Illegal Communication

By: Tim

On: July 19th, 2006

Illegal Communication

Certain indie game developers enjoy a challenge, for example limiting themselves in terms of development time (e.g. LudumDare) or working with a single theme (Monthly AGS Contest). They are then often critized for attempting incomplete, unplayable or buggy entries.

So it’s not surprising that games like Invisible Vision or Illegal Communication will be ignored by most. And only because they don’t look appealing at all from the screenshots. Style don’t get you points like they used to, back when the early video game consoles were popular.

This particular experiment from cactus is a love hate relationship, as evident from the following forum topic. I assume that most people will not enjoy playing it as well, which is a shame since the reward will only be revealed near the end. No instructions were provided, leaving you to discover or solve puzzles by trial and error.

Try it for yourself. If you dislike it, then there are always other quality indie games. Though there’s not many like Illegal Communication, that’s for sure. Except for CyberSpace Assault, perhaps.

Proceed with a clean mouse. What else can I say, a brilliant but misunderstood game.

  • Sandcrab

    The problem is pretty clear in that thread–the game is easily misunderstood. Its puzzles are often extremely vague and could definitly be made a clearer, though I don’t know how much hand-holding would be too much. I really liked the game (thanks to occasionally resorting to the walkthru), but I (and a few others) realize that it has some issues. It’s not a deal breaker, but with a few changes here and there everyone could think it was “brilliant.”

  • Albert Lai

    It’s fairly well-done, but the save-points don’t carry over, and I really wish I could use keyboard controls instead of mouse.

  • Brian

    I was really enjoying it until I ran into a bug that got me stuck in a wall with no way to die, so I had to start all over after playing half an hour… I didn’t find it confusing at all, though, except that I never did find out what the alignment thing at the beginning does. I’m not sure why people are saying it’s too confusing.

  • Brian

    lol, ok I get what the alignment thing is now. :)

  • Brian

    OK, now that I’ve beaten it: I loved it. Very cool game, awesome boss, though I’m not sure I get the full meaning of the ending beyond that it’s a commentary on free speech. I have no idea why people found the gameplay so confusing, I thought it was very straightforward to beat. But damn, I wish it would remember your saved game.

  • failrate

    Not a keyboard. This game needs a trackball :D

    I thought the puzzles were excellently designed. They required some thought, but nothing unbeatable. They made me think, but it was one of the few puzzle games in a long time where I didn’t have to Google for a walkthrough.

    The only problem I had with it is that I couldn’t figure out any way to finish the game without beating the end boss. I even tried looking for a way to “rescue” the boss.

  • scissors

    Ugh. I really like the concept here, but the execution is really grating on me. I’m giving up because I just encountered a bug where I get stuck in the wall and have to start the entire game over for the SECOND time, and the beginning of the game is so tedious that I don’t know if I can deal with going through it a 40th time.

  • Teeth

    Because you can’t, you won’t and you don’t stop.

  • http://scnclr.de scnclr

    I really like that kind of games, because it makes you think more into the idea and the concept of the game itself, instead of layering tons of colors and sounds. So, thumbs up.

  • Dracko

    Bizarre ending.

  • Tim W.

    Just wanted to say congratulations to Andrew. :)

  • MedO

    Reminds me of the games I used to play on the C64. I often had no instructions as well, and had to figure everything out myself. Maybe it’s because of this that I don’t find the game confusing at all. You have to play around a bit, but most things become obvious pretty fast.

  • Moschops

    I don’t really think the lack of instructions is the issue here, the problem is that it challenges basic assumptions to make about a gameworld before even really starting.

    The first of these is that things that you can interact with are clearly visible. In the very first room there’s a seemingly inaccessible pickup until by luck you fly into the right place and the ‘door’ opens.

    The second are the controls, I know that really after looking at screen shots only more hardened gamers are going to play it, but the control system is brutal. Accessibility starts with the controls. I almost gave up after the third screen. Fortunately I was feeling patient today and was rewarded at the end.

    Nice style, nice statement, just poor execution on the gameplay side :(

  • MedO

    “In the very first room there’s a seemingly inaccessible pickup until by luck you fly into the right place and the ‘door’ opens.”

    There are hints. In the second room, there is an obstacle in front of a seemingly useless space. You will probably try to get through anyway, and see the wall on the other end open as you approach. This gives a hint that there might be other walls like this. Going back afterwards, you see the “inaccessible pickup” again and figure there might be a hidden entrance in the same way. Quite straightforward puzzle I thought, it’s not as if it’s hard to find once you got the idea.

    I want more games like this :-)

  • Tim W.

    This reminds me of Killer 7.

  • Moschops

    Killer 7 went to great pains to tell you how things work, you just had to put up with reading through the pages and pages of help text you get from the gimp. I wouldn’t blame anyone for not wanting to read that overflow of information.

    The game this most reminds me of in terms of dumping you in the game and letting you figure it out is that old classic, Exile. I never did figure that out. :(

  • DanDanger

    This game is fantastic, i simply love it to bits.

    I love having to figure everything out for myself, so many games take you by the the hand and lead you through, you really have to try things out on your own with this one.

    I is a truly original game, and that alone makes it worthy of some of your time to play it.

    With is haunting music and surreal visuals it creates an ambience all of its own when you play it, it really sucks you into itself.

    Me loves it!

  • squidlarkin

    I played it through, was glad I did, but hated the implementation of the control. Thing is, I’ve actually written games with that sort of control and could theoretically help cactus improve it. But the Game Maker forums won’t let me contact me. This is silly, but can someone tell him to email me?

  • squidlarkin

    Contact *him*. durr.

  • Teeth

    I’m sure he could refine the control if that’s what he wanted.

    Exile was an awesome game and had that special exploration/loneliness thing that so many good games have. And really smart puzzles as well.

  • Tim W.

    here’s his web site.

    http://www.cactus-soft.co.nr/

    thanks for all the comments. it gives me considerable thought on what to post next. :)

  • Teeth

    OK, I played through it. Very frustrating control, but exercises one’s patience, which is kind of nice. Very short. I didn’t actually find any reward at the end. It was more fun at the start for me.

    I think if the game had been more about finding secret paths and getting upgrades in a big old maze it would have been better for me.

  • cactus

    It’s such a nice feeling when you google your game and find it posted on sites you aren’t very familiar with. I really like to see that some people enjoy the game in the way that I had hoped too.

    The game isn’t for everyone, I know. And the controls really requires a good mouse to be barable. But I was looking to make a challenging game that let you think on your own.

    Sorry about the bugs! It’s very hard to fix some of them, since I don’t always know what the cause is, nor can produce them at will to see if they’re still there :P

  • Cube

    I know I’m a bit late, but I have to say, this game is really cool. Problem is, you have to go into it with a certain mindset of “I’m not going to know anything about this game when I play it, so it’ll all be foreign.” When you go in like that, you’re examining everything thoroughly, figuring out what does what by trial and error.

    But I didn’t finish the game. I got sick of it at the breakout ripoff part. That was crappy, and really took me out of the game. Plus it’s boring because it’s like playing Breakout except with shoddy controls. Go figure.

    I had a game this reminded me of, but I can’t remember it now. Oh well.

  • devin

    awww, but your almost finished!

    The only improvement I would like to see is a self destruct button so you can just blow yourself out of the glithy bits without having to start the whole game over. That, and maybe a save right before the breakout bit.

  • kr1sse

    The controls were not frustrating at all. They were perfect, except for one thing; when you right-click, you want the “thing” to stop, not to continue until it stops, but i think i can live with that.

  • cosmy

    i love the game and i beat it

    getting to the point, i like making games and i am curious as to how you kept the mouse in an isolated spot on the screen

    i see that without this, when your mouse hits the edge, the orb thingy would stop.

    i see that the coordinates of the mouse are unchangable in codes

    please tell me im dying to know!

  • cosmy

    oh yea and my email is [email protected]