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Thomas Was Alone
This was released in July and hasn’t been mentioned on AG, so I can only assume it’s been overlooked or thought not adventure-y enough. Maybe it would have fit best into the recent puzzling (mis)adventures write-up. I was debating with myself while playing, could this be called an adventure? It calls itself a “puzzle platformer”, but so did Portal - and in the end, both games fit the AG criteria: narrative, exploration, puzzles (But don’t expect a traditional point & click: play the demo first to avoid any disappointment).
Like Portal, the puzzles are all how to get from A to B. And like Portal, this is surprisingly fun. Graphically it looks more like tetris than anything vaguely adventurey, but behind the simplistic graphics there’s great character and charm to the way the story is told. I normally dislike highly pixellated games but here there’s a reason for the look. The visual style (and music) relates to the narrative in a very clever way. And it’s the narrative that is the real core of the game.
Saying anything about the story would be revealing too much but I can say it raises interesting questions about AI and the “life” of the stuff that programmers work with. Could the things we create and play with in games: pixels, objects, characters - ever come alive? Be able to think, become aware of themselves, make friends? And what if they did? It’s a touching story and by the end I was glad I played it, even if it was a little too short and easy at times.
All said, great little game and if TWA makes it to the “Best Concept” category on the Aggies it’s getting my vote.
Anyone else played it? Thoughts?
Yeah, bought it when it first came out. Definitely a good little game. but not as crazy or as limit pushing as some other indie games released recently.
Will always support one man developers that try something different though. people should definitely check it out.
Yeah, bought it when it first came out. Definitely a good little game. but not as crazy or as limit pushing as some other indie games released recently.
Such as?
hotline miami, lone survivor, to name two very quickly off my head, that definetly fall under the crazy or limit pushing categories (in my opinion).
it is original, im not saying its not, and i really like it. so dont take it as a sleight. but in the end the gameplay didn’t really blow me away, felt too much like so many other 2d platformers, even with its clever mechanics.
i dont have any idea why im defending my own opinion considering i was one of few that bought it on the very day the developer put it on desura.
hotline miami, lone survivor, to name two very quickly off my head, that definetly fall under the crazy or limit pushing categories (in my opinion).
it is original, im not saying its not, and i really like it. so dont take it as a sleight. but in the end the gameplay didn’t really blow me away, felt too much like so many other 2d platformers, even with its clever mechanics.
i dont have any idea why im defending my own opinion considering i was one of few that bought it on the very day the developer put it on desura.
I have no idea either, since no one’s attacking you. 
I didn’t say the game was original and I’m perfectly fine with you claiming it isn’t.
Those ‘limit pushing’ games are something I rarely enjoy and I don’t think TWA was limit-pushing in anything except maybe the way it combined all the elements of a game into saying something which transcended the story itself. I mean it really made me think about these objects on the screen - what makes them less alive than us? They are programmed to act a certain way, and so are we. Are we really that different? And what relationship do I, the player have to these self-aware pixels? Though I feel it didn’t make use of its full potential, few games this year made think so much. That’s more important to me than ‘gameplay mechanics’.
It also amazed me that a blue square can have more personality than a highly-detailed, animated character rendered in real-time. I’ve played a ton of AGs this year with incredibly detailed characters with no more personality than a cardboard box!
hotline miami, lone survivor, to name two very quickly off my head, that definetly fall under the crazy or limit pushing categories (in my opinion).
Cool, I will have to take a look! I’m starved for good adventure games at the moment and Thomas Was Alone was a great game.
hotline miami is NOT an adventure game 
i was talking about indies in general.
hotline miami is NOT an adventure game
Well, the levels are puzzles waiting to be solved by a fair bit of trial and error. :p
And Thomas Was Alone is a pretty great game and shows that even simple shapes can become characters your care about.
fair enough. although that logic applies to most platformers too then. but yeah i love that aspect of it.
just didn’t want anyone from this forum seeking it out and then seeing it in action and thinking i was crazy.
hotline miami is NOT an adventure game
Well, the levels are puzzles waiting to be solved by a fair bit of trial and error. :p
And Thomas Was Alone is a pretty great game and shows that even simple shapes can become characters your care about.
It just goes to show that developers concentrate too much on graphics. There have been so many really good games this year with basic graphics - Resonance, To the Moon, Blackwell Series, Thomas. And the games Idrisguitar mentioned look retro too.
Well, I guess you can have goodlooking graphics but for godsake give us good characters at the same time! Amazing graphics don’t make an amazing game 
i think everyone on this forum agrees with that sentiment for sure. im just happy indie gaming is thriving.
naturally graphical fidelity takes a backseat over gameplay and narrative expeirence in the indie dev portion of the industry. not just because its the right thing to do, but also because its cheaper and therefore way more practical.
anyway to return to the topic, i think you guys have probably convinced me to play through this once again. maybe my frame of mind wasn’t all there.
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