Essence of Imagination

[Syos Spaniel]

Dark beings seek to rob people of their imaginations. Solve puzzles and stop them.

Unfortunately, I couldn't upload any screenshots. However, you can find them, along with a more detailed description of the game, on the game's itch.io page.

https://imagifox.itch.io/essence-of-imagination

[arj0n]

In stead of uploading you can link (some of) the pictures that are on your itch game page.

[heltenjon]

I've played this a bit now. I thought it would be a quick playthrough, but no. The game is an odd mix of children-friendly fantasy about keeping imagination alive and minigames like memory, riddles, wordscramble or unscramble the poem. There are sequences of pont and click in between this, including a segment where you play as a kitsune who needs to help other animals. (My favourite part of the game so far.) The game is quite long. It may look like it was intended to end earlier, but then has had new missions added to it.

The graphics and poems are simple, but I think it's nice that the author is sticking to his vision and have finished this long-time project. Congratulations on the release!

Oh, and I've opened a help thread, as I'm stuck on a button pushing puzzle. 

[Stupot]

Interesting concept. Congratulations on your first (I think) release.

[Shadow1000]

I finished playing today. My comments are pretty much in line with heltenjon. The game starts out appearing as a simple game with a unique story but as it unfolds, you realize that this is a LONG game! The variety of puzzles ranges from typical inventory based puzzles to word games, riddles, memory, logic and much more.

My personal advice would have been to spend more development time on polishing up the graphics and less on creating a game of such length.

I do have another comment, but I want to first confirm: the story and many of the puzzles seem to be geared for children (perhaps older elementary school age) rather than adults, is this correct?

[Syos Spaniel]

Thank you all for your encouragement, comments, and advice!

This is indeed my first released game.

I hope Essence of Imagination is a game that children who are old enough to read well can play. Though I am an adult, I enjoy children's media. The game could be categorized as a game for older children, though I hope adults enjoy it, too.

[Shadow1000]

. The game could be categorized as a game for older children, though I hope adults enjoy it, too.

Ok that's what I thought.

I have to take issue with the use of a computer game to evangelize children. I am very much in favour of freedom of religion, freedom of expression, sharing of ideas and so on. Had the game not been aimed for children, I wouldn't care if there are messages promoting a specific religion inserted in the game with no connection to the story or gameplay, solely for the purpose of promoting the religion. However, I feel that it's wrong to approach children in a playground and hand them religious material and tell them how they need to share your beliefs to be saved, regardless of what faith you are. A Sunday school church setting or with the parents' consent is one thing, but using a computer game to toss that message in gratuitously is inappropriate. If you do remake the game, I would remove those segments.

[heltenjon]

After finishing the game, my feelings are mixed. I agree that perhaps the game is a bit too long. It could have been divided into chapters to make it more managable for the players. I fear that some players will quit before reaching the Kitsune stage, for instance.

I also guess that the mix of minigames will put off some players and perhaps attract others. This forum is foremost point and click lovers, and maybe not so many word scramble fans.

On the technical side, I think the game would benefit from having the items appear all the same size in the inventory. The coal and the friendship token are so small that I had problems finding them on the inventory screen.

Some of the descriptions are actually well thought out and would look good if animated. I guess that is why you asked for help a couple of years back.

I don't have a problem with a game being religious in nature. If that's the contract with the player, then okay, this is the game. However, in this game, the Bible appears in the background and gives several screens of text when examined with a very clear missionary message. I don't feel this is integrated in the game in any way - none of the characters speak about their beliefs or their religious value system, so i felt this was a bit out of place. That you get long texts when you examine something isn't limited to this scene, however. On the final stages I would rather try every coloured ball than examining them to find out which was the right one to use, because examining them triggered an entire animal poem which the player had to click through line for line.  Here I think you either could make viewing the poem optional or show it all at once.

The game is varied with puzzles ranging from ridiculously easy to very challenging. Some of the puzzles are quite good, others didn't appeal to this player. I'm sure you have learnt a lot about game making in the process. But make your next game a bit shorter.