Pair-a-Site

Pair-a-Site... A bullet hell dating sim. + It was fun to play + Incredibly unique idea(s) + Tricky but not overly difficult, died a couple times but never felt I couldn't do finish it + Unique skill system... at least in the first half + Enjoyed the story, or really the humor of the game + Good length (51 minutes) ~ Not all the humor hit (but none of its cringe-worthy!) - Not a fan of the art - Relatively low quality presentation, even compared to other DigiPen Institute-published releases - Unique skill system ideas become redundant in the second half Despite some negs, this was great. Unique, fun. I hope Mr. Strait keeps making games.

"Pair-a-Site" is a student project from Digipen, and unfortunately this year the students failed... this is a garbage minimalist shooter with a "dating game" wrapper around it, neither of which are worthy of anyone's time. We must question what value it has for gamers when academies like Digipen publish every single homework assignment their students do... this is, as always, what happens when businesses put gamers last and themselves first. This game features very lacklustre minimalist "art" for graphics instead of anything remotely contemporary. I'm sure the "developer" thought this would come across as "artistic", but it doesn't, it comes across as "really lazy" and looks bad as a result of their lack of interest in doing their job properly. Developers must try to understand that gaming is a visual medium, and gamers spend a lot of money on high end gaming rigs for a reason. And that reason is not so they can look at lazy, phoned-in half efforts like this. You're forced to sign a highly questionable yet legally unenforceable End User License Agreement... for such a relatively low effort, low quality product, this comes across more as a delusion of grandeur than anything else. This agreement includes questionable requirements that may attempt to revoke consumer law protections that gamers expect to have, which is also highly problematic. Developers must learn they are here to serve gamers, not control them. I had my cat walk over the keyboard while the EULA was displaying, which fixed that problem for me. Not every "free" game really is. There's often MTX, or content locked behind DLC, or donations being requested, or any other number of things that could mislead gamers, but in this case I'm glad to say this really does appear to be a fully free game. Nothing demonstrates a developers belief in themselves and their work than giving it away without any remuneration. This is a service to themselves, and the gaming industry, and should be applauded. Of course, just because something is free, doesn't necessarily mean it's valuable. Even though this is "free", it failed to appeal to the 120 million+ gamers on Steam. SteamDB showed the game peaked at only 11 concurrent players... this is a dismal public reception. This was so bad they couldn't even give it away. Bearing in mind that free games don't add +1 to your game collector count, should you bother adding this to your library and downloading it? Not this time. This isn't worth downloading. While this won't cost you any money, you get what you pay for, and sometimes, even when the game is free, it's still not enough.

Unironically one of the most enjoyable games I've played in a while. Plus its free, so yeah. Free.

Gameplay and Puns were Spot-On, had me laughing out numerous times. Keep it up, Elliott!

This game taught me that with the power of love and a very powerful virus, you can do anything. Accept not neglect your children, I will always neglect them :)

Short an fun. Speedrunning isn't my cup of tea, but I can imagine this being a fun game to attempt.

Just finished the game and the secret ending, and loved it. The writing, the charm, the gameplay. I'm also a game design student, and to see this as someone's university project is really inspiring. If you are the developer reading this, keep up the amazing work! If you're anyone else, check this game out :)

I fell in love with this game. It's a great experience. Good game-play, good personality, and room for a good sequel. I particularly love Pria. If Pria isn't in the sequel, I will personally break into the dev's house and mix up all of their socks so they can't tell their left socks from their right socks. Aaanyway, I recommend this game.