Lost in the Beautiful, Mysterious World of Animal Well
Hello and welcome back to my blog!
I've been playing and testing a lot of Metroidvania games recently, but few have captured the same sense of mystery and suspense as Animal Well. You are a little creature in this vast world full of mysteries, hidden secrets and of course 'animals'. Who are we, or what is our goal? The game tells us nothing about it. We quickly figure out that there are four flames that we need to collect from this eerie world, and each of those flames ignites a big statue of an animal.
What will happen after that? I am not sure, but this thing about not knowing and the game teasing us with locked doors and places just out of reach makes me want to explore more and find all the secrets. Everything is a mystery here.
For example, there is a room filled with water with a big frog-like creature coming out of the water just for a split second. There seems to be nothing else in this room other than this guy, no cracked wall or locked door. Only one way to enter and exit.
Things like this make me wonder what the purpose of this room is. Am I missing an item that will make me control this frog later? Or perhaps, somehow, the water level will come down, exposing some hidden paths. Or does this room have no purpose, but why would the developer spend his time making it? Not like this frog is found anywhere else.
But then we have many rooms with friendly animals like birds or rabbits, serving no purpose other than making this game world feel so lively at all times.
Whatever the case, this game constantly makes you question everything, often because past accidental discoveries proved just how deep the rabbit hole goes.
I am in love with the pixel art of this game. It looks so good. I have not played anything like this. The lighting in this game is so well done. This dark and eerie atmosphere required some clever lighting, and they nailed it.
Even the animation is so well done. One of my favourite animations is the explosions of firecrackers. I have no clue why this explosion feels so fluid, even though it is just pixel art.
I am going to make a lot of GIFs in this game. They come out good.
Gameplay-wise, it has some of the cleverest puzzles I have seen. They are well thought out, and as you get more and more items, they start getting more complex too. The game does not believe in telling you anything; it just shows you things. This way of teaching puzzles without saying a single word is not an easy task. You can't go directly to a complex one without teaching players basic ones and introducing them to different mechanics one at a time.
Many times, these puzzles span multiple rooms on each side. At times, a level in this room opens a door in the subsequent room too, so you can never be too cautious and go back and forth to see what changed. Also, as you get new tools, more and more paths that you thought were inaccessible before just open up. Or even those who were hidden can be accessed. I have gone back to the starting position twice, and each time I found something unique, a new hidden station, a match stick to light up some rooms (no idea what these will accomplish).
I found the second flame, too. The area around this flame had many water-based puzzles. Why? Because this flame corresponds to the Seahorse one. Each section seems to have a themed animal or zone based on that animal. But they usually overlap, too.
Just two more flames to go now! Hopefully, they won't be too tough.
Some rooms are very mysterious and almost pitch black. Thankfully, you have a flute which creates some magical music notes that light the place temporarily. There is always a surprise as to what you will find in the next room. Not many games invoke that feeling anymore. In the times of copy-paste games, this one feels very fresh and unique. I am so impressed with it.
And the coolest thing about this game is that its game size is less than 40 MB. I have some surface-level knowledge about game development and a good knowledge about software development, and this fact just blows my mind. Bro went all out on optimisation. I heard this guy created his custom engine using C or something.
- All the content is mine unless otherwise stated.
- Screenshots are from the game, "Animal Well".
Sending you Ecency curation votes.😉
The firecrackers made it look like something was cooking and definitely, there has to be a reason for the room. It might just be to control the frog later on in the game.
Yeah, it has to be something. This games invokes this sense of mystery so so well. It is like you have to find out what will happen.
And the mystery is what keeps you going.
The statues in the background are terrifying. The fourth image reminds me of the old SnowBros game, it could be a wink.
The illuminations are great as you say, the pixelart is very nice despite being simple in its designs.
Just 40MB for that game is quite a challenge, the developer really did it with passion.
Good game, I hope you get the other two missing flames.
ESPAÑOL
Las estatuas de fondo son terroríficas. La cuarta imagen me recuerda al antiguo juego SnowBros, podría ser un guiño.
Las iluminaciones están geniales como dices, esta muy bonito el pixelart a pesar de ser sencillo en su diseños.
Apenas 40MB para ese juego es todo un reto, realmente el desarrollador lo hizo con pasión.
Buen juego, espero que consigas las otras dos llamas faltantes.
This game is visually beautiful
Ahora yo también quedé con la intriga por lo de la sala...
I like that effect it has like an old TV, I don't know if I'm making myself clear.
Ah, yes...that scanline output in old TVs and retro games.
I see you really like these types of platform games! Or am I mistaken? This one in particular has a pretty dark pixel art look, which I like.
I love these kinds of games. So many good, creative indie titles that I loved playing. Good to see that the indie game industry is booming but the state of AAA industry is sad.
It's one of those games where you don't know what's happening or why, but the more you play... You still don't know what's going on, but you enjoy seeing the things that happen haha
Okay, it is quite surprising. How much time did developer spend on it as game is less than 40 MBs. Graphics look so fine and neat. Though, idk why the colors are so dark, but overall game looks so m much fun. If the game makes you think outside the box and question everything to gain, it's a 10/10 for sure. Great work 🙌😇. Looking forward to see more from you 👌
I guess it's a dark 'well' with so many mystical elements.
For a moment I thought the Nvidia pop-up was deliberately styled to match the game's aesthetic. The scan lines on the display give the game an extra layer of charm, even with it’s already great art direction.
I think we discussed this a little bit before but I have this game in my library and after about an hour of running to all the rooms that I think I had access to, I couldn't really figure out what TF I am supposed to do and just got frustrated and left. I probably took off too early because almost everyone says good things about this game. I'll need to go back and give it another try methinks.
Yeah, I remember that talk. I was stuck at some point too, but once I figured out something that I missed and got a new item that unlocked a lot more things on the map. It gave me a new excitement, and I appreciate it more now.