Reviews

Let's post the reviews we find.

IndieGames.com has already published the first one:
http://www.indiegames.com/blog/2011/01/review_nightsky_nifflas.html

EDIT: It seems like this one was not actually the first. =P

DIY Gamer released this one a couple days ago: http://www.diygamer.com/2011/01/pinball-wizard-nightsky-review/

Too bad there's no Metacritic page.

And here's IGN's: http://pc.ign.com/articles/114/1142949p1.html

And here's IGN's: http://pc.ign.com/articles/114/1142949p1.html

I would have liked to see the game score better than an overall 7.5. I did appreciate this bit:

9.0   Sound
The fantastic ambient/jazz/electronic soundtrack is good enough to enjoy outside the game.

I think that it is a bit pointless to post reviews which are available with google within 0,34124125125136136 seconds. But I would love to drop a few lines by myself...
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You Sir! Are a genius! Thank you a lot for sharing NightSky with us.

Thanks! Glad to hear you like it!

I wanted to write a sort of review here. Please note that i don't wish to insult anybody, so if anybody is feeling insulted by my comments here I apologize.

Ever since playing the Within a Deep Forest, when I saw that this title i coming out i was somehow expecting a spiritual successor. that was my mistake. I like WaDF very much and played it several times. I enjoyed the setting and loved to explore the world just for the sake of exploring, which many main stream games failed to achieve. I liked how everything was connected and how i was able to have a good number of balls to chose from, and where ever i went i got something, be it a chat with a critter, a hint (a dragon ) or a new power. In many ways that game was complete in itself.

The moment I started NightSky I noticed that I won't be getting what I wanted, so I casted of the prejudice and started playing it as a new game (which it is).  (that is like five I's).

I liked the black and black motif, but my biggest disapointment was that everything was chopped like a series of challenges, yet the game in its tone gave a sort of story. That clashed badly with me, on one side I have a setting that might hint a good story, on the other hand i have chopped up levels with no connection between them.  I go to next screen on the right and suddenly i'm somewhere else, I do see a parallel with dream but it is just not good for me.

Also i felt somehow limited. One moment i have powers, next i haven't got any. That didn't go well with me.  And i feel somehow imposed like "You have to do this this way, and you have to go that way." maybe i'm asking to much but i didn't like it. There where some puzzles that made me say "Good idea." I have nothing against being limited but it has to be done in the right way.

In a world of dream so well designed i saw no exploration, only progress form left to right, and in time it started to bore me. Which mad me sad, because i can see how much the developers try to make it good.

In conclusion, I didn't like the game. I wanted to like it, i tried to like it, but in the end it boiled down to dullness and choirs.

I hope that I didn't insult people with this text. If i did, I am sorry. 

I'm sorry, but this was never intended to be a spiritual successor of WaDF. If it seems as if I made it out to be that I'm really sorry.

If you want to explore a non-linear world, and play an actual spiritual successor of WaDF you have to wait for KnyttWaDF. However, please don't expect me to do non-linear exploration games every time. Linear platformers without powerups that opens up new parts of the world, where you have to go right all the time is just a classic type of platformer, and sometime I do those too. Since powers could come and go I had much more design choices to creating the levels without being stopped from increasing the difficulty curve over the game. A lot of the puzzles would have been impossible if the user could move fast and invert gravity all the time after a certain point. The main focus on NightSky is actually an attempt to create as much variated puzzles a I could with a few simple game mechanics.

A problem I have now that I didn't have back when I created Within a Deep Forest is all the expectations I have from my earlier games. If people didn't like WaDF, they just didn't. If somebody doesn't like a game now, it's because the game is either not enough like WaDF, Knytt, Knytt Stories, or according to some other people, that it's too alike my previous games and that I don't try anything new.

I was not insulted by your opinion at all though, I appreciate it. Everybody can't like every game I do, anything else would be incredibly odd. If you're into exploration, I can promise you'll get that in the future!

Casual Gaming (JayIsGames) review.

Pretty short, but very positive.

I'm sorry, but this was never intended to be a spiritual successor of WaDF. If it seems as if I made it out to be that I'm really sorry.

If you want to explore a non-linear world, and play an actual spiritual successor of WaDF you have to wait for KnyttWaDF. However, please don't expect me to do non-linear exploration games every time. Linear platformers without powerups that opens up new parts of the world, where you have to go right all the time is just a classic type of platformer, and sometime I do those too. Since powers could come and go I had much more design choices to creating the levels without being stopped from increasing the difficulty curve over the game. A lot of the puzzles would have been impossible if the user could move fast and invert gravity all the time after a certain point. The main focus on NightSky is actually an attempt to create as much variated puzzles a I could with a few simple game mechanics.

A problem I have now that I didn't have back when I created Within a Deep Forest is all the expectations I have from my earlier games. If people didn't like WaDF, they just didn't. If somebody doesn't like a game now, it's because the game is either not enough like WaDF, Knytt, Knytt Stories, or according to some other people, that it's too alike my previous games and that I don't try anything new.

I was not insulted by your opinion at all though, I appreciate it. Everybody can't like every game I do, anything else would be incredibly odd. If you're into exploration, I can promise you'll get that in the future!

Of course I will try to play in some time after when my mood changes, maybe it is because of my mood. Because i can see that the game has quality.

And i am glad that you are trying to create new stuff, having new approach, because who knows maybe you will create a game that in my mind is better that WaDF but not at all like WaDF.

In a way to move on from some thing is in a way maturing and evolving.

A creator should not make games to please the fans, but to please himself first. Most on the games that i played and liked are actually games that where not made with much influence from past games but rather something original.

The thing that tricked me was that when you watch the screen shots and trailer it kinda reminds of WaDF with a dark mood. But when you get to play it, it turns out to be something new. I understand (in a way) the wight that your past games make on you.  So i almost instantly viewed it as a new game, it is just that is i said, the game crates an atmosphere and story that is promising, and yet it ends up as a "obligatory story".  And breaking it up to zones kinda messed with the flow (this is me talking without referencing to your older games), or better yet it is not the breaking it is how you broke it. If you put some sort of a "teleporter" to signify the end of that chapter/rule zone maybe it would be better, just saying...


In that light, i rather have you create something new, than part 2 of something old, and i hope that my "review" didn't demoralize you in creating something new, because while this game isn't much to my liking now, i simply can't deny the fact that it has the mood, the style, originality (as far as i'm concerned that is...) and interesting puzzles.

So good luck on your new games which ever they might be

everything was chopped like a series of challenges, yet the game in its tone gave a sort of story. That clashed

I kind of felt similar, but I think it's merely because of expectations one might have and which then don't get fulfilled. which is not a huge problem if you consider

A creator should not make games to please the fans, but to please himself first.

which I find very well said, and I'm sure many other fans of Nifflas will agree, also in the light of KnyttExperiment which was a good learning experience about this kind of stuff too, I think.

not to say that it really/actually disappointed me at all, but where it surely did not was in the ambiance-department. that's what I'll probably keep on expecting from Nifflas: beautiful games. with that touch of evil challenges.

Ever since playing the Within a Deep Forest, when I saw that this title i coming out i was somehow expecting a spiritual successor.

Try to think of it as the successor to roll. 

I have to admit that the most surprising thing to me about this game, being a fan of Nifflas's previous games, was that it only goes left-to-right and not also up and down.  For the first several screens I was very confused about whether I should be trying to go down holes, whether only some holes would kill me and I should still be looking out for holes that I could actually go down, before realizing all holes would kill me.  This was especially because some of the holes really look like places you should be going down like they would be in previous games.  Nifflas makes a valid point that left-to-right platformers are classic and that he needs to be allowed to try different kinds of games that he's interested in designing.  But boy did it take some getting used to!  It really drove home what a major aspect vertical exploration was in his previous games.

not to say that it really/actually disappointed me at all, but where it surely did not was in the ambiance-department. that's what I'll probably keep on expecting from Nifflas: beautiful games. with that touch of evil challenges.

this. though, even then, he has his really silly/bonkers games like "R-Type 3.141592653589793238469" and "Det Officiella EDGE Dataspelet" which are a fun change of pace.

I have to admit that the most surprising thing to me about this game, being a fan of Nifflas's previous games, was that it only goes left-to-right and not also up and down.  For the first several screens I was very confused about whether I should be trying to go down holes, whether only some holes would kill me and I should still be looking out for holes that I could actually go down, before realizing all holes would kill me.  This was especially because some of the holes really look like places you should be going down like they would be in previous games.  Nifflas makes a valid point that left-to-right platformers are classic and that he needs to be allowed to try different kinds of games that he's interested in designing.  But boy did it take some getting used to!  It really drove home what a major aspect vertical exploration was in his previous games.

haha! i did exactly the same thing.

pandragon, if you really thought nightsky was going to be like WADF, that is your own fault, and i really don't see how that is a just criticism for the game. judge it on it's own merits, not some preconception that you made up for yourself.