Free Simov

Originally made for GMCJAM 15. [WINNER: Best Presentation]

Simov is an atmospheric block puzzle game with light story elements inspired by Horror/Adventure games. Discovery is a big part of the experience. I hope you enjoy it!

Screenshots:




Updates from the original version include:

  • New/updated story elements
  • Better graphics
  • Better designed levels
  • Boundary error fixes
  • Fullscreen mode

You can download it for free on itch.io here: https://nacho-chicken.itch.io/simov
[Windows, 6MB .exe]

Current version: 1.41


 
Last edited:

chance

predictably random
Forum Staff
Moderator
This is a nice little game. I mean "little" in the window size. The gameplay is actually pretty large. I'm having lots of fun with this. I recall seeing an earlier version of this (I think) on the old forum, but I never tried it. It is fairly atmospheric, as you said. It's surprising what you've managed to evoke with such simple graphics and sparse sound effects. It's actually quite moody. Nice job on that.

The controls and movement are smooth and glitch-free. And the game provides the right amount of explanation for the player to get started. You've created a nice balance of exploration and puzzle solving.

So far I'm only a half dozen rooms into it. Solved a few crate pushing tests. Just though I'd leave a comment now, to give this some attention. It's definitely worth checking out. I'm looking forward to what's coming.
 
This is a nice little game. I mean "little" in the window size. The gameplay is actually pretty large. I'm having lots of fun with this. I recall seeing an earlier version of this (I think) on the old forum, but I never tried it. It is fairly atmospheric, as you said. It's surprising what you've managed to evoke with such simple graphics and sparse sound effects. It's actually quite moody. Nice job on that.

The controls and movement are smooth and glitch-free. And the game provides the right amount of explanation for the player to get started. You've created a nice balance of exploration and puzzle solving.

So far I'm only a half dozen rooms into it. Solved a few crate pushing tests. Just though I'd leave a comment now, to give this some attention. It's definitely worth checking out. I'm looking forward to what's coming.
Thank you for the kind words, and I'm glad you enjoyed it thus far!
It was surprisingly difficult to create solvable puzzles with original mechanics within the GMCJam time limit. While there are some I think are a bit on the large side, I still find every single one memorable. It's great to hear you loved the atmosphere. I wanted to do something different. Most jam games don't really have much in the way of atmosphere or story. Granted, this version has a few things that didn't make it into the Jam version. I loved working on this game and still did when I made minor adjustments.
 
N

nvrogers

Guest
As Chance said, the controls and atmosphere are very good. The art style is is also very striking and well polished, but I some of the sprites for the characters are a little too hard to read. The sound effects work well enough, but I think if you broke away from the 8-bit style you could get more effective results. For example, the crate sound effect could be a nice, heavy, echoing boom instead of a dinky little hit. The gameplay is where things start to fall apart. There are only so many puzzles you can get out of crates, and by the time I gave up the puzzles were getting rather stale. Part of that was that the puzzles grew in size instead of in meaningful mechanics. The last puzzle I attempted was so large that I spent more time backtracking than thinking. And then when I finished backtracking I would realize that I had to backtrack again because there were too many switches to hold in memory.

I would actually really like it for you to come back to this game. A few more interesting mechanics and this could be something really special!
 
As Chance said, the controls and atmosphere are very good. The art style is is also very striking and well polished, but I some of the sprites for the characters are a little too hard to read. The sound effects work well enough, but I think if you broke away from the 8-bit style you could get more effective results. For example, the crate sound effect could be a nice, heavy, echoing boom instead of a dinky little hit. The gameplay is where things start to fall apart. There are only so many puzzles you can get out of crates, and by the time I gave up the puzzles were getting rather stale. Part of that was that the puzzles grew in size instead of in meaningful mechanics. The last puzzle I attempted was so large that I spent more time backtracking than thinking. And then when I finished backtracking I would realize that I had to backtrack again because there were too many switches to hold in memory.

I would actually really like it for you to come back to this game. A few more interesting mechanics and this could be something really special!
Thanks! I completely agree that there isn't really a wide breadth of mechanics due to the time constraints during development. I would love to come back to this game and redesign it someday. As far as being "8-bit": that won't change. I won't get more effective results. The stark contrast between the semi-sterilized, synthetic nature of the main portion of the game and the... "stuff" at the end is a big deal. There are, in fact, realistic sound effects in the game. There are "more realistic" sprites. They just come up so late that, sadly, most won't get to see them.

I really wanted the game to be easily playable to its completion. Backtracking is a bit of a hindrance to that. Thank you for the feedback!
I might actually go and shrink some rooms right now...
 
N

nvrogers

Guest
Huh. Looks like I might have to try and muscle through to the end!
 
Huh. Looks like I might have to try and muscle through to the end!
No need to muscle through! Simov 1.3 is now available.

I changed around the most egregious level (internally known as 2-3, colloquially known as "That Green Room") to avoid having to backtrack such long distances. The last level is still pretty huge since, well, it's the last level. The game should be less soul-sucking since I've removed the long walks of pure nothingness right in the middle of the game.
 
S

Stac

Guest
Hm, I like it.
Some puzzles was hard, but I reached the finish.
And... sorry for impudence, but... can you make it open-source? I want to know how you made dialogue boxes.
 
Top