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

hajile

Yes, then what? With games, you don’t know what to expect. A game could start out good then end abruptly. Or it could end up being too hard for you and you may not finish it.

Music doesn’t have those kinds of factors to consider. You can usually judge music based on who it’s made by.
Anthony Flack

Like bollocks you can. You take a risk every time you buy something new. Fortunately, sometimes it’s only a few dollars at stake.
madrain

I love how so many people claim that value-shopping a video game is pointless, yet these are the same people claiming, “You’re going to waste 15 bucks anyways, why not buy a good game!”

Piss off. We don’t have to like your overpriced game’s price just because you’re fine with it. God.
undertech

Note to self: After creating my first commercial game, price it at $15,000.
hajile

Anthony: But games are even bigger of a risk due to all the various factors involved. With music you know what you’re getting, and if you don’t, there are ways to, say, preview certain songs to see if you like them. With a game, the most you can do is can preview the first few minutes of a demo at best, and that hardly is any indication of what the entire game is like.

Either way, just as you would research to see if a music CD has the songs you wish to hear, it makes sense for people to read reviews or comments on games to see if the full game is going to be worth their money.
ness

There really is no excuse for anyone to not buy this. It doesn’t matter whether you play indie games or not. If you are not telling your friends, family, and those around you to buy this, then get the fuck off of this website. Why bother being in a place where nobody wants you around?

Terry deserves our money, all of it. The man quit his job, you cannot even fathom what he’s been through. Have you quit YOUR job? You probably wouldn’t even have the guts to.

I have no sympathy to anyone who doesn’t buy this game. Just today, I blocked about half my friends (ex-friends now) on AIM for telling me that the game was “too expensive” (give me a break). That’s how serious I am, and how tired I am of this fucking ignorance.

If you’re still reading this and haven’t bought this yet, please fuck off and die somewhere. The world will do better with one less worthless, heartless peice of shit around. And above all, I hope Terry gains the success and fortune he obviously deserves.
Jockolantern

Anyone who thinks this game is a waste of $15 is an out-and-out fool. This is a truly terrific platformer with a lot more to do than just play through the two hours worth of game and collect all twenty trinkets. Plenty of achievements and extra modes to keep us all occupied in Terry’s world of topsy-turvy platforming goodness and SoulEye’s ear-poppingly fantastic soundtrack.

Seriously, awesome job, Mr. Cavanagh. This is one terrific game. I can’t recommend it highly enough to those who love their platformers old-school not only in style and sound but in difficulty. If $15 is too much to ask to support an awesome developer like Terry then feel free to pass on one hell of a great gaming experience.
ness

There really is no excuse for anyone to not buy this. It doesnâ€™t matter whether you play indie games or not. If you are not telling your friends, family, and those around you to buy this, then get the fuck off of this website. Why bother being in a place where nobody wants you around?

Terry deserves our money, all of it. The man quit his job, you cannot even fathom what heâ€™s been through. Have you quit YOUR job? You probably wouldnâ€™t even have the guts to.

I have no sympathy to anyone who doesnâ€™t buy this game. Just today, I blocked about half my friends (ex-friends now) on AIM for telling me that the game was â€œtoo expensiveâ€ (give me a break). Thatâ€™s how serious I am, and how tired I am of this fucking ignorance.

If youâ€™re still reading this and havenâ€™t bought this yet, please fuck off and die somewhere. The world will do better with one less worthless, heartless piece of shit around. And above all, I hope Terry gains the success and fortune he obviously deserves.
ness

In short, fuck the haters. Pieces of shit would rather see such a poor guy suffer just so they can play “other games” (oh boo hoo, give me a break). Stop being a stingy fuck for once and fork over $15, and everyone you know to do the same. It’s only what $15? You won’t go bankrupt, you freakin dumbasses.
hajile

Okay, make me then. What, are you going to punch me over the internet if I don’t buy it?
ness

hajile please get the fuck off this website
alastair jack

This is a really good game, enjoying it so far.
Steven

ness just leveled up.
Dodger

@Burnside,

You didn’t buy the damn game. Obviously you haven’t even been reading the comments left here by people who did buy the game. You just caught yourself in a lie.

*”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 â€œThatâ€™s it?â€. Just as the game was really hitting its strideâ€¦ it was out of content. It really detracted from what was otherwise a great experience.”*

Sorry buddy, but that’s a crock and you’d know it if you actually had the full game. Next time think a little before you share your “opinion”, or just be honest, at least that way I can be understanding if you do have a real opinion.
Dodger

BTW,

I’m happy I bought VVVVVV, and I still like Meat Boy too. That’s why I’m going to *Buy* the game (Super Meat Boy) for the Wii when it comes out. Because it will no longer be free then. So I’m going to buy it, as in, I’m going to spend money on it. Probably $10 – $15 dollars. Because that’s a not a lot of money compared to spending $50 – $60 dollars on one mainstream game, I can get 3 – 4 indie games for that price, and not have to feel guilty. :-)

So ya, I’m going to be spending more money on another indie game in the not-so-distant future. I can’t wait to hear people bitch about that as well. Edmund is another great Indie Dev. What better way to support these guys, from Derek Yu to Jonathan Blow, Anthony Flack to Paul Eres, Terry Cavanagh to Edmund McMillen, Alec Holowka to Phil Fish, Cactus to Petri Purho, and the dozens of others known around the community, and then the hundreds that are still unknown.

None of these guys are asking that you give up your soul, nor are they asking for your first born. I’m pretty sure most of them just want to make fun games that people can enjoy – and if possible, most of them would like to make a living at it in some way.

Just waiting for Cactus’ big commercial release… which will probably be called something like “foot and underarm odor” – or something crazy like that… we can only hope. :-)

Seriously though, as silly as this discussion has become, it’s a great start to the New Year and only making guys like Terry Cavanagh and his games more popular. At least something positive is coming from the disagreements and silly arguing. I guess for every valid point there has to be an equal amount of unthoughtful comments, otherwise those people with nothing better to do might feel lonely, and that’s a shame. I guess it’s fair then that those people who do want to be completely negative have their chance because it’s probably better that they vent it out in places like this rather than be alone and hurt themselves. So maybe two positives can come from this sort of thing…
Foppy

>> Because thatâ€™s a not a lot of money compared to spending $50 – $60 dollars on one mainstream game, I can get 3 – 4 indie games for that price, and not have to feel guilty.

Are you saying you would feel guilty for buying a “mainstream” game?
Foppy

Well I guess there was a smily so never mind. Sorry for the double post.
Consumatopia

Drazzke and Burnside have perfectly reasonable opinions and made perfectly reasonable posts. It makes sense to say “this game should have been longer” (not everyone will agree, I personally like the lack of filler, but either opinion is sensible) or “I’m not willing to pay $15 for a game this short”. Indeed, it is a good thing that people are commenting on the length of the game, because that’s something people should know before they buy it.

That’s completely unlike most of the other comments bashing the game who are trying to bring back some kind of Adam Smith-era “natural price” theory, where they get to decide how much it’s rational for **me** to pay for a game, like they’re on the Soviet Union’s Central Planning committee or something.

But even those fools make more sense than hajile’s music crap…yeah, just like music, good musicians can phone in crap, so you play a demo, watch a video, read reviews and comments, listen to recommendations from your friends. The music analogy makes perfect sense.
http://tricorne.blogspot.com/ Kekskiller

bought this one, the price absolutely ok. it’s a quality game, so why don’t pay what the developer deserves?
nik

i thing this price discussion is good marketing !
Amugaba

I find it fascinating how much attention this game has gathered, despite not being anything special. Its not really innovative, controversial, or otherwise extraordinary. Its neither brilliant nor exceptionally bad. The price point might be considered high, but there are plenty overpriced games out there.
Mr. Podunkian

on the real, and all dickwaving aside, how long did ‘veni vidi vici’ take you? i fully completed this game in two hours, with around 850 deaths, and nearly 200 of those deaths came from veni vidi vici, which i think presents kind of a disproportion compared to the relative ease of the rest of the game.

surely i’m not the only one who feels there’s a lot of padding going on here, what with half of the world map consisting of empty or near empty rooms, and of course, the gravitron being another time sink.

additionally, with levels like ‘edge games,’ am i the only one to think that the difficulty is artificially induced by the fact that the level ‘wraps’ around what would otherwise be the center of action? likewise, there are many other rooms where the only real difficulty comes from having to estimate your position as you wrap.

i’m not saying that time of play should be the sole measure of the worth of a game, but it did bother me how much the game tried to waste your time, and how little a lot of the game mechanics evolved from what was shown in the demos (i.e. using the gravity reversal ‘lines’ in the same three ways, slightly reconfigured, over and over.)

“rewarding the reckless” or whatever it was was a really, really clever puzzle, but i really wish there was a lot more of that and a lot less of what we ended up getting.
Melly

Personally I think the game’s fantastic and well worth the price of admission. Perhaps less inertia-based movement would have made some areas easier, but it worked well once you got the hang of it.

I always find it so amusing when people say that because a game looks retro it’s not worth its price. You guys spend more cash on junk food and that only gives you a few minutes of enjoyment and a whole lot of clogged arteries.

But whatever, it’s not like any of these tools would ever even try to understand the ammount of work that goes into making even a small game, no matter the graphics, sounds or gameplay.

Congratulations Terry. Hope the sales are turning out well for ya. :)
Thomas

So while everyone continues to have their out-and-out war with each other over the worth of their money or the value of this game I have a simple question.

After buying the game are you given an honest-to-goodness “download to your pc to play offline and not on some website”-style executable file? I’d even settle for something like Star Guard which is still Flash but actually has an .exe I can have on my system.
Steven

Yeah, there’s an .exe that you play right on your system. This makes it much easier to pirate than the leaked beta.
Dodger

@Thomas,

Yes, this is a full fledged game that installs to your Hard Drive and that requires no internet connection to play (though I’d still like to see some sort of *optional* online scoreboard of sorts).

But yes, this game is all yours once you buy it. Just download, install, and play. Nothing else required. You can disable your ethernet adapter once the game has been downloaded and just play it, nothing hidden going on in the background.

So if you enjoyed the demo’s but were leery about purchasing because you thought it had to be played through a browser, worry not! This game downloads straight to your PC (or Mac) for full play, no strings attached.
Dodger

@Steven,

I don’t even know if the term *”easy to pirate”* exists any more. There are far too many people with far too much time on their hands that seem to be willing to hack and crack every type of security out there whether the game be $5 dollars, or $50 dollars, it doesn’t seem to matter. It does seem that the more effort that developers put into *”securing”* their game, the more effort the pirates put into cracking and pirating it. :-/ It’s sad when it happens to the indies (I would say it’s sad about Mainstream games being pirated, but publishers such as EA – or at least their CEO’s – have no soul, so I don’t give a flying fuck about them). That still doesn’t make the act of pirating right though. Still, when it comes to indie developers, it is more frowned upon because these guys usually are one person or a small group of people trying to achieve something, the expression “little fish in a big pond” comes to mind. These guys are work horses that get paid based on each sale that they make, whereas the guys that work for large companies, developers, and publishers, make set wages and salaries. If for no other reason, hopefully less people will pirate these games made by indies especially, because of those facts and because they are in general priced fairly with far less strings attached. On top of all of this, the indie developers (the vast majority of them) take the time to listen to the audience and will also provide technical support to the best of their ability – something *YOU WILL NOT FIND* when purchasing mainstream games (in general).
Burnside

@Dodger

How much of my experience should I describe before you’re convinced that I played the game through? Would you like me to tell you which three trinkets (which I called shinies last post, sorry!) I was missing when I first finished the game? How about which room I had the most deaths on at completion? (Hint: it was Edge Games.) Or I go into detail about feeling very disappointed (though I guess this was my fault) when I read here that there was some “extra content” for getting all twenty trinkets, and then I got them all and saw what the “extra content” was?

God Edge Games annoyed me. You have to figure out this arcane “you can pass through enemies at the edge of the screen if you time things *just* right” mechanic and then employ it in a fast-paced area purposefully constructed to confuse you. Even Veni Vidi Vici was straightforward. Edge Games was the only trinket I left and came back for later — despite having the most deaths on Edge Games at game completion, that was one of the three trinkets I was missing.

Of course, this is not to say that I didn’t enjoy the game. I did. I wish Mr. Cavanagh the best of luck in his endeavors as a game developer. I just also wish this game was retroactively $5 cheaper.
Zaratus

That’s… not how I solved the Edge Games room. I flipped to dodge the enemies, though the timing on that was still tricky, but still sounds like it was easier than the way you did it.
Davide “Gendo Ikari” Mascolo

@dodger
“(I would say itâ€™s sad about Mainstream games being pirated, but publishers such as EA – or at least their CEOâ€™s – have no soul, so I donâ€™t give a flying fuck about them).”

Wow. You remind me of a PC fanboy who said he was happy that console games piracy was rising – completely ignoring how rampant piracy is on his favourite system. Why use such double standard? You condemn piracy, or not. No exceptions.
ingram

Yeah, because EA’s CEOs are the guys who make their games, right. Sure…
Dodger

@David “Gendo Ikari” Mascolo,

Whoa, whoa, whoa, wait a minute. If you’re going to quote me then please try to keep the entire context of the quote. Here’s what I wrote:

*”Itâ€™s sad when it happens to the indies (I would say itâ€™s sad about Mainstream games being pirated, but publishers such as EA – or at least their CEOâ€™s – have no soul, so I donâ€™t give a flying fuck about them). That still doesnâ€™t make the act of pirating right though.”*

You forgot to include that last bit *”That still doesn’t make the act of pirating right though.”* I never said that I condemn it but it’s okay if it’s done to the big guys. I said it’s wrong, I don’t have to feel as bad about it being done to the big companies because they still make shitloads of money. My point was it impacts indie developers more on a personal level.

I don’t need to pirate and that’s why I buy all these tasty indie games that I enjoy so much, but please do me a favor and don’t try to turn what I’ve said out of of key or take it out of context. Please read the whole comment or just pass it by, but please don’t misquote me by not including the full quote and it’s context, because I’ll call you on it. Hope that’s a little more understandable.
Dodger

@Burnside,

The only problem I have is that you said that was all there was to the game, when it sounded like you purposefully decided to forget that once you’ve found more of the “shinies” you unlock other game modes, potentially adding more replay value than the initial 2 – 3 hours. I have no problem with how you feel about the game if you’re sincere, but saying that the game was over once you finish it the first time through with nothing left to do is misleading and untruthful.
But aside from that I don’t want to knock your opinion of the game itself, just the fact that you forgot to include that there actually was more game to be found once you do finish the main adventure.
ingram

You make it seem like people who aren’t “indie” are automatically rolling in the dough. The truth is that most people who work on big games don’t even get paid as much as you’d think. According to a recent survey on MSNBC, only 36 percent of game developers make enough to own a home.

Not to mention, they don’t work nine to five, deadlines are fierce and success isn’t always guaranteed. Plus with all the money, time, and effort that goes into making a AAA game, there is always the chance that it could just flop and hardly sell at all. And when that happens, development teams could get laid off, and all sorts of nasty thing can happen.

Hell, that’s part of the reason why some people just quit and go “indie” in the first place. They get tired of the stress that goes into working in the industry. They figure if they’re not going to make it there, what’s the risk in not making it alone. They’re either damned if they do, or damned if they don’t.

Don’t assume that just because someone works for EA that they have it easy.
ingram

*things
Dodger

@ingram,

I think you need to re-read the comment. Don’t understand what’s so hard to get.
d2king10

Someone mentioned that he quit his job so we should support him for his project? Fuck that, I am going to college and working and busting my ass on projects, and I doubt anyone is going to support me.

We should support it if the game is good, not by who made it or if he doesn’t have a job.

Honestly, after playing the demo, I can say that this game wouldn’t really take that much time or effort to make (especially not graphically, and the coding isn’t that difficult for something of this scale). So why should I pay $15 for a game that I could easily create at the same or better quality?

Like I said earlier, for $5, sure this is probably a good deal, anything more and I can easily toss it away and not feel like I am missing out on anything.
http://www.playthisthing.com Dustin

I’ve mentioned this elsewhere, but I’ll say this again regarding the game’s length: I’d rather have an ounce of prime cut steak over a pound of gristle anyday. This is easily the most enthralling experience I’ve had with a game in a long while; the game’s length is perfect.
ingram

I did read it. You don’t get it, do you? Piracy does hurt game developers, no matter what, even if they’re working with a company like EA. Tell me, what do you think happens when a game doesn’t sell? People lose their jobs.

You don’t feel bad just because they’re working with a company you don’t like? What kind of moronic bullshit is that? How would you like to lose your job because the game you were hired to do lost most of its sales to piracy? Hell, have you even worked in the industry before?

I can’t stand when people try to talk about things when they don’t even have the slightest idea of what they’re talking about.
Burnside

@Dodger

The only *new* thing after getting all twenty trinkets is the Super-Gravitron. Everything else is just the same material presented differently: flip mode is the same game with different graphics; no death mode is the same game with a new meta-rule that doesn’t change anything; time trials are the same content, just scored now. Even the Super-Gravitron is conceptually identical to the Gravitron I played through in the main game, but since it’s not a carbon copy, in deference I’ll count it as new material. Aside from that, what have I missed?
Dodger

@ingram,

no you obviously didn’t read it. I was taking a jab at EA’s CEO’s. It went over your head (and probably a few others) but you happened to respond trying to lecture me on comments I hadn’t made. It does bother me to hear that people are pirating indie developers software. I also explained why.

Now, which game was it that you developed that became so pirated you lost your job??? (And you’re implying that my comment was moronic!?!?!? wow!)

Tell me the game because really, I hadn’t heard about the game made by a large developer and publisher that was so pirated everyone working on it lost their jobs.
Dodger

@burnside,

I’d consider time trials added replay value. Mainstream games get credited for their time trial modes as extra replay value, why not an indie game?
Dodger

@ingram,

Before you can reply, piracy is bad for business either way. It may hurt the “industry” as a whole, but it affects the indies much more personally since the average indie doesn’t have their game on a store shelf and some don’t have a major download portal. You completely missed what I was saying otherwise you probably would have just shut up and not responded, so it’s just a misunderstanding. I just appreciate it when people read and fully understand a comment before replying to it with an attack.
Mitch

@Dodger

Okay, you can stop posting now.

Enough backpedaling, etc. Thanks!
Mitch

@Dodger

Okay, you can stop posting now.

Enough backpedaling, etc. Thanks!
ssp

This is now officially declared the worst comments thread on TIGS.

CONGRATURATION!!
Dodger

@Mitch,

Ya you’re right.

Instead how about this – Jeff Gerstmann and team did a Quicklook of VVVVVV over at GiantBomb! Of all places! More PR for the game though.
Jackenstein

I can’t believe all the undeserved PR this game is getting.
ssp

To reiterate:

CONGLATURATION !!!

YOU HAVE TROLLED GREATLY

AND PROOVED THE JUSTICE OF OUR CULTURE

NOW GO AND REST OUR HEROES!
GC

the VVVVVV ruse was a………..
distaction