VVVVVV – RELEASED!

By: Xander

On: January 11th, 2010

So you find yourself between two sets of pylons which effortlessly inverse the laws of gravity and no less than five sets of absolutely fatal spike traps. Somehow, this is actually close to the safest you’ve felt since you left the ship.

Welcome to VVVVVV, the eagerly anticipated platform adventure from the brainly fantastocity of Terry Cavanagh whose work last year with Judith and Don’t Look Back sowed the seeds of anticipation for this his biggest title to date.

To surmise, your ship has befallen some sort of disasterous event and your crew have become separated across a strange dimension. It’s your job to reunite them and possibly pick up some secret trinkets along the way. Aside from your ability to walk either left and/or right, you also have the power to flip gravity at your will. The rest of the adventure then builds on this power again and again, adding new and interesting ways to solve puzzles with no small quantity of intelligence or dexterity.

There’s a demo available online which contains two levels for you to sink your teeth into, and the full version is available through the main site at the generously quaint sum of $15/Â£8.99 (For both Mac and PC, with the Linux version coming VERY SOON), and the game does seem rather packed full of extras for those of you brave enough to seek out all those trinkets. You’ll probably struggle, you will definitely die and you will absolutely do it all with an unrelenting grin on your face.

Congratulations to Terry, and happy V-Day everyone!

TIGdb: Entry for VVVVVV

Posted in Action, Highly Recommended, Linux, Macintosh, Platformers, Windows | Tags: TerryCavanagh

Jad

Aaand with this I’m just trying to add that I think this game has replay value. I cleared it in <2 hours but I've spent more than 3 hours with it. And sorta like Derek pointed out, had more fun with it than torchlight :D
Steven

Derek, what is an “ass snack”?

(kidding)
HaRdCoReGaMeR

Ooh, listen to me everybody. I’m a gamer so my opinions matter. I will spend oodles on an Alienware PC and a fast internet connection but I cringe at paying $15 once to a talented indie developer in return for hours of fun. Sure, he worked for it, but I want to rip him off, cos I’m such a cool gamer person and though i haven’t written a game in my life I know exactly how much it should cost. I’m so cool that when World of Goo did that pay-as-much-as-you-like deal I paid the minimum (.25c wasn’t it?) and still b-tched about it. That’s how freaking cool I am.
Foppy

I bet this game isn’t as good or bad as everybody says it is!
Foppy

Platformer! It’s a platformer! :D
Anarkex

Hardcoregamer, I respectfully disagree. Though neither of us are huge fans of this game, our opinions are not the same. I’m not a fan of frustration platformers as they are generally quite shallow, and this game really is no exception. There’s shit made over fifteen years ago with more depth than this (as you likely know, being a hardcore gamer). It’s by no means the worst game ever, and I can understand if some people would like to support the developer (though I have never liked any of his games). But I’m sure that anyone who cares enough to insult people who don’t buy this game on the grounds that their buddy Terry isn’t getting more money would refrain from insulting those like me or even people like you, in favor of just donating another fifteen bucks to the guy for chrissakes.

I really can’t keep this charade up. I’m trying to be alright today and not argue every last one of you raving about this game like it’s the second coming into a fine pulp(as well as many others of you who are merely spouting the usual goofballery, acting like buying this shit is some kind of inescapable logical conclusion). As I said, I don’t give two craps about this game and I don’t feel like talking about it. But sometimes I look on here and you guys are just BEGGING for it. Like The Vagrant Werewolf up there. Talk about low hanging fruit – it’s like the whole tree has split in half.

Maybe if this many people say that 15 dollars is a ridiculous price, well, maybe it is. Maybe you ought to take notes. Even indie devs have to satisfy an audience.
Consumatopia

>But Iâ€™m sure that anyone who cares enough to insult people who donâ€™t buy this game on the grounds that their buddy Terry isnâ€™t getting more money would refrain from insulting those like me or even people like you, in favor of just donating another fifteen bucks to the guy for chrissakes.

>(as well as many others of you who are merely spouting the usual goofballery, acting like buying this shit is some kind of inescapable logical conclusion).

Derek said up above _”If you have only $15 to spend and you want to pick the most entertaining game, thatâ€™s understandable. Itâ€™s also understandable to say ‘this game is not worth $15’.”_

I don’t see anyone disagreeing with him.

But you and others above seem to be saying that the only reason to get this is to “support the developer”, as though there’s something irrational about playing a demo, wanting to experience more of it, and paying $15 to do so.

So if you’re gonna argue us to a fine pulp, you could at least argue against what we actually said…
The Vagrant Werewolf

I really dug Torchlight though.

What a lot of people (as in all those who’ve played the game and never visited the forums, which is probably 99 per cent of the people here, including Derek Yu) are missing is that Torchlight can be modded, and some of the mods are absolutely brilliant and add content to the game that’s genuinely fun, even more fun than what was originally there. Whether it’s a Gauntlet run, a puzzle dungeon, or a dungeon that entices you with switches out of reach and encourages you to explore.

And the modding community is getting better by the day, fixing things, adding things, reworking things, and making the game even more brilliant than it originally was.

In fact, the modding community have been pushing for inclusions into Torchlight so that they can mod harder (I know, better, but that sounded a bit funnier). And some of the mods in development look breathtaking.

Most of what makes Torchlight brilliant is the modding community and their additions to the game. If you’re missing that then you’re missing 80 per cent of what you paid for when you bought the game.

And really? More fool you.

I love VVVVVV, I love Torchlight, and I’m going to be controversial and say that I thought VVVVVV and Torchlight were equal in my heart, and that both were far superior to Braid, since Braid tended to get bogged down in its own pretention. Problem with Braid is that it had clever game mechanics, and it was fun, but it would’ve worked better with a simplistic, minimalistic aesthetic and no pretention. Blow generally tends to use pretty words more like a politician than a poet, so the end result is like listening to a Priest rather than the cream of the crop of Irish bards.

That took away from Braid, for me, since Blow just really doesn’t have the mindset for it and I found it grating.
Dodger

@Anarkex,

The Second coming??? People who speak like that are usually full of tripe. Nobody here has said that VVVVVV is the second coming, and you stating that as if someone has stated it that way just makes you look foolish.

@Everyone,

I think there are some people who are intentionally trying to stir shit up by being negative about the game. In general whether people like the game or not, there are a lot of discussions going on right now only generating more interest and popularity for VVVVVV the game and Terry Cavanagh. I really hope Terry is able to make a living at this and will be able to churn out more great games in the future because of VVVVVV’s success.

I think it’s really cool that he was able to give up some stability in order to follow his dream. I think any negative backlash is *mostly* due to people being either envious or jealous, while the un-silent minority just don’t have anything better to do than rain on everyone’s parade (those of us that enjoy the game).

If you have a criticism, great! Be constructive about it. Show some thought and imagination. Try to articulate without being an ass or getting personal.

Just to be fair I’ll start. I don’t want to put anyone down, but please allow me to enjoy my game that I’ve paid for with my money. However, If you’ve made any games tell me which games you’ve made! I’ll try them out. If you have a commercial game (shareware or the like) I may even buy it if I liked your other games. Understand where I’m going with this?

VVVVVV has been more fun than frustrating and has even made me laugh out loud a couple of times simply because I died 20 times at one measly section when I know I could’ve done better. My time and money has been well spent on the enjoyment. Terry has to make a living, I appreciate that and I also wish that I had the gumption to follow my dreams as well. At the very least, Terry makes the thought of it possible – and if/when he pulls it off it’ll make for one hell of a story!

Thanks again Terry!
Anarkex

Consumatopia, man, I just don’t even care. I haven’t slept all night, and I lost all drive to work out a suitable response. Of course I’m not going to argue with EVERYONE here, because I agree with some people. Including Derek. It’s stupid to not buy a game you want at a price you don’t mind just because there are other games at lower prices. Doesn’t that go without saying? I was responding directly to “Hardcoregamer”, which in hindsight, probably means I been trolled. Whatever. I guess I’ll try to sleep again now. Sorry I made you type all that. I guess there’s really nothing to even argue here.
Marcus

Hey if $15 is such a reasonable price, how come everybody in the whole world who’s heard of it hasn’t bought it already?!?!? People has to be allowed to say they think it’s a bit expensive.

I definitely want to try VVVVVV out but $15 plus tax is more than I want to pay for something like this. Then again I never buy games, except that time when I donated $5 to Cactus to get to see his Gamma IV game.
fargonner

It seems like everyone who has written multiparagraph responses supporting the game keep going back to how talented Terry is and how much success Terry will have. That sounds like you’re just supporting the developer. And Anarkex is right, while reading through this whole page I got the impression that the game/Terry is being heralded as the second coming
Moose

@JJJJJJ, I saw the other things in the Secret Lab, but the only thing actually relevant to the plot appeared to be that single speech bubble, which was a bit disappointing. (If you go back to the ship after hearing that, the crewman there even still says that the dimension is in danger of collapsing.)

And while I’m not upset at spending $15, I think he has dropped a bit of a clanger by marketing the demo through Kongregate where it is right next to Meat Boy, Shift, etc. At least, he could have made the full version available for kreds, which would tie it into their achievement and leaderboards system too (great for the time trials).
Jad

I’m confused

The people arguing against the game and its pricing are being more or less reasonable

The people expressing their like for this game also sound pretty reasonable

What are we arguing about

Also I think it’s fun how some guy or two have been commenting on the ‘haters’ in the TimW comment section, where the ‘haters’ was one guy who wrote two walls of texts explaining why he felt emotionally hurt by the game and thus couldn’t comprehend other peoples like for it – and then like 4 one-liner 4chan troll remarks about ‘shit sux’

Not a huge load of hating there

So much overinterpretation in all directions. One crazy guy and 4 trolls? OMG HATING!

‘Terry is an amazingly talented developer and his game is worth the money’ <- PROCLAIMING THE SECOND COMING 'I really don't think this game is worth 15 bucks, and the art style looks unpolished and bland' <- OH YOU HATER JUST GO AWAY ARGH Iii find it fun how everyone is reasonable yet arguing about points barely being made But I guess most of you guys are seeing that too and this comment is pointless but that's how I like my internet, pointless and full of emotion
fargonner

Also 15$ on this game or 15$ at McDonalds or the cinema? What a weak argument. How about 15$ for a game that takes 1~2 hours with little-to-no replay value, or watch a movie(which btw, the cinema only costs 7$ per person here) that takes 2~4 hours with little-to-no rewatch value? Or how about 15$ for a game that takes 1~2 hours with little-to-no replay value, or 15$ worth of beer hanging out with friends for a couple of hours that brings you closer as a group?

If this gets enough sales, hopefully Matt Thorton will make Jumper 4 cost 15$. Now he is a talented guy that has a number of successful games under his belt, and I can see him getting away with this.
http://wherecouldtom.be Tom Sennett

Man, who spends $15 at McDonald’s? Haven’t you guys ever heard of the Dollar Menu?
Consumatopia

> Itâ€™s stupid to not buy a game you want at a price you donâ€™t mind just because there are other games at lower prices. Doesnâ€™t that go without saying?

You’d think so, but if you scroll up there’s a lot of comparisons to cheaper games.

> I was responding directly to â€œHardcoregamerâ€, which in hindsight, probably means I been trolled.

You used strangely many plural nouns in your post to be referring to one person.
Consumatopia

> How about 15$ for a game that takes 1~2 hours **with little-to-no replay value**

Sorry, you have the wrong thread, here we’re talking about VVVVVV.
Anthony Flack

“And while Iâ€™m not upset at spending $15, I think he has dropped a bit of a clanger by marketing the demo through Kongregate where it is right next to Meat Boy, Shift, etc.”

I dunno, I think this game is far more enjoyable than Meat Boy, for example. To me at least. It’s the crucial division between “yes, I want to play more of this” and “well, not really”.

And I have no idea who the developer is. I just thought this game was cool.
ffffff

“or 15$ worth of beer hanging out with friends for a couple of hours that brings you closer as a group?”

me and surely most of people here has NO FRIENDS, we are gamers you moron!

btw… the game is awesome (too many empty spaces for my taste, but that’s ok), the price is high, end of story
asdf

a horribly hard platformer with bad graphics? This is indie people.
tokugawa

“Itâ€™s stupid to not buy a game you want at a price you donâ€™t mind just because there are other games at lower prices. Doesnâ€™t that go without saying?”

Competition. Basic marketing strategy 101. People sell products at a certain price, and others try to sell their product at an even better price. That’s how the free market works. Granted, this is Terry’s first game so I’ll cut him some slack.

But if you have a low resolution 2D platform game that is only 2 hours long priced at the same price point as games with 3D, multiplayer, and twice the amount of gameplay then I don’t really see how the reaction is surprising.
dan

Zero Gear is now $15, I’m thinking of getting that instead. Any reason I should get this game over ZG? $15 for a 2-3 hour 2D game doesn’t seem like a good deal to me.
Gabe McGrath

@tokugawa

Who said that “3d” is better than “2d”?
(Is Avatar better than Empire Strikes Back?)

Who said games with multiplayer are better than games without?

I’ve played tonnes of games where the multiplayer is some tacked-on crap just for the sake of an extra “bullet point” on the back of the box.

I’m well aware of competition/pricing theory. But you seem to be equating the ‘value’ of an indiegame with ‘the number of bullet points on the box’, whereas I equate ‘value’ with ‘fun’.
Langdell’s Ghost

>Zero Gear is now $15, Iâ€™m thinking of getting that instead. Any reason I should get this game over ZG?

Who the fuck knows? Why not check them both out and see which one you prefer? Do you need someone to tell you what kind of music taste you have as well?

Jesus Shitting Christ, if you’re as stupid in RL as you pretend to be online then you’re fucking doomed.
The Vagrant Werewolf

@Jad

I actually agree.

I made a similar point over on The Independent Games Blog. And in fact, the only people I’ve been irked at are those who’ve made implications that someone who’d drop $15 on a game they love isn’t too bright, or that those who purchased the game must be in the developer’s pants.

I was actually amazed by the mob mentality regarding one person, and how one person was treated as though they were an Army of Vile Evil (That Happens to be Vile). I don’t get why there’s any need for an argument unless there are insults or some basely derogatory insinuations going around.

And if that’s the case, pick someone up on being boorish and churlish, and don’t attack them for their negative opinion, just for portraying it in the worst way possible.

Mob mentality in regards to a negative comment because it’s negative (rather than because it contains insults) just makes the group look bad because it comes over as mob mentality. Pitchforks, torches, and a hell of a lot of shouting which signifies nothing.

But “pitchforks, torches, and a hell of a lot of shouting that signifies nothing” is a pretty good description of the Internet as a whole. Same point you made at the end of your post.

>.>

I doubt that’s going to change any time soon.

VVVVVV is great.

Some bloke is a rude git.

Not everyone can like everything.

Some people have different estimations of value.

And that’s that!
Consumatopia

> Do you need someone to tell you what kind of music taste you have as well?

Not me. Some suckers will actually pay $.99 for an iTunes mp3 of a dude playing **guitar** for 4 minutes. Fuck that noise. If I click on a classical music internet stream, I could hear entire ORCHESTRAS playing music for as long as I want FOR FREE!
Dodger

The attention this game is getting is awesome! There’s no such thing as good PR or bad PR… unless you’re a Scientologist.

Down with Hitler!

Engleburt Humperdink rocks!

:)))

And now more noise from the Twilight Zone
hajile

this really isn’t a good value for the money. why are people so defensive about that?
n00b

For thos who are too poor to afford paying indie games, you can always play games on your C64 emulator
XD
n00b

The experience is identical
hajile

nice strawman bro
Dusty Spur

Out of curiosity, is the music included with the game in a universally playable format? (e.g. wav, mp3, etc.)
hajile

No, you have to buy that as well. Search for “PPPPPP – The VVVVVV Soundtrack” on Google.
Dusty Spur

Oh, that’s pretty lame. I was thinking the price point would be a lot better if they were in there.

On the other hand, at least I can get the music cheaper than having to buy the entire game this way.

Thanks for the info hajile!
Consumatopia

> this really isnâ€™t a good value for the money **to me**.

There, I fixed it to what you would have typed if you were thinking clearly.
GoSign

From now on, I’m going to buy my music the same way some of you buy your games. I’m going for the most minutes per dollar. The longer the $10 album, the more worth my money it is, right?
GoSign

Ooh! And I want the [i]biggest[/i] clothes I can find for the least amount of money! And I’ll choose my books based on word count and my board games based on how long a game lasts!
WagonJumper

And my comment thread by the number comments!
Dusty Spur

There *is* a difference between discussing the value of the game and actually making a purchase based on that value, you know.

If you like a game and have money to buy it with then by all means, go for it. That doesn’t mean it’s a good value.

If you want to buy pants that don’t fit you or a long album of music you hate, then by all means do that too! Just don’t complain about it.

If you want to insult people for something they’re doing, make sure they’re actually doing it first.
d2king10

Yeah, $15 for this is a rip off, $5 and we may have a deal. It just strikes me as just another flash game…
wttens

Why didn’t he charge $9.99 and save himself the entire price discussion? (+ potentially double the sales)
Anthony Flack

Any price other than free would have caused a bunch of moaning, I guarantee it.
Dodger

@Anthony Flack,

Agreed!

Now, how about this, lets get this comment section fixed so that people IP addresses are shown so we know which moaner are posting under more than one name and even replying to themselves (pathetic). Oh and lets secure it so that comments from a proxy can’t be made. :)

This would have been a much shorter discussion I wager, though no less pointless.

Why does foolishness always lead to a bigger discussion than necessary?

This problem is answered easily in two parts:

1.) I (and everyone else who enjoys the full game) bought the game and have no regrets buying the game, and only want to continue enjoying the game in peace. We will recommend the game to others, but that is because we like the game and have actually played it.

2.) You (the people who don’t like the game) do not have to pay a dime for it. Nobody is forcing you to buy this game. When someone does put a gun to your head and forces you to by this game, you can rest assured that I will comment negatively towards your assailant. If you have tried the demo and still don’t like it, by all means, say you didn’t like the demo. Since you’re not going to buy the game there’s really no further need for discussion.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I have a few more shiny things to obtain! (That sounded like something The Cat from Red Dwarf would say).
Consumatopia

> There *is* a difference between discussing the value of the game and actually making a purchase based on that value, you know.

Stop saying “the value of the game” like it’s an actual quantity. It’s worth different things to different people, depending on their preferences and opportunity costs. Next time you say “the value of the game”, please append ” to me”. Thank you.
Drazzke

Anthony Flack Said.. But if you want to make these kinds of value judgement, why play indie games at all? For a little bit more, you can buy games with multi-million dollar budgets. You know, if thatâ€™s the kind of value youâ€™re looking for.

What? I play indie games because I like them, and the community around them. I don’t like (most) of the games put out by sony or nintendo or w/e. I don’t own any of those consoles or buy any of those games. I’m content buying games that indie developers create, or playing free ones (..or making my own). However, I don’t feel that this particular indie game is worth $15, because I don’t think I’ll get $15 dollars worth of fun out of it, like I did with other indie games for around the same price.

That’s just my opinion.
Burnside

Guys, I have an opinion.

I bought the game and enjoyed it, but I was disappointed in the, shall we say, lack of length. Two hours and twenty shinies in, my final impression was “That’s it?”. Just as the game was really hitting its stride… it was out of content. It really detracted from what was otherwise a great experience. The $15 I had just shelled out, which retroactively felt somewhat “wasted”, certainly didn’t help things.
hajile

Music isn’t really a good analogy. When you buy music, you are usually buying it because of who it’s made by. It makes perfect sense to buy an album from your favorite band.

Games aren’t like that at all. In fact, buying games just because it’s made by a certain person is usually a bad idea. Daikatana is made by John Romero, one of the guys who worked on Doom. However, it’s still a horrible game.

Games are very multifaceted. They contain more than just music. You can easily judge music based on, say if it’s made by a talented singer or musician.

But games on the other hand have many other factors to consider. Things like replay value, accessiblilty/difficulty, and even, yes, graphics or gameplay.

And it’s only natural for people to consider these things before dropping money on a game that they may not even end up enjoying.
hajile

Another reason why people bring up file size a lot, or the length of a game is because with games, you never exactly know what you’re getting. Reading comments about length (or in other cases, reviews) gives people some idea of to expect.

You can easily just pop in a music CD and listen to it.

You can’t just pop in a game and have it play itself.
noshit

hajile thats why you go and play the game then