it too), but I'd love it if someone came out with a similar tool which made more naturalistic sounds. Actually, just sfxr with the option to import samples would be perfect. Hmm.
posted by lucidium at 3:09 AM on October 24, 2011

Got bored on the level with the eight vertical successive jumps required to reach the goal-beast. Nice enough game, but I don't see literacy as being central to the concept and it doesn't really bring anything new to the table.

Can't say I like time limits on my platform games though, so I'm biased.
posted by YAMWAK at 4:48 AM on October 24, 2011

The time limits were annoying, because they made me repeat the same stuff over and over again. Apart from that, I quite enjoyed it for the time it took me to beat it. The last level looked like something had glitched. There is a trick and you can in fact proceed from the little cell where you start, using nothing but the arrow keys.

When you win, it displays this at the end. That's the second end, not counting the first end which is a level you can complete and after which the game continues. (Maybe there is a third ending too? I wouldn't trust this game.)

YOU WIN! SUPER FUN
VICTORY RAVE DANCE
      PARTY TIME!

(Strobe effect not reproduced here due to technical limitations and commenter not being a complete asshole.)
posted by tykky at 5:04 AM on October 24, 2011

LOUD AUTOPLAYING AD. Also, no inventory. I don't get the literacy aspect though.
posted by doublehappy at 5:14 AM on October 24, 2011

CROSSCROSSCROSS is killing me.
posted by Jpfed at 5:18 AM on October 24, 2011

Nice illustration of the basic Metroid rules though the time limit works better while it's still on platformer mode. Initially I couldn't do the triple jump at the Metroid stage and tried to wall-jump, heh.
posted by ersatz at 7:04 AM on October 24, 2011

So there's no additional gameplay after that last level that I am never going to bother with, correct? I'd hate to think I was missing out on an opportunity to smash my keyboard with my forehead.
posted by SharkParty at 7:39 AM on October 24, 2011

How do you do the last jump?
posted by straight at 8:13 AM on October 24, 2011

Woo! I won! Jpfed: Are you certain you know the correct path for completing CROSSCROSSCROSS? The level designer wasn't sloppy. Once I figured it out, it only took a couple of attempts to complete.
posted by SemiSophos at 8:24 AM on October 24, 2011

I need no puzzle to tell me that I am utterly game-illiterate.
posted by everichon at 10:29 AM on October 24, 2011

So there's no additional gameplay after that last level that I am never going to bother with, correct? I'd hate to think I was missing out on an opportunity to smash my keyboard with my forehead.

There's a bunch more levels after that, and they get harder.
posted by empath at 10:30 AM on October 24, 2011

How do you do the last jump?

You don't have to be on the ground to jump.
posted by empath at 10:30 AM on October 24, 2011

Fucking twitch games.

I am 45. I have intermittent RSI and/or carpal tunnel in both wrists. My neurons are slowing down and my fingers do not respond as quickly as they used to. I used to be better than this, I used to be faster. But I'm not, and I never will be again.

I do not need games that use the word 'literacy' about a dexterity test to make me feel inadequate.

Fuck only knows why platform games have come to be regarded as the base standard of knowing how to play a computer game while glorious, beautiful new text adventures struggle to get a thousand downloads.
posted by Hogshead at 4:09 PM on October 24, 2011 [1 favorite]

Heh. The Text Adventure version would go something like...

GO DIRECTION
GET THING THEN GO DIRECTION
GET THINGS THEN GO DIRECTION
GET THING GO DIRECTION DROP THING THEN GO DIRECTION
...
GET AND DROP COMBINATIONS OF THINGS UNTIL YOU CAN GO DIRECTION
...
GET THINGS, COMBINE THINGS THEN GO DIRECTION
...
GET THINGS RANDOMLY COMBINE THEM UNTIL YOU CAN GO DIRECTION
posted by Artw at 4:13 PM on October 24, 2011