Didgaraya's game Reviews on Newgrounds

[dys4ia]

I must admit, I'm truly touched by the game (although the term "game" is hardly enough, in my understanding of media and arts). I did not lose, I did not win. I gained no points, no satisfaction of clicking or pressing or pushing buttons or keys of any kind. The only thing, I feel, I have taken away with me from this little big creation is an experience, or a new perspective, sprouting from a feeling that I had actually met a real person in its most intimate form that is only possible through a creative expression. I feel, on some level, just like I felt after reading an intimate memoir, or a diary, of someone who cannot deal with some emotions and experiences in any other way but throwing them out in a medium that suits them best. I really love how various elements coming from different media were merged in dys4ia. Writing helps understand what's going on and is actually the best form of author's expression, in my feeling. It is simple and honest. Music add a more sentimental depth to it, and it's rather subtle. Simple graphics are more than OK, vibrant colours, rather metaphorical than literal presentation of things, it all works perfectly well in an art, diary-like creation. Finally, the game/interactive elements are treated in a very extraordinary way. While the impression of an interactor may be that it's the interaction that makes for the most of it may be dominating, I think it's nothing but a mistake on an interactor's part. Plenty of work has been put into interaction, no doubt about it, but from my point of view, if the author would decide to forget about the interaction all together, the story would work on its own, and after adjusting it a bit to a different medium, it would work just as fine as it works in the interactive medium. Which I love, to be honest. I love it a lot because it shows how an interactive work can be, without even getting close to the ridiculous, translated into another medium; just like a book can be translated into a movie, painting, or even music or dance. Dys4ia is, and I am not trying to exaggerate when I use this word, wonderful, and it will stay in my mind and heart for a long time, no doubt about it. I'm just not sure whether I should call it a diary 'game' or an intimate essay 'game'. There's something truly artistic and very innovative about it. This subtle use of mini-game. This subtle expression of a thought or two in just 10-15 seconds during which an interactor can do something to help him/herself understand the author's point is marvellous and, design-wise, eye-opening. It's inspiring. I think it will soon be regarded as, and I mean it the most positive of ways, another 'The Passage'. Thank you.

[Dino Strike]

Way too easy

Doesn't come as close to retro titles as it should.

[Heart Apart]

Interesting :)

Interesting proposition for Valentine's Day.
The only thing I would do different here is to make the numbers of hearts to combine together equal to the number that has been broken in a level.

[Speed Animation Tutorial]

Great :)

Really great tutorial! Thanks for sharing your knowledge and your time spent on making it.

[SeppuKuties]

Boo

This is a sad, sad little game :/