The game "C.Kane" by the Wobbler was released in 2016. It can be found on Steam.
For the review I played the linux version.
Plot
You play as Charles, (or C.Kane), a young media mogul in training. He still lives at home with his parents. First thing the game asks the player is to choose a difficulty mode, after the mother called Charles to wake up. The game also explains the keys. And Charles Mother tells us that it is Charles 18th birthday today. By exploring the house I got stuck in a bookshelf!
Next try: Then Charles goes to see the mayor, who send Charles (in company of two marines, who like to dance) on a quest against his enemy the Wizard Gettys. Charles is to travel to a land that Gettys turned into a grave yard. I found a buggy grave yard (buggy in both meaning). A quick battle and then it was game over.
Third try: This time I tried to avoid the bug battle, but there was no exit to the map without fighting the two bugmen. The battle takes long and is difficult. The talking NPC all remain invisible and it is hard to tell what is going on. A cut scene or just some backdrops would have improved the scene a lot! Invisible NPCs are somewhat strange... Also, after the battle the invisible NPC still blocked the exit. (That's then I gave up. I would have liked to provide a longer review, but I just could not figure out how to beat the game.)
**Bravo! Great Design!**
I really liked ...
- it's all in grey scale, that is cool for colour blind people.
- the comic like graphic style
- the menu that shows the controls
- the option to choose a difficulty level - nice feature!
- there seems to be a secret code hidden in the game, you can find note similar to "0 = T" on walls in the game - cool idea!
**Things that could be improved:**
- Mother says "Call your father before you leave" - how do I do that? How to use the telephone?
- Mary does not face the player
- I got stuck in Bookshelf (on the 2nd map)?!
- Most things do not "talk" when looked at
- it seems like there are invisible npcs on the map, if clicked they show (probably a backdrop via textbox) the mnt duck logo. Others seem to be blocking the counters.
- How did the marines suddenly show up? From where did they come? Are these instant-marines that just show up if called?
- Had hero turn invisible after pressing \ symbol ... is that a scripting bug or engine bug?
- An invisible NPC at the graveyard triggers a textbox where one talks to a Bugtender, the battle that followed against two bugman was way to difficult... The battle should against the bugman should be a bit easier, since it is the first fight.
Overall Impression:
The game was quite buggy at the start. And I did not get far from the start due to that reason. That is sad, because the game looks promising. The grayscale graphics are nicely drawn and are appealing. They surely give the game a unique style. The music as also good.
The outside map feel pretty unrealistic, the moving flowers are one thing, but the talking trees go somewhat over the top. Although it gives the whole game a parody feeling, it is unexpected since the fist area, the house looked not that much like a parody.
Another topic is the 'bugginess' of the game: There were invisible NPCs on the town map, in the mayor's office and the grave yard. You can get stuck in the bookshelf on the first floor of the house. The scene with the bugman fighting also contained a invisible NPCs, that even seem to hat a dialogue scene. That's confusing, at best. At worst it makes players quit the game.
All in all, these bugs mentioned above should be fixed. Game overs are frustrating to the player, especially thoses through no fault of one's own, like getting accidentally stuck in a bookshelf -yes, that was quite traumatic experience!
Loosing battles can also feel frustrating to the player, but it's more likely the player will think: 'Next time I'll do something different' and try again.
I liked the setting, also the idea to let the hero fights with words as weapons - especially regarding the debate on propaganda and what nowadays is called fake news. Unfortunately due to the bugs I could not explore the plot deeper and can not say if the game will focus on a moral about such topics, although it is hinted that the plot could go in such a direction.
C.Kane has a lot of bugs -I would not recommend it in it's current state -but it also a lot of potential, so I'd like like to see a more polished version!
