within a deep forest

Posted by dessgeega Tue, 23 May 2006 02:20:00 GMT

Within a Deep Forest

within a deep forest is a freeware game that harkens back to the days of 16-bit design. it is lush and beautiful, drenched in twilight and ambience, with a mellow downtempo soundtrack. like many games of the 16-bit era, progress is tied to the unlocking of new abilities—new forms for your ball.

you’re a bouncy ball – holding A makes you bounce further, holding S makes you bounce less. different forms have different properties and abilities that need to be mastered. this game never lets lock-and-key design supersede skill – the game has no qualms about working you hard for your next upgrade, and then requiring you to get comfortable with it right away. be prepared to play many sections repeatedly until you get them right – instantaneous respawn keeps this from becoming too frustrating.

there’s a speedrun mode (and online low-time table) for players who finish the game, and a couple of unlockable bonus games for players who are thorough. completing the game the first time should be plenty satisfying, though.

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Comments

  1. zolointo said about 4 hours later:

    Great mini-adventure game to kill 5 to 7 hours with. Excellent gameplay, although hinging on frustrating when you have to toss around the glass ball. Brings back memories of Seiklus.

    Off topic, is TIGS back for good now?

  2. Chris said about 6 hours later:

    Bring back the forums too and all will be well!

  3. jayisgames said about 8 hours later:

    Good to see you guys awake again. ;)

  4. Lorne Whiting said about 8 hours later:

    Yaha! It’s fuck’n sweet your back, but the site should be in it’s V2 glory.

  5. AlecXander said about 9 hours later:

    Allright! Welcome back guys! I’m gonna spend the whole night playing 2D-Shooters and 16-bit platformers in your honour. Woohoo!

  6. Happy Man said about 10 hours later:

    I agree with Whiting that Tigsource V2 was better, but very good to see you back!

  7. Advenith said about 11 hours later:

    Version two was cool. I do like the new color scheme, though.

  8. null said about 11 hours later:

    how do you beat the crystal level with the glass ball. i get to the three pinball bouncers and then i cannot find where to go!!

  9. Zatos said about 12 hours later:

    YAY!!!!! TIGSOURCE IS BACK!!! Thank you so much Derek… I am freaking happier than a quadriplegic having an orgasm!

  10. dessgeega said about 12 hours later:

    psst. there’s another path from that last checkpoint you should be going instead.

    and yes, it’s good to be back.

  11. zambonista said 1 day later:

    Beat the game. I can’t help but feel that there ought to have been some more material after putting in the codes but before deactivating the bomb. I’m also not entirely sure what happened at the ending; I suspect I’m not hearing the VO correctly or some such business, as I’m not getting the joke.

    My overall take on the game is that it’s good, but not great. The central play mechanic is that it’s hard to control your avatar, and I’ve never been a fan of such games. When the controls are manageable, the game is quite fun indeed, although it often feels somewhat confining once within the sublevels, as there is usually only one path and one obstacle on that path for you to clear at any given time.

    I’m not wild about the checkpoint / save system. The game really ought to have let you save within sublevels; if not at checkpoints, at least at the entry. The game seems to expect that one can play it for at least forty-five minutes or so at a sitting, or else expects players to leave levels and restart them simply because they had to go do something else. Kind of annoying.

    As the review notes, the real charm in the game comes from the whimsical graphics (and the reasonably nice musical score). There are a few quite choice moments, especially obtaining the last ball.

    Probably the biggest downside to this game, versus, say, Super Metroid or Super Mario World or MegaZeux is that there aren’t any secrets. Oh, to be sure, there are the two secret levels, but these don’t operate as secrets normally do in games like this. Rather, you obtain two passcodes and plug them in and then can play secret levels using a separate executable. But there’s no hunting through the levels for hidden nooks containing special coins or powerups. As a result, when you get the final form – which lets you fly – the excitement is muted, since there’s nothing left to do but go to the end and beat the game. C’est la vie, I suppose, but I would’ve enjoyed poking around a bit more.

  12. zambonista said 1 day later:

    MegaZeux should be “Zeux World.” Oops.

  13. zambonista said 1 day later:

    Wow, hard line breaks are stripped from comments. That should be fixed.

  14. Derek said 1 day later:

    Testing.

    Testing.

    Testing.

  15. null Jr. said 1 day later:

    This is a GREAT game, cave story, seiklus caliber, probably. A must-get, level design is genius at some parts, like those colored platforms, and the mirror levels. The ‘hard’ (I’d rather say ‘tricky’) to control character adds to the gameplay, if you had a Super Mario like controled character, this game wouldn’t be so great. I agree it tests your patience, but the music helps getting you into a relaxing mood.

  16. zambonista said 1 day later:

    Hm. I guess as they say, there’s no sense arguing over matters of taste. Nevertheless, argue I shall – I don’t think seiklus is even in the same league as Cave Story (it’s significantly inferior along almost every dimension, except maybe whimsicality, where it’s a push). I would put WaDF above seiklus, but below Cave Story and Zeux World (which is a real gem if you haven’t played it, although it may feel dated now).

  17. null Jr. said 1 day later:

    Well, I think they’re all in the league of ‘freeware games that are worth playing’, not necesarily meaning all three are as good, though they stand out, as most freeware games I’ve played don’t belong there, but I agree CS>WaDF>S

    Zeux World? Downloading, thanks for the recommendation!

  18. Nifflas said 3 days later:

    I was actually very inspired by Seiklus when I did Within a Deep Forest.

    I’m getting a lot of feedback for the game, which is great :) I guess 50% think it’s great, 10% that it’s average, and the other 76% that it’s way too frustrating… But well, I tend to like games that are X)

    The hardest thing about making an easy game, is actually the fact that I spend so much time playing it, when developing it, so things that appear to be really easy for me, is nearly impossible for some players…

  19. anonymous said 6 days later:

    it’s funny to see how much the visitors to jayisgames are struggling to play wadf, up to a point where they quit after trying it out for five minutes.

    kids these days never played good platformers before, anyway it’s the site’s fault for introducing easy flash games all the time.

    i mean, they’re already having so much problems with just unzipping and starting the game!

  20. BeamSplashX said 8 days later:

    A lovely game, really. The only frustrating thing is getting the pathetic ball, since you only need to do that task to enter the last area, not really to get any other powers.

    And what is that alien saying?!

  21. SonicX said about 1 month later:

    HOW DE FUCK DO YOU GET SO FAR THERES THAT BLOWING THINGY AND I CAN”T GET OVER:(

  22. SonicX said about 1 month later:
     ()()
 (||)how do you get the last ball???
(")(")
  23. SonicX said about 1 month later:

    :P ITS EASY WELL SHORTA :( all well unless i almost got it :)

  24. SonicX said about 1 month later:

    NAHHHHH I”M UP TO THE SPIDER!!!!!!!!!!!!!

  25. SonicX said about 1 month later:

    HELP

  26. SonicX said about 1 month later:

    HOW do you get past the blowing thingy that blows you down??????? i tried every ball that i have well i don’t have number 3

  27. SonicX said about 1 month later:

    HELP

  28. SonicX said about 1 month later:

    HOW DO YOU GET BALL NUmBER #?????????????

  29. SonicX said about 1 month later:

    THE ALIENS SAY PRESS ENTER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

  30. SonicX said about 1 month later:

    THENYOU TURN GREEN

  31. SonicX said about 1 month later:

    BALl

  32. Gumwad said 3 months later:

    Could someone remove the spam flood of this moronic imbecile?

  33. dontknow said 3 months later:

    man does anybody read the comments? after 1000 days.?

  34. BMcC said 6 months later:

    I do.

  35. Tom said 6 months later:

    Same here

  36. NO! said 7 months later:

    No, I do. Fags.

  37. Derek said 7 months later:

    Comments are timeless.

  38. Faunis said 7 months later:

    They last forever, indeed.

  39. BMcC said 9 months later:

    Seriously, we don’t know how to delete them.

  40. Rz. said 9 months later:

    do i win?

  41. Echo said 9 months later:

    No, I do.

  42. Derek said 9 months later:

    Oh, yeah? ^_-

  43. Echo said 9 months later:

    Ah feck. I guess you win then.

  44. theCurse said 10 months later:

    Weeble quoth the mizzenmatch. Tru tru in doblu.

  45. Joseph said 11 months later:

    When will WADF2 come out?!

  46. moshboy said 11 months later:

    It won’t. Abandoned.

  47. Kat said 11 months later:

    Actually, holding s makes you jump higher and holding a maked you jump less

  48. Juls said 11 months later:

    correcting last post Actually, holding “s” makes you jump higher and holding “a” makes you jump less.

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