I decided to play The Cork recently. I did not realize that it was built with Godot and really liked the art style, and the game experience can be quite fun. You also get to run around with a huge sword and take down your foes with style.
The demo and the graphics on the itch site had me curious about this game. There was even a Kickstarter that was meant to help get the game completed. This game is also a rare find because it is not built in the traditional game engines of late. It was built with Godot, an up and coming game engine gaining more traction in the game development world. This game is still in alpha, but the base premise has you searching for items and traversing dangerous lands to get into a castle. The graphics are pixel-based with a premise on timing your attacks and watching your health. With saving points and items to gather to improve your odds of success. The audio is not bad either and will keep you engage as you attempt your run through and trying to improve your skills at dodging and blocking against your foes. Many of the enemies have a range of mechanics from straight melee to projectiles. Some even dual wield items and make it harder to fine-tune your hits to prevent being cut up in between. Some items could use improvement, but it is an alpha, and believe it just needs polish just like any game in its early days. There is a lot of traction around this game, and many people have positive things to say about it. It is at least worth a look and determine if this game is a fit for you.
It can be hard to convey your vision when you are working with just a few pixels. But this game does a good job getting the player going. I think this game has a lot of potential, and a few things that I hope will be improved in the future. Keep reading, and if you have played this game or will play it, what is your initial feeling of the game?
Experience
Being thrown right into the game was nice. I did not get a long intro to why I am here. But this is a demo and really to show off the mechanics and objective of the game. The gritty, dark world where everyone is out to get you is an ominous experience. Starting with learning how to block and dodge projectiles has you figuring out the optimal way of not getting hit, so you take down your foes. Eventually, you get a big bladed weapon that allows you to take down your foes in one shot as long as you are lucky enough not to let them get a hit on you and take you down after battling a few in a row.
This game does a lot of the right things. Give the player a badass weapon, make them feel awesome, and explore and stumble upon new environments and experiences. Something I wish that were improved, however, is the health and battle mechanic. Everything is very transactional. If you hit, they hit. So you block then hit. The dynamics of understanding what will happen next is predictable. More than if you were hit a few times and you end up dying because of getting more than one enemy on you will cause you to restart from the beginning again. I have had to restart so many times that it had me annoyed, and the only chance to heal was a water fountain that felt like a marathon to get to originally.
Mechanics
The dodge and block mechanic is extremely important to master in this game. You can run-up to the enemy, dodge behind him and take him out. It is all about timing in this game. Look at the enemy and determine what the next move is. Starting out being weaker or at least equally matched to your foes and then getting a big sword that you can hold down the attack button and take them out is great. But if you time it wrong, they will take down your health pretty quickly, and you will lose the game quicker. I think a lot is going for this game, and this game will undoubtedly be great when it is fully released. There are many things that I do enjoy about this game that has been done well. The saving of restoring health and helping to keep your progress is nice.
There are only a few controls. The game does tell you how to do various abilities. The Dodge, block, and attack. There are no instructions when you do find your sword and a map. I was confused for a while on how to use the inventory. I ended up having to press every key to figure out how in the world it works. I was also confused, for when I died, I ended back at the beginning even though I hit the save point. I think its a bug or if I was just unable to continue and you have to restart. Never let your players feel annoyed with losing progress unless that is what your niche is about. Then it has to be fun to get back to that progress point; otherwise, players will burn out and leave before you show them what you are building them up to.
Graphics
The game was built in Godot and used pixel-based graphics. There is no focus on the details of the characters, but I understand what it was telling me about the player and enemies. I actually really enjoyed this game’s art style. The blocky pixels and the ominous background having you discover more about this world and what foes try to stop you. The weapons in-game are extremely large to convey their meaning. It is hard to make a couple of square pixels mean anything, so it is great to show off large swords like in Final Fantasy. Also, who does not want to be swinging large weapons while taking down your foes?
The environment graphics are on-point. It feels gritty but not post-apocalyptic. I could tell there were a lot of stories to be seen just by taking at each level. You are getting closer and closer to your destination, starting on your search with enemies trying to stop you. It is raining, it is dark, and you have pressed forward against insurmountable odds. A great game does need amazing realistic graphics. It only needs to have you feel immersed in its world. It can actually be harder to accomplish the more and more it tries to use realistic graphics. The uncanny valley can take out of the immersion extremely quickly.
The Kickstarter
In June 2020, the developers at Parlor Interactive attempted to increase their chance for success by starting a Kickstarter. They priced their needs at $50k and wanted to bring the game to the switch. Unline other engines like Unreal and Unity, Godot does not have a simple make a build for the Switch and requires someone to port the game to switch. It sounds like a big portion of this cost was to help pay another studio to port the game. After raising over $10k, the Kickstarter ended up not succeeding. It can be hard to release a game when you want to complete and polish it, and the rest of the world does not understand why it would cost so much. Hopefully, we can continue to show what it takes to make these games and create support for those looking to put their games in the hands of gamers worldwide.
Even though the Kickstarter failed, the team is not deterred from reaching their goals. It will just take longer than originally planned. These developers work in their free time after the day job or while their kids are asleep in order to make these experiences for the rest of us. They do not have a blank check for hiring artists and composers and usually have to save or even help out other games and teams in order to have special art and sound made for their game. I am sure when the game does get released, it will be a great game for all of us to enjoy.
Thank You
These developers work hard, and the least we can do is give our feedback. Telling the developer what could use some polish or a mechanic that feels wrong helps make a game succeed. Remember that when you work on something for a long time, it gets harder and harder to see the problems. Let’s go and support the developers and give our feedback constructively. Check out The Cork on itch.io today, and support these developers to make their vision come true.
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