This game is short yet very profound and genuine and deep.
I already cracked my egg from the very start before the other three did lol.
Reviews for "Fragile"
It was an okay game. Definitely not as great as the hype makes it out to be.
The example of the other eggs showed that they would die if cracked, so when you play it through without cracking and find yourself stuck in a hole in the end with no restart prompt, it's kind of annoying. If cracking doesn't mean death, the other eggs could have fallen down holes where we couldn't see that they died and would lead us to believe falling isn't certain death despite the harsh cracking sound. If cracking actually did mean death at the beginning, but there was a certain point farther in that the egg showed signs it was ready to hatch (perhaps a soft chirp) and not hatching had the consequence of being stuck in a hole, that would have been better.
Over all the visuals and sound effects were good though, and it was a cute platformer despite the flaws.
Spoiler Warning: if you haven't played this game, play it. It's a game that's meant to be played with no previous knowledge of it.
This is a typical story with a moral where we see the gradual fall of the character until they reach their retribution in the end. That was done amazingly for this game. Almost everything int the game was meant to make us not break our egg: from the title, to the atmosphere, to the fate of the other eggs, to how easy it is to keep the egg from breaking. This game has a great way to lead us to the moral when we find out we would have hatched the whole time. The best part about a game with choices is that we can often see another ending with a newfound knowledge; which is true in this game. This game is really great at bring the player through the narrative.
However, what this game didn't do well is maintain the false notion that we will die if we break our egg from the beginning. I said almost everything in the game tells you to not break your egg, except the game mechanics. I was stripped of the narrative because I broke the egg immediately by heading left, up the ledge, and breaking my egg when I jumped back into the nest. My love to explore the world destroyed the narrative for me.
The challenge with making a game of choice with a moral behind it, is to allow people to experience something regardless of their way of playing. The story is meant to see us get further and further into the fall of the character as we keep making the same mistake of not cracking our egg over and over again. What motivates someone to make the same mistake over and over again? I think it is that they continually believe that they are making the correct decision when it is opposite from the truth. I believe that a good way to build such facade is to make it seem like you are punishing the player when they try to break the egg with a crack and an indication that that crack is bad. If that existed, I would have been more cautious from the beginning onward.
Either that, or make the game more rewarding for those who broke their egg immediately because, as much as I like the concept, I was not able to experience the game in its full glory. The good ending wasn't satisfying enough as I had no burden to begin with, no obstacles to overcome, nothing to gain, and more importantly, nothing to learn as I had broken my egg in the beginning. The worst part is that the game became easier after the egg breaks which can be a metaphor to releasing the burden, but like I said, I had no burden. It is a good game otherwise. I just wish I was able to experience it.
I really enjoyed this game. It was short, but very sweet, and charming. If I understand correctly, this was more of a narrative driven game instead of simply just being the platformer it appears. That being said, I think this has potential to be a bigger game. I think you could easily use the egg cracking as a mechanic (such as cracking a little each time you fall, and maybe losing a life when you fall whilst in chick form). I know this wasn't the goal of your game - but I would love to see this fleshed out a bit. Good work all round. I had a look at it on my youtube channel here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HaYv-x5k2qM
This game was nice. I like how it took advantage of the interactivity to tell the story, that's the type of thing that should be done more in games.