[PC Game Goku☆Michi] Vol.49: Summer Catchers, an emotional run and jump where a girl who doesn't know summer travels towards summer

Hot...! August is coming to an end, but the heat is so intense that we don't even feel the heat subside. Everyone, please take measures against heat stroke. No. It's about time you leave the venue in the summer, and it won't be a pleasant autumn... I'm thinking. Many people tend to shy away from the heat in summer.

But in the summer there must be a charm, a beauty that can only be found in summer. "PC Game Kiwamichi" introduces the world of PC games that you don't know yet. This time, we would like to introduce the action game "Summer Catchers", which is heading towards summer.

Summer Catchers is a game developed by FaceIT, a venture IT company based in Zaporizhia, Ukraine. FaceIT is basically involved in the development, design, and management of web services and applications for smartphones. The game is not the main company, but it seems that they are making games little by little, and this is the company's second work.

By the way, "Summer Catchers" won an award at a conference held in Belarus in 2014, and has been in development for quite a long time considering the size of the company. It seems that you have been developing little by little during your normal work. Indie games can also take the form of such a side business. I personally think it's great.

A girl who lives in a forest where it's winter all year round has never experienced summer. What kind of season is summer? She really wanted to know about summer.

But the sea, where summer is supposed to be, is far, far away from this forest, and there are even monsters in this winter forest that prevent anyone from leaving the forest. Seeing summer is a dream within a dream.

But girls can't control their feelings either because of their youth or curiosity. And she says to the lumberjack Uncle Wolf.

"Where can I see summer?"

A good-natured uncle gives in and builds a homemade car to support a girl's dream. Thus begins the girl's long, long summer journey.

"Summer Catchers" is an action game that starts with a story called "Summer Catchers", where you take on the role of a girl and drive a car to a distant land, summer. I said "run the car", but it's not a game where you drive a car like a racing game. The car automatically runs to the right, and the player avoids obstacles by performing actions such as jumping and bumpers. It can be said that it is a game called so-called run & jump type.

This is a game that touches the heartstrings of those who play indie games, with a story about driving to the sea where summer is coming, graphics beautifully colored with dot art, and cool BGM by the sound team Geek Pilot.

Just looking at the beautiful dot art scenery with cool BGM in the background is sure to leave you mesmerized.

However, this work has a very different play feel from other run & jump games, and this is the point of choosing people.

Because this work doesn't have the pleasure of raising player skills and avoiding obstacles, which is common in run & jump games. No matter how much you practice, it is designed so that there will be times when you cannot avoid obstacles.

As a feature of this work, actions such as jumping and bumpers that avoid obstacles can only be used from the three items drawn from the bag. Think of actions as cards in a card game. Your bag is your deck, and the three actions you drew are your hand. In other words, if you don't have the action you need now in your hand, you can't avoid obstacles. There will definitely be times when you can't do anything with your player skill.

And this action is even more troublesome, it disappears when you use it. Even if you're lucky enough to keep avoiding obstacles, you'll end up with no action and the game will be over. That's how it's made.

Actions are purchased before the run and start, so it is possible to adjust the number of actions to be purchased and the probability of getting a card. However, money to buy action is not stupid, so I can't buy a lot. So, when you hear about running and dashing to the sea, you imagine that you can run straight from the winter forest to the summer sea as long as you don't make any mistakes. In the first place, this work has a stage break.

There may be many people who think, "It might be different from what I imagined." Actually, at first, I also thought that it was a system that didn't feel exhilarating because the game was over.

But. Actually, this run and dash, which was created on the assumption that the game is over, will come into play later on!

As I wrote earlier, the path the player takes in this work is long, long, and very steep. Of course, it also appears in the story in the game. A tornado can't get through. I can't get out of the valley because I'm being watched by a mysterious eyeball. That's what it feels like.

Of course, the girl will get stuck, but a collaborator will appear saying, "I'll help you get out of here, so help me with my work." In this way, the girl player is asked to complete several missions. To do this, run around the base you arrived at over and over again.

So this mission is tough again. I want you to cut down a tree with a special action mixed in the deck at the right time, or I want you to jump close to a flying bird and collect about 100 feathers. Even though I have only 3 cards in my hand and I'm desperate to avoid obstacles, I have to clear my hand to clear the mission. It would be strange not to fail with this. Players will continue to get game overs.

But no matter how many times the game is over, girls want to see summer. As the girl is thrown out of her car, she cheerfully accepts her failure and moves on to her next challenge.

Seriously, this girl is unbreakable. When the game is over, the car breaks down, but I repair it every time (I put in such a production intentionally) and work hard to move on to summer. Even when the player's heart is about to break, the girl pulls the broken car to the base and repairs it.

I mean. I think that this system of many game overs is for reliving the girl's attitude toward her dream, and the action of not giving up on her dream no matter how many times she fails.

It's such a long road that it's impossible to go even in-game. It is impossible to move forward without failing. The difficulty of this adventure cannot be conveyed until you feel like you've lost the game over and over again and don't want to play this game anymore. That's why this game has a special system that causes a lot of game overs.

All of the missions I mentioned earlier also progress cumulatively, with the exception of one mission. The mission to collect 10 items should be challenged many times and 10 items should be collected. This kind of part is also designed on the premise of doing a lot of game overs. As players challenge missions and repeat the game over over and over again, they can feel the difficulty of the dream of seeing summer and the girl's desire to work hard towards it.

No more. I don't have a lot of memories.

If you notice, there is yourself snuggling up to a girl's dream. I want to take this girl who worked so hard to summer. That kind of feeling is boiling.

This game knows a lot about this area, and it comes with productions that really excite this kind of feeling! Scenes from the trip are recorded in albums, letters are sent to people you met in the past from your next base, and memories of your long journey are shown in a tangible form. This kind of small place is elaborate and makes you feel excited.

In addition, various encounters and events are waiting for the girl on the way, but this is connected as a foreshadowing. I like this story line. Why "Summer Catcher"s" when it's a girl's dream story? By all means, I would like you to repeat the game over and clear the game.

A game that is full of game overs and doesn't feel exhilarating, but the power of your feelings will change the way you see it. I think the game has a very interesting structure. It may be a game that is hard to recommend to everyone, but it's a type of game that will stick with you.

Until I finished this game, it was about 5 times bigger than I imagined (it took me about 9 hours to clear), and I couldn't get into the manuscript work at all. However, after clearing it, everything became a beautiful memory, so I was able to forgive it. It took me much longer than expected to complete the game, so I'm writing this at 5:00 AM, the day the manuscript was supposed to be delivered. But I forgave. At the end, I cried because I was so happy to see the summer sea.

No, I guess I was too inspired. I really regret that I didn't go to the beach this summer. The sea...I wonder if it's still in time... I'm worried about making last summer memories this year.