one of the most gorgeous games I ever played, couldn't beat it even with cheats, gave me carpal tunnel
/s
OK serious review for prospective players. As far as I'm aware, Washout Spire the first platform game programmed by June Flower, who has thus far made mostly slower-paced adventure/exploration/interactive games. I haven't played them all but the common thread is some of the most appealing, vibrant pixel art you can find in indie games. So I picked this up based on the art alone, because, just look at it. Each preview image just oozes character. I donated a little too but this kind of art is just priceless.
Side note about the first impression the game, I'm sort of confused from a developer standpoint as to why it can't be made full screen, but the screen size is adjustable and the perma-windowed mode isn't really a big deal. I just don't remember having this happen with other June Flower games that I played, though it's possible I'm remembering incorrectly.
So anyway, onto the gameplay, arguably the most important part of a game in the way it affects player experience. I'm an avid platform gamer and this is one of the most difficult platformers I've ever played. Not necessarily a bad thing; it's clear the creator enjoys tough and precise challenges and that's honestly just a preference. The core gameplay is running, jumping, and wall jumping, brought quickly to extreme heights. The difficulty is on par with the most difficult player-made challenges for games like N++, Super Meat Boy, the Knytt series, VVVVVV, or the ABC-sides of Celeste levels or La-Mulana's Hell Temple (just speaking on experience from games I've personally played, there may be better comparisons out there). Thankfully if you read the Read Me, there's a keystroke cheat to make yourself invincible. This makes the game accessible to anyone who isn't interested in hard-as-nails, high-reflex platforming, allowing for some more relaxed exploration of the game's pretty areas (a.k.a. all of them). I used the cheat for most of the game, after beating levels 0 and 1 and getting stuck on a particularly lengthy segment of level 2 where you bonk your head on disappearing blocks. My message to a general audience about the game who doesn't want to read any further would be, you can easily still enjoy this game and get something out of it even if you aren't good at platforming, due to the game's flexible design.
That's just the overhead view of the difficulty. I'd like to break it down a bit more over the next few paragraphs because there's some interesting design decisions in Washout Spire that contribute to its difficulty, some of which I like and some I don't as much. Firstly, I love the decision to pick any level from the get-go. This is the type of game where players will miss quality content if they get frustrated and don't have a way to skip ahead. The level select feels empowering to the player and harkens back to old-school console games. Secondly as it relates to pacing, the checkpoints are amply placed (I'd be willing to bet money that the testers are partly responsible for this), though there are still a few places where I think the segments could have been further subdivided. Multiple pixel perfect jump segments abound and they're quite taxing on the fingers -- I'd personally implement some kind of hard cap for ultra-precise movements and keep a mental tally when designing hard challenges like this. Most of the levels are what you could call short, but they will take a long time to beat even for seasoned gamers because each individual segment of most levels both A) essentially requires solving a puzzle, usually with trial-and-error and B) is made up of a nontrivial number of technically difficult/high-skill jumping maneuvers.
Probably the most technical-minded critique I have of Washout Spire is that physics are a bit stiff. Jump height is non-variable which is unusual in modern platformers. Secondly, while the player can adjust their horizontal position back and forth mid-air on a normal jump, if they wall-jump, they are met with a backwards resistance, only able to slow their outward momentum but not reverse it. I've actually seen this in a game before -- in La-Mulana -- but it feels a little funny in Washout Spire because it contradicts the feeling of a normal, non-wall jump. I can't really hate this design decision because the levels are constructed very smartly around it, but it's just not the type of physics I personally enjoy enough to keep as the baseline for level design. Each challenge of the game is at the very least, decently tuned to how these physics function, and I found myself thinking June has a knack for platform level design if this is their first serious foray into it. I can't stress enough how the challenges are hard as FUCK but they also sport such variety and cleverness that I can't stay salty about it for long. My "advice" as a game designer, which can be ignored if it's not sought after, would be that a gentle ramp up to high difficulty keeps the player hooked for longer and feeling a bit less distressed. (It could just be that I suck though, heh.)
EDIT: I forgot to mention: I'm of the opinion that the window in which the player can press the jump button on those floating orbs is vastly too small. It feels like a frame perfect jump, a bit excessively demanding on the reflexes.
Side note #2, I liked level 6 a ton, it was a breath of fresh air, fun to explore without worrying about spikes, had an extra high amount of unique art, much of which was funny and eye-grabbing, had FL Studio's Air Chorus, Sans, and a maze that made me think of Worms Armageddon roping courses. Actually a rare example of a classical maze that isn't super annoying because the player is able to jump around like crazy with no penalty, something I think really rounds out the experience after being beat up to hell and back in levels 1-5.
Side note #3, the boss that chases you in I think level 4 scared the bajeezus out of me, which was a delightful surprise. How many unusual things are there to find in this game that come out of nowhere? The incentives for the player to beat challenges and explore are incredibly high, which is such a plus.
Now I want to switch gears real quick and touch on something (other than obviously the art) that kicks ass -- the music and sound design. I have nothing but the utmost respect for creators who do not only the programming and art for their games but the audio too! This is nothing new for June Flower but it's still impressive. The soundtrack is quite extensive and expressive and contains a range of genres and styles including ambient, drum and bass, rock, hard trance, and experimental bits of sound collage. Sound effects for player interactions are well-chosen, matching both individual actions and the atmosphere at large. I especially liked the ASMR-like wall sliding sound. Though I wondered why there was no death sound. Maybe it would happen too much ;)
Of course I should talk about the story too, but writing is my weak suit and I didn't even see everything so I won't spend much time on the details. The cutscenes in Washout Spire are maybe the most visually attractive part of the game and their atmosphere is extremely compelling. They serve to string together the wildly different areas of the game and tell a story of a wanderer in a dream-like world, meeting new companions who help give a sense of belonging and explain tidbits about the mysterious and threatening surroundings. There is a depressive mood in these scenes that meshes perfectly with the masochistic gameplay. I can't say I understand the plot as a whole but it's mostly because I couldn't make it to the end of over half the levels even with cheats on, so again I didn't see a lot of it, something I regret a bit but I don't have enough skill and/or patience. My overall impression though is that June is just having fun with broad strokes of world building and character design and the writing thematically all feels cohesive, plus the prose is quite nice. I can tell there's more fascinating worlds to discover by this creator.
I think I'm out of steam here though maybe I'll edit something in or comment again if I remember something else I wanted to talk about. There's so much going on in Washout Spire that I had to make this wall of text; it was just fun to play and analyze from multiple angles. I wouldn't mind being a tester or being otherwise involved in a future project by June Flower!
(and sorry if this review sounds weird being in third rather than second person, it's just the way I decided to go for some reason! I will talk directly in other comments!)