Play game
Xerion's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Overall | #1 | 4.000 | 4.000 |
| Graphics | #1 | 4.625 | 4.625 |
| Mood | #1 | 4.125 | 4.125 |
| Audio | #1 | 4.125 | 4.125 |
| Theme | #2 | 3.625 | 3.625 |
| Fun | #5 | 3.625 | 3.625 |
| Innovation | #6 | 3.125 | 3.125 |
| Humor | #11 | 1.750 | 1.750 |
Ranked from 8 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
Leave a comment
Log in with itch.io to leave a comment.
Comments
Xerion is an excellent looking tile-sliding puzzle game. Unfortunately I haven't sunk much time into it, because I've had trouble figuring out the "balancing" of the tiles to solve the puzzles. Aside from this, it's an all-around great puzzle game.
I love a good puzzle game, and this felt like something I could see myself buying. I did have trouble progressing after the first few levels. I think that I stumbled few the first ones, and then didn't fully understand the core balancing mechanic behind the game once I reached more advanced puzzles. I find the riddle intriguing, but shedding a little more light on the "balancing" could be advantageous without ruining the intrigue of the game.
I think that the interpretation of the theme is solid, as tile-sliding or match-3 games are common games that feature some sort of combo. Nothing feels revolutionary in that regard, but that's okay because it's really well executed.
The graphics and audio are what take this game to the next level. The pixel art looks great and the colors tie together nicely. The background audio and the dialogue after completing a level are very fitting for the atmosphere. These elements really tie the game together and create a super strong, enticing mood.
Relating to my earlier comment about having difficulty with the balancing, some additional visual effects and sound when some elements are aligned properly could be a helpful indicator.
Humor isn't really applicable for this, but the game has character!
Great job on Xerion. It looks great, and I'm impressed that it was made in 48 hours, as it feels like a complete experience!
Fun:
I thought this game was a pretty solid puzzler. There were a couple puzzles that were super frustrating and that I feel could have been saved for later in the progression, and I ended up getting hung up and quitting on puzzle #16 (I think?). Overall, most of the puzzles were fun little self-contained challenges that were tricky, fair (mostly), and rewarding to solve.
Innovation:
Tile puzzlers have been around for a while, but with the poetic rules and interesting tile adjacency laws it wasn't completely dry of unique ideas.
Theme:
I see the inspiration - the puzzle can only be solved when each tile is next to the correct combination of other tiles - but I think in practice, the connection to the theme is a little hard to decipher. Overall, a pretty solid interpretation of the theme though, if a little cryptic. Then again, that might be what you're going for.
Graphics:
It's an OSG game. Do I really need to say more?
Mood:
Remember when I said that the theme's interpretation was a little cryptic and the rules were poetic? It's because I think they're helping to build out the mood of the game. The ambience noises, the background art, the temple setting, the sound design and voice clips... It all contributed to a wonderful and engaging atmosphere that really drew me in. Awesome job with this.
Audio:
I already mentioned this briefly, but the light background drone, haunting ancient music, voice clips, the contrasting airy whooshes and more grounded scraping sounds - they all complement each other very well.
Humor:
There wasn't much humor in this game - it felt to me it was more a more grounded, serious puzzler.
~ ~ ~
Overall Verdict:
This was a solid puzzler with a couple frustrating moments and delicious atmosphere. I would buy this on Steam if it was fleshed out a bit and the difficulty progression was a bit more linear. Good job!
Overall a really cool, very finished and polished game! Thanks a lot for making it, I had a great time playing! :)
I loved the graphics, especially the reward at the end, for an artist like me, clearly it was the best reward to see a pretty pixel art sprite x) Everything fits well together, and especially I found that the skulls looked very cool.
I also loved the sound design, fits the mood very well, and the voice acting is a really nice touch.
The levels are nice, I'm not much of a puzzle person so often when I play them I just the move the tiles halfheartedly until it fits, but in this game I ended up making strategies and thinking about constraints, so great job! Especially I loved that some of the last levels were 3x3, it's always nice when complexity arises from very simple-looking problems (like a "oh this is easy... oh wait" feeling).
Just one downside, it was hard for me to get used to the controls. I often wanted to just click on two tiles to exchange them, so the fact that the tile stayed selected until re-clicked made me do mistakes in the beginning. I also think this "move one tile at a time" thing makes you believe as a player that the movement is going to be a constraint (like in a fifteen puzzle), when it's the positions that are constraints. But maybe the game feel is still better like that, because it adds more physicality, it's just a thought I had while playing.
Amazing job!
Thank you so much!
Overall: I'm a big fan of the puzzles! Not too hard, not too easy. Definitely a perfect balance. I also appreciate the last level being a bit easier than the one before it. It's a nice victory lap. and THANK YOU for highlighting the ones that aren't settled. this would've been infinitely harder otherwise. Perhaps switching two of the same object shouldn't add a move to the move counter?
Fun: Yup. This ties in with my comments surrounding the quality overall. A well made puzzle game is fun. And this is certainly well made. I love how out of hand it gets, where you this to avoid that, while touching this and that. It's a lot to manage, but it's well done.
Innovation: I've never played a game like this, though truth be told, this is definitely not a genre of puzzle game I play often. It's hard to compare this to anything, since I can't quite think of anything it's that similar to. Top points. It's really cool.
Theme: I like the take on the theme. It's more about the combo of adjacent tiles than the tiles themselves. neat.
Graphics: The objects look exactly how they should, and clearly indicate what they are. In a game like this, that's all you can ask for. Oh- and the sphynx and the gem at the end look amazing.
Mood: I love the temple / sphinx riddle setting. I don't know what else to add. Cool vibes. This could've just been a lazy game with flat icons and clipart, but the sphinx temple adds a level of atmosphere that sells it.
Audio: I love the voice acting, and the little slide noises. Honestly, all of my feedback is going to be appraisal. You didn't do anything wrong.
Humor: Not applicable.
Final Thoughts: Ooh. The truth I was seeking was a pretty rock all along. Really well made game. Good stuff.
Thank you so much for playing and the feedback :D
Took me a little bit of time to get into it ("am I trying to put out the fires? Oh, I see, OK..."), and then it took me a lot of time to get out of it ("seriously I am out of places to put these stupid fires"). Which is the mark of a very clever, hard, but very clever, game.
Thank you :D
Damn, this is hard. I haven't been able to beat it yet due to my brain about melting but I've gotten to level 12 and will continue to chip away at it in the future. It's super clean and well-done overall, and the rules are logical despite being presented in an unorthodox way. Even the fact that I want to go back and finish it is a testament to how well put-together the whole package is. It legitimately just feels complete, I don't know what else to say about it. The graphics are passable, nothing outstanding but there's also not a lot of space to work with in a game such as this. The sound design is my absolute favorite part though. Every audio cue meshes so well with the music and just sucks you into this desert puzzle box. Really great job as always :)
Thank you! I'm glad you enjoyed it ^^