Splodey: A Platformer Without A Jump Button

This series of articles covers my brief time at the Guerilla Collective showcase during Summer Game Fest. It’s hard to believe that I was only there for maybe two hours but still managed to find cool indie games to write about two weeks later. If you want to check out the full livestream, you can watch that here, and if you want to read about some other great indie games that caught my eye, click here and look for the images with a green circle like this one. Only a few more left after this one! Then I’ll still be writing about cool indie games, just not necessarily from this event.

Splodey is a unique platformer from developer Send It Studios and publisher Mad Mushroom. The elevator pitch is “a platformer with no jump button,” which feels counterintuitive, but is a genius way to create a difficult game. Yes, Splodey does not have a button that makes the character jump, instead, the player chooses a direction and tosses an exploding potion that can launch the character in the opposite direction. The main character of Splodey is a hopeful alchemist who can only make potions that explode, so why not use them?

At the Guerilla Collective in-person showcase during Summer Game Fest, I stopped by the Splodey booth and learned a lot from the developer. In the demo I’ve tried since returning home I haven’t noticed it, but during the event, the screen had a death counter. When I first saw it, it had already reached over seven hundred. One of my first questions was whether it would reach over nine hundred and ninety-nine or could only count three digits. “We’ll find out together,” said the developer. Throughout the evening I would walk past Splodey and check the number. I never saw it reach over nine hundred while I was there, but it got close. If anyone kept track of that I would love an update.

I didn’t get to try the demo at the event, so Send It Studios and Mad Mushroom were kind enough to send over a demo for me to try once I got home. This demo is no longer available on Steam, but the full game is already out, so if this looks great you can try it out and support some indie developers while you’re at it! As far as I know, this is the only game from the showcase that is already out.

Splodey is not forgiving. To put that in finite terms, my character died one hundred and seventeen times in just under an hour. This could easily get frustrating and disheartening to start a level over so often, but it also made the eventual successes much more satisfying. The level designs and mechanics of this game are incredibly creative and well-executed. They slowly build off each other through each level with minimal hints and tutorials to slow you down. This starts simple enough. Jump across a gap, break through a wall to reach the other side. Then it starts to get more complex. One explosion doesn’t launch you high enough to reach the next platform, so you need to explode once into the air and then explode again on the wall to launch further. Eventually, the entire level is destructible, so each explosion quickly limits your options.

I’m excited to play more of Splodey, even though I’m sure a few levels will frustrate me. Just remember that in gaming it’s good to take breaks. Check out Splodey on Steam now and let me know in the comments if this game looks interesting to you. I’d be happy to work on a full review. I’ll let you know when I get around to it.