TIGSource: William and Sly

William and Sly

Derek Yu — Sat, 18 Jul 2009 22:40:00 +0000

William and Sly is a new Flash platform game from Lucas Paakh. In the game you play a fox, and I have to say, the movement in this game is really graceful – it’s a joy to jump around and explore the world (which thankfully contains very large and open areas to play in), and the animation is impeccable. Having played through it in an hour or so without rushing, it feels more like the prelude to something bigger than a full game, but I was impressed by what was there.

"William and Sly" by Cog

Sat, 25 Jul 2009 18:28:01 +0000

William seems too laid back. Maybe its the mushrooms Sly keeps bringing him. Doesn’t seem interested in anything but those rune stones. If he’s some kind of wizard you’d think he’d be able understand Sly’s fox speech or something.

I went back after picking up the secret of flight expecting him to say… something… about it and he just asked about the rune stones. I’m sitting in front of the screen saying… “uh, glowing transparent wings? on a fox? How is this not cool, William? Sigh Always with the rune stones, eh, William?” LOL

Overall, I loved this game. The music, the atmosphere, the gameplay are terrific. The size of the world is pretty extensive, and there do seem to be quite a number of secrets to pick up.

"William and Sly" by Bob

Wed, 22 Jul 2009 21:58:22 +0000

Bleh, I was going to say that it felt like it was leading to something big what with the music and rain in that last comment, but oh well.

"William and Sly" by Bob

Wed, 22 Jul 2009 21:57:11 +0000

A nice way to spend some time.

"William and Sly" by Vanguard

Mon, 20 Jul 2009 21:29:23 +0000

I thought the animation was really beautiful. It doesn’t have a lot of gameplay, but it managed to hold my attention.

I think the reasons people are having problems with the boss are because sometimes his mouth is open and the side he comes from horizontally seems pretty random, so you try to look for a pattern in those things. Basically it gives the player too much information, and they look for a solution that’s more complicated than the truth.

SPOILERS FOR THE BOSS:

He just attacks the top rows twice and then the bottom rows twice. Just alternate after every second pass by and he’ll never touch you.

"William and Sly" by Basilisk

Mon, 20 Jul 2009 18:09:31 +0000

Neat game, though it could have used a bit more varied terrain. The temple pieces showing up near the middle were neat, but then nothing else new showed up.

I like how you can open the map mid-flight so you can nail those hard jumps.

"William and Sly" by dg-studio

Mon, 20 Jul 2009 16:12:06 +0000

playing this game make me relaxed. the scenery is very beautiful.

"William and Sly" by Krux

Mon, 20 Jul 2009 10:17:15 +0000

a hint for the boss, hes does not follow you, he makes always the same. So he is easy as soon as you know that.

"William and Sly" by Carl (Small Cave Games)

Sun, 19 Jul 2009 23:39:42 +0000

Fun animation/graphics and setting. I had framerate issues and yes I gave up on the boss after a bit. No need to make him take up the whole damn screen! ;)

I think the collection aspect went a bit overboard (175 mushrooms?). But I did really like the signposts, secret tunnels, and the “meditation” powerup.

Overall, it’s worth a play I’d say.

"William and Sly" by mots

Sun, 19 Jul 2009 23:08:11 +0000

boss is horrible

"William and Sly" by Dock

Sun, 19 Jul 2009 21:14:02 +0000

I enjoyed the movement and controls, but found myself lost and bored after a while. The environments are pretty repetitive and I found myself doing leaps of faith more often than I’d prefer. There’s definitely a lot of potential in the game otherwise. :)

"William and Sly" by Skofo

Sun, 19 Jul 2009 17:56:20 +0000

Pretty, but that’s about it.

"William and Sly" by moi

Sun, 19 Jul 2009 17:20:16 +0000

That’s a good cure against insomnia.

"William and Sly" by LordRolo

Sun, 19 Jul 2009 17:05:57 +0000

ya the game does have some preety bad gameplay decisions, the end boss is not that hard once to relise that if it goes off the right side of the screen it will come back on the right side of the screen. At which point you stay on the left and that gives you enough tiem to dodge it.

But for anyone who has not played this game it is not a game to relax too mroe a geam that you should play when you are already relaxed and prepared to soak in the atmospher because thats what it really is all about.

fun little game and worth the mark it got on newground IMO. worth playing and had fun.

"William and Sly" by Argh

Sun, 19 Jul 2009 16:11:16 +0000

You should be able to get the map after 2 or 3 runestones - sounds like you hit a glitch.

Finding the boss pattern is simple. The boss can’t kill you, as far as I could see, just kill the fairyflies. Just sit still and watch for a moment.

"William and Sly" by Krux

Sun, 19 Jul 2009 11:02:48 +0000

I played this game yesterday, yay I did know it before TIGsource posted it.

"William and Sly" by Rune

Sun, 19 Jul 2009 09:19:23 +0000

Actually, how DO you get the map? I have 12/13 runestones activated but William still doesn’t give the map when I see him. I got 2/3 bridges activated but actually finding the switches and bridges without a map is difficult in this big world.

"William and Sly" by blah

Sun, 19 Jul 2009 08:37:51 +0000

the boss did seem kind of off, definitely not too hard to figure out the pattern, but even when you do it seems a bit “backwards” this game seems like it would have been more suited to a shadow of the collosus style climbing boss

"William and Sly" by Esquar

Sun, 19 Jul 2009 08:28:37 +0000

it’s pretty (dumb)

"William and Sly" by Rune

Sun, 19 Jul 2009 08:16:24 +0000

Love the game! There’s real attention to detail in the graphics and the world is nice to explore with lots of secrets. (I didn’t have framerate problems.) Since the boss can’t hurt you when you have no fireflies anyway, there’s plenty of time to study its pattern before actually engaging in “fight”. I need to play it some more though; it beat it without using the map, and I never figured out what the mentioned bridges are about.

"William and Sly" by Markham

Sun, 19 Jul 2009 07:06:40 +0000

You’d have to admit that it’s a little difficult to look for patterns when you’re constantly scrambling to dodge a boss who’s mouth takes up the entire screen.

"William and Sly" by tmth

Sun, 19 Jul 2009 06:27:26 +0000

It was nice, had a little Knytt-like charm to it. It was just fun to run and then jump and make a long fall, then run again. Very good animation. If only backgrounds were more diverse and lively (think strange creatures in knytt just standing there, munching on a tree). I’d rather there were no in-game text, too, especially in the form of a “there is a secret passage right here” sign.

"William and Sly" by !CE-9

Sun, 19 Jul 2009 06:09:41 +0000

it is a neat game. I didn’t encounter framerate problems (…much; there was a bit of tearing). the visuals are gorgeous, the boss mechanic was good enough, I loved the original(ish) take on losing progress avoiding the life / health / energy ‘cliche’. more enemies and action would be welcome, though.

"William and Sly" by Fail

Sun, 19 Jul 2009 05:25:51 +0000

Wonderful.

"William and Sly" by Captain Beefheart

Sun, 19 Jul 2009 05:21:11 +0000

Not much to comment on, really. Wasn’t horrible, but pretty dull.

"William and Sly" by Camkitsune

Sun, 19 Jul 2009 04:38:55 +0000

The boss has a pattern; considering that there are three levels it appears on and a very obvious way to tell which ones it WON’T be attacking…
Of course, the only real motivations for playing and beating the game are for the achievements… The lack of a narrative really brings things down; the only motivation to keep playing is to collect stuff and explore the world. The problem with the latter is that while the characters are very pretty and fluidly animated, the backgrounds and world get repetitive towards the end. On the other hand for a flash game, an hour’s worth of play is a good indication of success, given the limitations of the medium. It took me about 45 minutes and I was only semi-OCD on collecting stuff. Just don’t expect a AAA title without a more complex set of game mechanics.