PVP Fight 2

Dark Matter.

This is my second pvp blog and this one is going to be on Emilian Cioca's game Dark Matter. I did not see or hear many people play this game but I got a chance to go at it and the game was pretty good. There was some room for improvement as well, so let me go into detail about what was good and what could have made the game better.

Let's start first with what the objective of the game is. This game is even more simple than the last one I did, even though they do still hold the same objective which is get to the other end of the level. There is very little to stop you from completing your objective. The only thing that is holding you back from reaching the other end of the level are three different colored blocks. The blocks are either red, black, or white. Depending on which color you are allows which one you can go through. So if you are a black particle, you can go through black bricks but not red or white ones. This is a cool mechanic because it can cause you to try and solve different problems with that. There is only one problem with that and it's the controls.

The controls in this game are almost non existent. You are only able to jump and change color. This can be a good thing because it is easy to learn and master. The problem with this is that the game forces you to constantly move to the end goal. This is how the game can become challenging. As I played I was anticipating quickly flipping through colors trying to make it through the level near the end. This brings me to my next point of challenge.

The challenge in this game was not as challenging as it should have been. There was a good increase between skill of the player and experience with the game for the beginning. The level went through teaching the player the mechanic of jumping first, then the mechanic of the different colors. It didn't take long to learn the colors so I expected the game to pick up and increase in difficulty from the tutorial. However, the speed in which your particle moved did not accelerate to a more difficult speed. The separation of colors did not decrease much either. It wasn't nearly as difficult as it could have been and that would have been a key improvement to the gam





eplay for the level.

In terms of the feedback in the game, there was very little. There were no sounds at all so there could've been great opportunities for auditory feedback. I think a simple, yet effective form of auditory feedback would be to have sounds for when you change colors. Another possible sound for feedback would be when an incoming block is being approached and the player isn't in the right color to pass through it.  He does have visual feedback for when you are able to pass through a block which is good. When you are able to get through a block the block would turn transparent which is a nice way to visually show the player they are good to go. He also had good visual feedback of which color you have selected by directly changing the color of the particle.

I like the art in the game. It is very simple and sets a mood for the game. There is a nice color scheme to match the colors in game. I think the red should have been changed to blue and the white changed to purple to follow the color scheme for the rest of the level better.  The colors would need to be bright blues and purples so they can be distinguished from each other easily and have some sort of way to stick out from the background.

In conclusion, I enjoyed playing this game but I don't feel the need to go and play it again. I would love to go back to the game on another level that was more difficult because I am one for a challenging game. The art was simply appealing and the gameplay mechanics were creative. I would give this level a 6/10, would play again on the condition that the next level is more challenging.