Giveaway of the Day - Splotches

Splotches was originally given away over two years ago (Aug 2010) where it received a positive 58% of 401 votes. There were 45 comments which can be read HERE.

The following review was originally posted when the game was last given away. I’m too ill to post a new review today. I’ll try and moderate as often as possible, but I doubt I’ll be around as often as I usually am.

My usual additional games section will be missing today; however do check Steam (Unreal Tournament franchise and Endless Space), Gamersgate and the Game Discussion forums for various deals. Gamesgate have a sale on at the moment with some excellent bargains (daily deals include 75% off Hitman 2, Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell Conviction, Homefront and Aliens v Predator plus several holiday bundles). There are yet more bundles available, for example the Humble THQ bundle which includes seven AAA games that can be had for less than $6 (The Company of Heroes trilogy, Red Faction Armageddon, Metro 2033, Darksiders and Saints Row the Third), there’s also a new Indie Gala bundle available You can get all games for less than $4 the lot (Star Wolves 3, Imperial Glory, Men of War, Men of War: Red Tide, Cryostasis, Necrovision: Lost Company, Kings Bounty and XIII Century Gold plus two more to come). Details of these can be found HERE in the Game discussion forums.

Also check out the didimatic site for other deals from Gamestop and GOG HERE, plus for deals on Indie games go to Desura and click on the on sale or Alpha funding tabs for some excellent bargains, finally you’ll also find great sale bargains on Gamefly and GreenMan Gaming

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Splotches:

Intro

Installation

Today’s game is a 46.1 MB download that unpacks to two files, a read me and a dual activation and set up module. The installed game is 36.3Mb. Shortcuts are installed to the desktop and the Start/Programs menu, plus there’s also an uninstaller which is accessible from the start menu.

Explosion

Introduction:

The Game:

The goal of the game is to destroy orbs, and other items by combining specific colors to create brownsplosions (explosions) near the object to be destroyed. Creating the wrong combination can result in black splotches that will impede your progress and lower your level scores. Once you’ve completed the level a window appears with the level stats that includes your score, any black splotches you’ve made, which give a negative score as well as the number of moves you made. The smaller the number of moves the more points you score.

The game starts up in a window. To get to the main menu click on the play button from the intro screen. You’ll find the screen mode button to the bottom right of the main menu. The main menu is rather different from the usual main menu with the different difficulty levels being shown where you normally get a main menu. There are four categories; 9 tutorial levels, 21 easy levels, 26 medium levels and 11 hard levels, making a total of 67 puzzles. This seems rather a small number of puzzles for a full version game; however there is a levels editor that the developer calls a spluzzle maker, that enables you to make as many custom made levels as your imagination will allow. At this time there is no facility on the developers site to access other peoples custom levels, but if this game takes off I’m sure that will become an option (hint to the developer)

Color chart

Along the bottom of the main menu you’ll find several buttons that give access to the title screen, a color chart which shows you the various color combinations you can make.

There are four sections covered which include the following:

• Mixing Primary colors

• Brownsplosions

• Ingredients covered

• Black splotches

To win levels you have to combine primary colors to create mixes that are then mixed with a specific primary color (which is dependent on the secondary color you’ve created) to create brownsplosions. Mixing the wrong color combination will result in a black splotch which will take away points. Black splotches cannot be removed and can cause obstructions. If you get stuck you can restart the level, and you can replay any level you wish to improve your score. (:

Main Menu

In Game Image showing several item types

There’s also a button for changing the volume, though there is no separate button for effects and music and a button to access the levels editor (spluzzle maker). The spluzzle maker is relatively easy to use with an inventory button that gives access to all in game items such as bombs, mines, color plates that only allow the color specific to the plate to pass, teleporters, locks, keys and conveyors, that move splotches around automatically. Beware of these as you can end up in a trapped loop if you don’t select the correct conveyor, as well as the primary and secondary colors.

To save a custom made level click on options. A drop down menu will appear that enables you to set the difficulty, name the level as well as save or load to test it. At first glance the level editor looks a little confusing; as does the game play; however, once you’ve played through the tutorial levels the game and levels editor inventory will make more sense.

Video:

You can see several videos of Splotches HERE, HERE, HERE (Tutorial Video), HERE and HERE

HERE

Images:

You can see a slideshow of over 50 images that include tutorial images HERE

Tutorial Image

Conclusion:

This is a rather entertaining and original take on color mixing and puzzle solving, though initially I found the game rather confusing due to the lack of any read me instructions. however the tutorial did help make things clearer. I’d definitely recommend starting off with the easy levels once you’ve completed the tutorial levels, then progress to the more difficult levels. by the time you’ve completed the game you’ll easily be able to design more levels for the rest of the family to solve.

I’ve uploaded screen captures of all of the tutorial screens, which you can see via the image link I’ve provided above. The ability to access any of the puzzles is a plus and the colourful look to the game should be appealing to both adults and children, though I do think adult supervision will be required, especially to show how the game works. The harder levels may also be too challenging for all but the brightest of children and adults.

The rules are simple, but the harder levels are quite complex to crack.

It’s definitely a game I’ll be keeping for a rainy day as there’s potential in this game. In my opinion it’s well worth 7.5 out of 10 for originality and family fun (I’ve revised my original score after spending some time playing this appealing and addictive game.

A useful addition to this game would be access to a upload page where you can upload or download custom made levels. I’d also like to see a read me with clear and concise instructions on all aspects of the game including the levels editor and a rationale for creating the game. Finally a few mini games would improve the overall feel of the game.

Thank you to the developer for sharing this little gem and as always to the game giveaway team for bringing us free games.

The developer has suggested that you post any custom made levels that you create to his Email. i.e.

Please PM me if you have any levels to upload and I’ll PM back his Email. You can access his website:

http://www.jollycrouton.com

Who knows the developer may even release them as free add-on packs to the main game, with the names of the creators acknowledged. cool!

You can download a free splotches screensaver (1.41MB) from the developers web site HERE

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Problems:

If you have any problems with the game, either installation issues or getting the game to work check out the FAQ’s section over in the Game discussion forums. you can find it HERE

If you are posting requests for help late in the day I would suggest posting in the main giveaway forums in the game Game Discussion . If you’ve installed the game but it won’t work for some reason, it should still be registered, so someone may be able to help at another time. Unfortunately if your problem is actually installing it then once the giveaway period is over there’s nothing that can be done until the game is given away again (though that isn’t guaranteed). It’s always worth checking out the free games sites as sometimes the games we get here are also available for free from them as well.

Request for Help:

Developers rely on good feedback to improve their games. If you download this game please take some time once you’ve played it a while to leave some constructive feedback either positive or negative. The more constructive feedback we get, the more likely developers are going to give more games away. The giveaway site already has a very good standing with the search engines. Developers want their products out there on the WWW, this site has the potential to do that. The game giveaway project gives away on average between 9 to 17 thousand downloads for each game depending upon what genre and how obscure the game is. That’s a lot of homes these games are being downloaded into and a lot of ‘potential’ cash that’s being lost by the developers. If we get better games because of better feedback, the community are likely to continue to benefit from the generosity of the developers. Satisfied community members are then more likely to visit the home sites of those developers and purchase games that they may not have bothered with before they discovered the developer via the game giveaway site, thus giving the developers more incentives to give away even more decent games.

Please leave some feedback once you’ve checked the game out. It can be positive or negative, but please explain what your reasons were for the feedback you post. You could also leave suggestions for improving the game, for example, this game could do with more block types for the levels editor, add more power-ups, describing the ones you think would be suitable, add some mini games (which seem all the rage in some arcade games now) or enable the user to be able to change the in game music easily.

Thank you in advance to all those who take the time to post a constructive comment.

Regards

Whiterabbit aka Stephen

Sadly i cant play this on my phone…