Game:

Typoman (2015)

Duration: 12:26

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2

Now, to counteract all the insanity and energy and unbridled color of Runbow... we have a demo for Typoman. (Even if it's been awhile since that demo's exhibition, severely undercutting my intent to make this a coherent sampler platter video series.)

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Honestly, I don't have a lot to say about this one, because it's one of those... indie "arty" immersive atmospheric platformer ..."experience" pieces.

On the one hand, I like a game that can be subtle and thoughtful and works hard to establish a setting indirectly... but... there are just so many of them these days, and it almost feels like there's some kind of arms race over who can be the most obtusely symbolic one of all once the dust settles.

The bigger potential problem with these sorts of things is... no matter what the angle or hook or interesting gameplay mechanic to set itself apart, the most basic question that needs to be answered is... is it fun? Does it feel good to play? And indeed many of them are! Platformers are among the most basic and immediately-understandable games and there's just something inherently liberating and pleasing about casting off gravity's surly bonds and navigating whatever marvelous landscape has been set aside just for you to enjoy as such.

Unfortunately... in just this brief glimpse of the game that is Typoman... it just didn't have the kind of feel that made me happy to be playing it. Our player character (Typoman, I presume?) is kinda plodding and his jump arc is kinda weak and abrupt... and there's a weirdly unsettling fascination with presenting him with jumps that he feels like he can only just barely clear, even if there's no real danger, it just... feels dangerous, and when your most basic action feels dangerous rather than whatever actual danger you might meet, there's not a positive tension exchange going on. (Of course, tension is indeed a deliberate inclusion to the environment... I'm just unsure making the actual player avatar part of that interplay might is the best idea...)

Now, I would figure that since I'm a real sucker for word games and wordplay, the chance to turn that LITERALLY into a gameplay element would be a super exciting premise... and indeed, I'm super curious as to whether or not that concept can play out now that the subject has been addressed... but... deep down, I have doubts. At least from what we've seen of Typoman so far.

You see, words are powerful, innumerable, and difficult to constrain within the logical confines of traditional video games as opposed to word games for words' own sakes... you usually run into one of two problems.

The first is when the words are given priority and you get an absolute dissolution of any tension or conflict, because if the only obstacle is your own imagination, you've essentially surrendered all pretense of conflict to the player... which tends to not end well, because a conflict with one side playing both sides is an awkward one indeed... doubly so because you're making the player's own imagination the focal point. This is the ultimate problem with the super-interesting concept behind Scribblenauts, which I tried REALLY hard to like more than just in an on-paper sense.

On the other hand, it's not QUITE as intellectually stimulating if your limitations are SO constraining as to reduce the problem to a manner of limited-options push puzzle, which at least SEEMS to be the case with Typoman thus far. I mean, even if the options are expanded immensely, you'd still be shuffling around a by-necessity limited pool of options that might be similar to solving a partially-movable Jumble at best. I'm kinda down on Jumble, personally...

Plus, if we're to take it as a series of glorified push puzzles that use letters instead of blocks, let's remember that any decent block puzzle is only as bearable as its most simplistic and repetitive action, and Typoman visibly struggles with every letter's repositioning... I could see that getting old really fast. And the cases that DON'T get old fast feel simplified to the point of being set piece spectacles rather than actual player-oriented gameplay, so we're really between a rock and a hard place, aren't we? (Plus, did you see how many not-wrong ways there are to mess up the TRAP-STRAP piece?)

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Don't get me wrong if all this sounds EXTREMELY critical with very little positive buzz peppered in, I love that this game exists... or will soon, anyway. It feels inspiring and thoughtful and unique... but... I'm not sure if it'll be... fun... or even stand out that much compared to all the other indie platformers of a similar pedigree, which is just as important for a game to achieve lasting appeal and my preemptive excitement.

I think also that you'll find I'm far more critical of things that are very near misses to greatness I can get on board with with total abandon. There's a bit of an asymptotic uncanny valley in the graph of my optimism for stimulating prospects... which feels more than slightly problematic...