How and Where

By: Guest Reviewer

On: March 11th, 2009

How and Where

This is a guest review by Andreas Kämper.

I’d like to present two charming little games done by Mike Inel, called “How” and “Where”. I’d also like to thank KnightBlargh from the forums at this point for pointing us out to the games.

“How” is a charming little game in which you control a girl who has to put as many balls into a well as possible in five minutes. Carrying balls around uses up Stamina, while consuming the balls restores Stamina, but slowly kills the girl. While that sounds pretty bland and straightforward as a game, it’s the execution that makes this game so special. The graphics are hand-drawn and smoothly animated, creating a unique atmosphere without even using so much as sound effects or music. You just have to feel sorry for the girl when it clumsily drops to the ground of exhaustion or simply drops dead after eating too much of the spheres.

“Where” on the other hand is a 3D first person maze game. You start the game walking towards a ball of light, until a maze starts forming around you that you can then explore. If you reach the edges of the maze, you can change its layout and style, resulting in a change of color as well as music. While there is nothing much to see in the maze, save for its four different styles, the game, just as “How”, creates a unique and relaxing atmosphere. According to Mike Inel, the game has been remade once already, but was neither completely finished when it was original made, nor when he remade it.

Neither of these games offers long-lasting fun or much replayability (except for breaking the Highscore in “How” maybe) but they still should be played by anyone valuing an unique experience or taking an interest in “art games”. Some people may also be offended by the skimpiness of the girl in “How” a bit, so better skip on it if you’re that type of person.

  • MisterM

    Did the reviewer forget to link to the games themselves?

  • Hypersapien

    That’s wild. When you eat too many spheres, and die, your body (or something) is still there when you start the next game.

  • Derek

    Those are the games pages. You have to click “download” on the left hand side of the DeviantArt page.

  • Greender

    The animation is lovely on How, the other game … I just don’t get it.

  • http://lumberingdream.com/ !CE-9

    How taught me a lesson about eating balls; Quite the Rohrer. ;_;

    The artistic style is awesome though.

  • PHeMoX

    What are the requirements for this game? I’m running Vista, but am currently on a tablet PC. Guess I am out of luck trying these two?

  • RayRayTea

    It’ll be interesting to see what he’ll come up with for “Why”.

  • Baba Yaga

    I find the breast animation to be vaguely unsettling.

  • Nels

    “Skimpiness”, “breast animation” – bottom line, is it NSFW?

  • Andreas Kämper

    @Nels:
    It’s completely SFW, depending on where you work. Her dress is pretty short (and I think you can glance panties now and then) and the breast animation is pretty…jiggly, but you won’t see anything that’s commonly considered NSFW.

  • i

    ew, gaymes, lol

  • B

    Bouncily breasted girl handling balls?

  • Dylan

    I’m waiting for a game called “Why”. And a game called “When”. And one called “what”

  • judgespear

    Nice graphics, but gameplay… not so much.

    If you were to take away the graphics, you wouldn’t be left with much.

    Then again, this is a good example of how good art can make even the most simple game ideas look better than they really are. Kind of makes me want to get better at drawing, if I could draw like this I could easily hide any gameplay flaws in my games and make my games look amazing.

  • KennEH!

    What no yuri viewer?

  • ran24

    How do you get the sleep, wake, and fade animations to occur in “How”?
    Can you “win” the game somehow?

  • ran24

    nvm to sleep and wake, I just tried running out of energy and it happened. “Fade” still eludes me though.

  • drugon

    “While there is nothing much to see in the maze, save for its four different styles”, – but it is possible to reach the sphere of light. So, “Where” at least has an aim.

  • KniteBlargh

    Glad I could help. :)

  • Jad

    LOLI BALLS EATING BOOB GAME

    mmmm let’s play

  • Jad

    Ok, played, embarassment from looking at her running around with her stumps for arms and party top as only clothing gave me a weird feeling.

    Her complete helplessness combined with the automatical signals the brain gets from looking att pronounced girly parts and cuteness really gives you a weird feeling.

    I wonder how a girl with my mindset would like this game.

    Also, weird feeling was definetely worth it!

  • Sneakish

    Fap fap fap fap.

  • magallanes

    graphically is nice but sadly its lack on gameplay. :-/

  • Phasma Felis

    There’s really no game at all in How. It’s embarrassingly simple by Atari 2600 standards, let along anything else. It’s just there to show off the vaguely creepy animation.

    Also, I’m pretty sure the “phantom” wells are only there because he needed an excuse for a panty shot.

  • Valerie Tripathy

    This is done to only discuss about the events but to also apply the lessons in the future. Therefore, knowing the past is essential for the future. So let’s learn about our past together.