3/10/2023 0 Comments The pedestrian kickstarter![]() I got stuck on one puzzle specifically for quite some time, and while I understand players will likely struggle with different areas of the game, this was where the difficulty took a huge leap for me. While the level design is what makes The Pedestrian such a well crafted game, the latter half of the experience does falter a bit by cranking the difficulty up at a faster rate.īeginning with the 5th area of the game, things seem to rapidly jump in difficulty and I feel it doesn’t do the greatest job of explaining what to do with the newly introduced mechanic. The game doesn’t focus so much on the platforming or specific design of a single room, it focuses on the synergy and interactions between rooms. The levels are the bread and butter of The Pedestrian. It can get a bit frustrating, but I mostly see that as a good thing. Like solving a Rubik’s Cube for the first time, it provides moments that make you feel like a total genius or a mindless player. The levels on display here are cleverly designed, clicking together like a mechanical puzzle. It introduces a new mechanic and gradually adds to it, then combining that mechanic with a previously established one, and finally tests your knowledge in a larger scale puzzle before moving onto the next area. Like all great puzzle games, The Pedestrian follows a formula that is tried and true. You guide your character by moving signs and making connections between doors, ladders, and contraptions all with a metaphysical hand. Your time will be spent controlling the icon guy or girl seen in everyday signs, like a pedestrian crossing or bathroom sign. Luckily, The Pedestrian manages to explain itself clearly throughout the majority of its playtime. Quite a big undertaking for a game from a 4 man team you’re trusting that you can communicate how levels need to be completed with no written explanation. You won’t see a lick of necessary text in-game. The Pedestrian explains itself simply through iconography. ![]() I am glad to say that The Pedestrian manages to hit a creative note and stand strong against the odds. While having an overwhelmingly successful Kickstarter campaign in 2017, there’s always the risk of releasing your first indie game to lukewarm reception. The indie studio behind ‘The Pedestrian’ has worked tirelessly for nearly 7 years to create the puzzle platformer of their dreams. The developers clearly put a lot into it.Skookum Arts has taken a risk. Personally, you’d be a fool to not want to get as much out of this game as possible. Ultimately it’s up to the player if they want to pause to take in the information and piece together the story. Additional story-elements (those related to the character’s current situation) will be incorporated into the game through integral animated interactions. This way The Pedestrian is able to deliver exposition without halting the clever gameplay mechanics that make it so unique. This could be anything from a projector playing in a staff room to a discarded tablet on the ground. Players will encounter the protagonist’s memories depicted as hand-drawn animations tucked into the backgrounds of the gameworld. In a mini-update to their Kickstarter page, the Skookum team delve a bit into their use of the world to convey their story. Their solution was to stick to simplicity. Most importantly, they wanted to do this without resorting to overused cut-scenes or pace killing walls of text. To give meaning and weight to their actions. Rather than just blindly forging onward they wanted to give their protagonist motivation. Honestly, I’d have already been sold on the project if the developers had stopped here, but Skookum-Arts decided to go further with the idea. On the surface, The Pedestrian is a clever puzzle game featuring the bobble-headed puzzle-solving adventures of restroom signage. If you haven’t checked it out yet, you should do that now and then come back, I’ll wait. It still has a little further to go to meet its $21,000 funding goal. We covered the Kickstarter campaign for this project a few weeks back. Such is the approach Skookum-Arts is taking with their new 2D puzzle platformer, The Pedestrian. They’ve found ways to unobtrusively convey a game’s story with players none-the-wiser if they so choose. Fortunately, developers are a sharp bunch. These people are (of course) wrong, but nonetheless they do exist. Some people do not care about narrative in video games.
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