Alright. [i]Back to Home[/i] is a game I played right around its release and curated it back then, but I didn't actually write a full review until now. Mostly because, much like another reviewer who posted a review today, I was chewing on just how critical I should be when dealing with a game made by an alleged child developer. But, given the experience while playing this shared by a mutual friend of the aforementioned other reviewer and myself, I thought it time to remedy my not having reviewed it. Plus, I also do want to talk about how misleading it is to claim the game was made by a 14 year old developer anyway.
My experience with the game was that while cute and all, it had no sort of quality control, be it early access or simply being playtested by more than a couple people. And that shows almost immediately, and regularly. For one, if you explore, which the game kind of encourages you to do, it is possible to go out of bounds, so to speak. When you do so, it disables the normal controls and you basically just slowly float around. You can move the cat, but for some reason, the controls all invert during those moments, and of course, as mentioned, all you can do is slowly float and hope to get out of these areas. Which include the deer pen and many many of the boulders. Although it is also possible to get stuck on cracks while trying to get off a boulder, which requires a restart, which sends you back to the beginning, lol. I also fell through the world when I entered the lake behind one of the cabins in the first area, which I assume should not be happening.
Additionally, many of the assets on the perimeter of the game aren't placed properly. As a result, the cameras will often get stuck in the cliffs and such. Or you will walk into the rock face for a few feet. Things like that. There is a puzzle wherein you eventually trigger the appearance of an apparition. For me, that puzzle was broken. Once I tried leaving the area, it booted me back to the beginning of the game.
Beyond all the bugs, many of which I'm probably forgetting, the actual logic behind some of these puzzles seems kind of broken. Requiring you to go back and turn off lights you no longer need because the game only recognizes three total lights being on at any moment, for example.
The controls in general are also wonky, and your cat, especially when jumping, just feels awkward to control, and there is some weird slow down when jumping to where it seems more like you are floating through the air.
The game does look nice overall, and the addition of music was solid.
What really should have happened is this game from a first time developer who markets themselves on the product page as a "14 year old" should have been released as a free to play title. I don't see much in the way of the kid fixing any of the few already reported issues and I can't imagine he wasn't aware of them before deciding to release the game. Especially since according to the developer, the game was in development for four years. Which is in and of itself hard to imagine given the simplicity of the game.
I also want to talk about this claim of being 14 years old. I am confident that five or even ten years from now, the description on the product page will remain unchanged. And when a person looks at the page and are considering buying this game, they're going to think they're supporting a kid developer no matter how long the game has actually been on Steam.
Whether or not it was made by a teen however, once he and his dad decided to charge for the game, they lost any ability to hang their hat on the kid's age if the game does not live up to the sort of standards a paying customer might expect. Which it does not.
Is this a game that shows some promise made by a developer who can use it as a learning experience? Yes. But you learn nothing if people aren't honest about the experience. And I think that is really the crux of this review and this game. As a free to play title, this would have been passable. As a paid title, it is not and should not have been released in the state it was and still is in. My advice to the dev would be to make it free to play, which will encourage more people to try it out, and then actually be active and communicative as you receive both positive and negative feedback from people trying it out. Take all that and allow it to shape future endeavors.
[b]This game came across my desk via my Robilar's Reviews curator program.[/b]
[code]If you found this review helpful and would be interested in supporting my Curator group, [url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/32549618/]Robilar's Reviews[/url], it would be appreciated. Cheers.[/code]
Explore the different worlds and find every secret in every one of them. Relax and enjoy the beautiful nature, while you progress the game. There are different types of worlds, for example there is a night world, a forest world and a desert type world.
While on your journey, you will find a lot of small stones structures, witch will tell you something about the past. They all have connection, but they are not at the exact order and it depends only on you to connect it.
Who is the light? What is the light? What is it`s purpose? Why does it show at that time? Is it a friend? You will get an answer for these questions, through your journey.
Is this game for you?