Day 273 - Polilla
Short and Free, Immersive Sim, Someone Made It For Their Kids Don't Be Mean ·
Sam’s Take:
Did you know the three symbols in the corner of your screen don’t mean/do anything?
It’s got a lot of film grain, it’s got ambient music. It’s called “Moth” (in Spanish) and you fly into the sun. I’m not gettin’ much from this one. Again, put this on the pile of game jam games probably made in a weekend. No hatin’, you got 3d movement, you made the title appear and music change as the player gets closer/further to the sun. I’m betting you learned a new trick at the game jam and hey, you finished something, why not post it. This is one of those weird ones where it is just someone making something and posting it in a database of games, and then I come in at complete random, find it, and try to pointlessly break it down.
Did I get anything out of this, not really, other than making me think about when something should and shouldn’t be criticised. Before this project I would have said constructive criticism always has a place, but like… what could I say here? I didn’t feel anything when I flew into the sun? You should have added more guns? It’s a game where you press forward until you hit the sun and that’s it man! I have nothing to add, this game is almost nothing, but that’s fine. There was never a promise of more. What the fuck are we doing here?
Of course I don’t recommend the game where you press forward until you hit the sun! Why would I? I can not explain how it makes sense to make this game, how it makes sense that there’s nothing there, and how it makes sense to post it anyway, maybe that’s the underlying moral of this whole review series. You can just make shit, and maybe posting it is good just to get through the wall of being scared to share your stuff. Even if no one has anything to say about and if no one sees it, the fact that it’s public counts for something.
Maybe two unqualified fucks will try to fit your homemade 30 second game jam fluff into a proper review format and it won’t work. Maybe there’s a lesson there?
Here’s to a basically non-existent review that almost no one will read of a basically non-existent game that almost no one will play. Game recognize game, as the kids say.
Recommend: No
Replay Percentage Chance: 0%
Time Played: 1 Minute
Skeeter’s Take:
Sam and I went on a deep dive investigation for Polilla. Well, as deep as a few minutes of research and using Google translate to magically turn entire paragraphs of Spanish to English will allow.
I had a theory based on one comment left on the itch.io page for Polilla:
“Nice cover art”. After finishing the game and having to Google what “Polilla” was (more on that later), I scrolled down to see if anyone else was as confused as I was. Three comments. One in english. The other two were clearly comments of praise:
But “Nice cover art” stuck with me. It would make sense if this was an introduction to a game. Perhaps the game jam theme is “An Intro Screen for a Game”. It seemed like this game would be the perfect submission for a game jam with that theme
So, Sam and I went diving through the game jam submission page to see if we could find a theme. The submission page was also in Spanish, so we once again were translating most of it through google. We found information about the deadline, where to submit, and even information about sending a game trailer. We still hadn’t figured out the theme, despite our efforts. So, it was on to the other clues.
(As I’m writing this, Sam figured out the theme by combing live streams and consulting his inside source “redwallmlg420”- I’m sure he will fill you in, or he might not, it’s not really important).
Unfortunately, the game trailer had to be in .mp4 or .avi format, so this would not qualify. Upon examining the deadline, we found that the submissions were due on Sunday, and Polilla was submitted two days ago. The evidence was stacking up. I didn’t want to realize what I already knew. This was the game. This wasn’t an intro, this was A to B the complete experience. I’m not trying to be mean, I’m glad this was created and submitted and I understand it’s a game jam game. But, I was so convinced this was a submission for an “Intro to a Game” themed game jam that Sam and I spent 10 minutes translating game jam submission webpages to see if we could confirm that theme. It all comes down to personal taste in the end. For me, this would be a banger introduction to a game. As the entire experience itself - time taken into consideration, I don’t mind that it was that short - there’s just not a lot here that grabs onto me. I don’t know, I think I’m overanalyzing my feelings on minute long Game Jam submission. It doesn’t always feel good to review personal projects. With AAA Games there’s more of a barrier between the faces of the employees - mainly the barrier being the publisher or the studio. “Rockstar added Horse Balls Physics”, “Bethesda’s game has bugs” “Ubisoft took a shit in my mouth again and I paid for it”. But with small projects like this, I know there’s another person on the other side of the monitor who hopefully never stumbles upon this website. I know I’ve said it before, but it bears repeating now(…. FELL IN LOVE WITH A GIIIIRRLLL) - I love that these people are out here creating and trying to learn. I don’t want to be the reason someone quits. If any dev out there is reading this and I’ve made fun of your game, just remember I’m a fucking idiot on the internet and you absolutely shouldn’t listen to me. I think I feel very similar to Sam, I’m just not as good as expressing it. I’m just here to give my opinion, which is worth rotten onions. All the same, it never feels good when clearly someone has worked hard to make something, and my opinion on it is “I just kind of didn’t like it” - sorry Polilla.
I could possibly see what Polilla is trying to do here. There’s a loose overarching theme of a moth being drawn to a flame. Perhaps, since the Sun is the “flame” and the player the “moth”, it could be a larger commentary about human nature driving us to our own demise. Mankind has made it to space, but how long until we push ourselves too far and stare at the Sun. Are we not just like the moths we mock, that we hang up lights to attract and ultimately vaporize? At the end of the day, we all return to dust, to the soil, to the cycle - human and moth alike.
I could maybe stretch the limits of my belief to that point if it wasn’t for one major issue. I had to search the web to find out what “Polilla” was. The first link I clicked took me to Spanish Wikipedia for “Polilla”. Since it was all in Spanish, I had Firefox translate the webpage for me.
I could buy the “moth to the flame” metaphor, except, it turns out “Polilla” doesn’t mean “moth”…
It clearly means Chicken:
Recommend: nice cover art
Replay Percentage Chance: 0%
Time Played: 1 minute + 2 minutes waiting to see if anything came after the “Polilla” text
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