Gyro

Incredibly satisfying puzzle game with amazing music that’s gorgeous to look at. One of those games where you’ll eventually get stuck but then it clicks and you’re able to move on while feeling good about yourself. Impressive work by a solo dev!

I found this game by way of the interview the developer did with Scott Johnson on the Core podcast. I have been playing on my steam machine and it performs well there. The ball controls are phenomenal. It just feels right. I beat level one in just over an hour. I feel like the difficulty ramp has been fair. I will add to my review once I finish the game, but a huge thumbs up, I am loving it so far.

Really fun to control Gyro, the feel and momentum of it is just satisfying to move around and the puzzles are fun to figure out. Music is also very rad!

Will be playing more this weekend and update my review then, I've only got like 18 minutes invested so far. But I heard about this game on your Core interview and it sounded fun. So far, YES, pretty dang entertaining. Any negatives I might mention in this review are not meant to reflect on the overall enjoyability of the game, just my observations that the dev can take or leave. This project represents ten years of your life, and I've experienced 18 minutes of it. At first I found the environment a little frustrating, as it's a little more difficult than I'm used to to identify where you are in relation to platforms above or below you, and some of the steps up are a bit tricky to see before you get to them. But, if you think of yourself as a space Roomba (which you basically are), it kinda makes sense that you need to be up against something to be sure what it is, if you can climb it, if you need to find a ramp or get a running start. The movement is very satisfying once you get the feeling for it, the controls simple enough to figure out without a tutorial, and the levels are built in such a way that you learn as you play what each piece of the puzzle does and how to use it. That said, I do think a tutorial, even just a basic explanation of how the movement works, would be helpful. While I mentioned above that the environment is confusing to navigate at first, it's very aesthetically pleasing. It never feels boring to look at, and once you get used to the little clues (light reflecting, a bit of distortion when you're looking through glass) it becomes surprisingly intuitive. ONCE you realize what you need to look for. Anyway, like I said, I'll be playing more when I have free time this weekend. My current opinion is that this is plenty worth the $10 price tag, and I can see myself getting really invested into progressing through the various puzzles. I'd say I'd recommend it to people, for sure.

So far I've played the game for about 1 hour. It has cool music, which is nice for whenever you're stuck on a level. Some rooms are super easy, some are trickier. I used a xbox controller and also the wasd keys, both work well. I enjoyed it and my kids want to try it too. I could see them getting frustrated if they can't solve a room so if the main menu had a hint button, that could help. For example, a hint for the boss: "It has 6 eyes". Overall, good game for a good price!

This is a fun, atmospheric, challenging, and addicting experience. It takes a bit to get used to the mechanics and movement, but as you catch on it all makes sense. If you ever played Marble Madness, you might have a head start since the weight and momentum of the ball is very similar, and you in fact need to use that speed to your advantage at times. New tools are slowly added as you level up, and the rooms get to be really fun as you have to use a combination of abilities to solve the puzzles. Full disclosure: I worked on the music for the game.