Sullen

⠀

very challenging and fun indie game.

not compatible with atari 2600 stick... am hugely disappointed (the game's fun tho)

10/10

Wow. After several attempts I was eventually able to get a non-zero score. Disappointed to see there's no achievement for that. (Given that I did complete the tutorial I don't think the achievements are working, but I don't think that will affect me much). It's clearly a labour of love with high production values (if you appreciate careful minimalism), but it's apparently aimed at people who think Super Hexagon is for wusses. So I recommend it, but only if you are such a person.

Sullen is an unusual twist (or should I say spin) on the shoot 'em up/bullet hell genre. Ostensibility this is a weak ripoff of the arcade classic Gyruss, and features the same core paradigm, instead of moving across the bottom or side of the screen, you move around the circumference of a circle, and the obstacles and enemies appear within that circular playfield. Where it differs midly from the Gyruss game the developer is ripping off is that there's a lot more bullets to dodge as well as some other obstacles, and you can "jump" over them, lifting you inwards from the circumference momentarily. None of this makes the game better or more interesting than Gyruss. Gyruss but with slightly worse graphics is not what was needed to revive the old, dead shoot 'em up/bullet hell genre. It's not 1980 anymore. One important note is that even though this is an amateur project, it does seem to be sincerely and genuinely made. I couldn't find any flipped assets, plagiarism or any other ki...

I am 32 years old. My ex-wife and I have a daughter together, and we adopted our son together. Both are now 4 years old. When we were going through our separation, I felt lost and unhappy. I was self-destructive. One day, I was so angry with everything spiraling out of control that I punched a concrete wall in a moment of overwhelming emotion. This resulted in breaking my fifth metacarpal in my right hand—the hand I worked with, played games with, and used to carry my children to bed—the hand I desperately needed to ensure I could continue providing. Upon learning the severity of the self-inflicted damage, I became almost suicidal. Keep in mind that just a few months before this, I was the happiest man, with no history of depression or anxiety. I had never experienced anger outbursts, nor was I the type to break down and cry, but I was in a tough situation that truly prevented me from seeing the light on the other side. With nothing better to do, I looked for a game I could pla...

6/10