Sunday, March 08, 2009

Don't Look Back

Time for a browser game; this one's right down the line between "games as art" and "games as brutal platforming challenges".

Terry Cavenagh's Don't Look Back is a reimagining of the Orpheus myth via the medium of the browser game; as the player, you'll descend into hell (this time with a handgun), and retrieve your beloved. The catch: once you've found her, you have to return to the surface without ever looking back.

This is not an easy game but it's not unfairly hard. Each individual room is very tricky, but you've got unlimited lives and a checkpoint at the start of each room, so you'll never have to replay an easy bit to get another crack at the hard bit. If more platformers were like this I'd be inclined to spend more time with the genre.

Don't Look Back is thoroughly entertaining, and an early contender for many of next year's indie and casual awards, so go check it out now before you're the only kid who hasn't.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Yeah this game was a joy to play during a particularly dry lecture two weeks back or so. I don't think anybody knew I was playing a game until the level with two of the huge shooty behemoths.

I kind of wish it were a little more Orpheus-y. The fact that music played no role whatsoever was sort of a travesty. And the levels after finding Eurydice never really challenged me to struggle with turning around or not. So yeah, a bit too repetitious and a bit too dominant-strategy for a puzzle platformer.

Anyhow, I'm not a regular reader so I'm a bit intrigued about the mix of material you've got on the blog. I read about your political run, but couldn't find any info on the results. I'd be interested to hear/be linked to a piece about what you're doing now to make ends meet.

Greg Tannahill said...

Hey; as expected, running as a first-time candidate for an unregistered party did not net me electoral victory, but it was a well-worthwhile experience.

Currently I'm making ends meet supervising the production of court and political transcript, serving on the Guidance Committee of Canberra-based disability advocacy service ADACAS, and doing the odd bit of freelance writing.