Vindefiant

Please don’t take this the wrong way — what you’ve made here (and probably by yourself) is genuinely impressive, and I truly wish I had the skills to do something like this. Throwing helpless humans around and playing the role of an evil angry badass is fun — but for me, that alone wasn’t enough to keep me engaged. This game feels heavily inspired by Carrion and Celeste — especially the character voices, which immediately took me out of the experience and reminded me a bit too much of Celeste instead of immersing me in your world. Gameplay-wise, the mechanics and physics still need some refining. The level design also feels incomplete in parts — some areas look more like rough mockups and quite empty or unnecessary. For instance, if going down from one screen means instant death, please give the player some kind of visual cue or block the path with a collider or wall. There were also sections where I had to guess where to throw the tentacles, which felt frustrating rather than challenging. The character's hitbox also seems a bit too punishing — if the character’s hair so much as brushes against spikes, it’s game over. A bit more room for error would really help make the experience smoother and more enjoyable. As for the story, I couldn’t really connect with it. The idea that the character grows tentacles out of sheer rage and goes on a bloody revenge spree after getting fired felt a bit too random for me (and I say this as a grown man who's had his fair share of layoffs). To be fair, maybe there's more context later on that I didn’t reach — but sadly, I don’t plan to find out. It’s unfortunate, because I first discovered this game on social media and was genuinely excited to try it. I think I got pretty far (made it back to the destroyed city after the girl call to Alyx), but at that point the lack of clear art direction and the rough level design choices started to take their toll. Still, I respect the ambition behind this project, and I hope you keep improving it — there’s definitely potential here.

This isn't usually the type of game I like, but I got this game because one of my close friends does and has followed the development from pretty much the start. Vindefiant clearly wears its inspirations on its sleeve, but that's not a bad thing. I've yet to finish the last two levels (skill issue) but so far, I've enjoyed playing it a lot. There's a couple of points about this game that I think could be useful for people to know before they play: - While this game clearly takes inspiration from Carrion, it very much is not the same kind of game. Vindefiant is a platformer game with goofy tendril violence. The platforming is challenging, because that is the game. It's not impossibly difficult, but certainly requires skill (or patience, if you're like me and don't play a lot of platformers). - I see you've read my previous point and went "ah, i just want to rip apart enemies without worrying about any of that other stuff, i'll turn on the invincibility setting." and I"m telling you "no. Don't." All the invincibility thing does is make bullets not damage you. The environmental hazards still kill you, you still gotta play the game ;) - If you're looking for a super story heavy game, this isn't it. There's a story. It's charming, but it's not the main focus. - There's a bunch of collectable orbs in each level if you care about that kind of completionist business. - If you don't like Celeste, you probably will not like this game. All in all, it's an enjoyable play. Solid 7.

Video(chapter 1-3 and part of 4): https://youtu.be/mx-tjWU35pw I'd like to start by saying the game is pretty cool. Great movement, feels super unique, fun kills, and pretty fun level design. Some of the... puzzles.. Well, those are at times a little unclear which led to frustration. The turret boss room in Chapter 4 is very cool. I made it over about 2 rooms after that and rage quit. Before that though, I had a lot of fun grabbing enemies and tossing them into walls or various things that could be weapons in my tentacles. So, yeah... I think this isn't for me. I do think it's a good game, and I give it a recommendation because the game really is a fun time. But, after the turret boss in the rooms that have the totally not clocks but spinning laser things? Yeah, that level tested my patience and I could feel myself getting frustrated. And then my keys hovered over the Alt F4 buttons, pressed them, and here I am. Cool game though.

Everyone has bad days at work. Alyx is about to have the worst one of all after being fired from his job. Did I say worst? I meant BEST, because his rage manifests as demon tendrils and goes on a rampage through his office building, the town, and anyone and anything else that gets in between him and the CEO that casually threw away his career. You play as Alyx, so you're the villian... ? Anti-hero...? Your new powers let you 'walk' along walls and ceilings, dash through doors and walls, and as long as you have line-of-sight, you can grab items and enemies anywhere on the screen and use them to eliminate the opposition. There are physics at play, so the speed, force and angle you toss things gives you a lot of freedom as to how best to creatively dispatch your enemies. Pros ____ - controls are solid with a dual analog controller - traversal is fun and challenging in later levels - the 'grab' mechanic is an interesting change from standard platforming run and gun - boppin' soundtrack - pixel art, while simple, is beautifully bloody in motion Cons ____ - difficulty spikes in certain paths get frustrating, especially when going after collectibles - sometimes a pain to grab what you want when you need it - locations of checkpoints/respawns are a bit mean in places - THE FINAL BOSS FIGHT. Still not sure how you're supposed to evade some attacks - 'Invicibility' toggle in the options menu is a LIE $15 for a 5-hour long game like this is about perfect. It didn't overstay its welcome and was mostly enjoyable throughout. If you want some catharsis from your daily work grind, check out Vindefiant.

Vindefiant is a great game! I've always loved gore and destruction games similar to carrion and people playground. Ragdoll mechanics are done super well, game is extremely polished in it's mechanics. -It follows interesting story between an employee with murderous intent and his horrible CEO. The pixel art is beautiful with countless designs and environments between levels. -I never was a puzzle person personally, but Vindefiant hides the collectables in really fun ways which led the puzzles to be my second favourite thing about the game. The game has simple yet smooth controls which gives the parkour a fun amount of difficulty. -Every level having completely different mechanics from the last. One level has toilets to flush enemies down and the next, giant lasers, turrets and robot claws. -I would very much recommend checking out the game if you love carrion, people playground, ragdoll games or just fun platformer games. Perfectly balanced in terms of difficulty for me. Definitely a fun time!

I didn't really know what to expect from the game, and was pleasantly surprised by the sudden, gruesome turn. I have had a few bosses and colleagues that I would like to treat like this! I have only recently started playing PC games, so the controls are relatively new to me, however I found these easy to use and was soon wall jumping and grabbing with ease. The difficulty level is gradual, which gives you time to practise different techniques, and I am looking forward to the challenge ahead!!!

As others have noted, this game feels Celeste with a good chunk of Carrion mixed in. It's much easier than Celeste, because you can pseudo-float by pushing yourself off the ground with your tendrils, but there are still platforming challenges to overcome, so it's not trivial. The game is decently fun, but I feel like it isn't quite worth the current asking price of $14.99, which is why I voted "No" in this review. Definitely consider getting it if it goes on sale for like $4.99 or below, though. The story doesn't make much sense. The characters aren't particularly interesting nor relatable nor charming. The writing isn't witty or funny. So definitely don't go into the game for the narrative. The gameplay, and especially the kinesthetic of moving around, is very interesting and the main draw. Unfortunately, the level design is rather lackluster (nowhere near as good as Celeste). A lot of rooms just feel like filler, or random spiked walls that are tedious to navigate through. There is no sense of an authorial intent behind introducing a mechanic, and then exploring all the variations and limits of that mechanic, which is the cornerstone of peak platformer design. The affordances are also not very well communicated. In some rooms, you need to move downwards to trigger a screen transition to the next room (which is below you). In other rooms, touching the bottom of the screen instantly kills you. The first dozen or so metal girders you encounter that are moveable have a handle on them, so you know where to place you tendril to grab hold of them and move them. Then, for no particular reason, the next metal girder has no handle on it. I was actually stuck there for a couple of minutes, not sure how to proceed to the next room, as I assumed that this was one of the many metal girders that was NOT moveable, because it had no handle on it. I had to look up a walkthrough on Youtube to see that in fact, this one particular girder just randomly didn't have a handle on it. Similarly, there was a grey lump that looked like a button. I tried smashing my tentacle against it or smashing my body against it, but the button did not react. "Oh, I guess it's not a button, but just decoration". Turns out the button only activates if you're holding something, i.e. if you gently tap the button while holding a fire hydrant, it'll trigger and the button will activate. There's just lots of affordances like that the game simply does not communicate to the player effectively. So again, the overall package of the game is pretty mediocre, but the specific blend of Celeste + Carrion is novel enough that it's worth studying, especially for budding game designers. Just not at the full price.

Un vIdeo vale más que mil palabras........................ https://youtu.be/XLB5tIslNu4 "Vindefiant" es un juego de acción y aventura en pixel art. Asumimos el rol de Alyx, un exempleado corporativo que, tras ser despedido, adquiere poderes sobrenaturales y emprende una violenta búsqueda de venganza contra su antiguo empleador. El juego ofrece una experiencia de desplazamiento lateral en 2D, donde los jugadores utilizan tentáculos para desplazarse por diversos entornos, como oficinas, calles urbanas y alcantarillas, y para eliminar enemigos de formas creativas y destructivas. El desarrollo de "Vindefiant" está inspirado en las experiencias personales del desarrollador Jordan Blake, quien fue despedido de la industria de los videojuegos AAA

Do note that the Invincibility option is NOT INVINCIBILITY. it is a health increase. all hazards will still one-shot, enemies will still kill you, and lasers still suck.

I really wanted to love this game. As of right now, it's got some good and bad qualities. The Good: Awesome premise. Makes me feel like a Venom-in-a-suit. Also, the music is SUPER CATCHY. Animations are cool in classic pixelated fashion, much like Celeste. The Bad: Boring level design. As cool as utilizing the mouse to control the grabbing symbiotic arms, the execution feels more like a gimmick. The hero is almost invincible (maybe the purpose), but doesn't present any real sense of danger. Also, using the keyboard keys for platforming jumps feels clunky with some of the more precise requirements. Unfortunately, I can't speak for controller support. I would imagine that it would improve movement but make grabbing enemies more difficult. Im sure some will really enjoy this game. But with such a large backlog of games, I can think of other games I'd rather dedicate time towards.