reky

I've played this game years ago when it came out, and forgot all about it. I decided to revisit it and record a session. I think I struggle to get into isometric puzzles. I usually lose interest quite quickly. Something about not seeing the board very well. It's nicely designed, though!

Absolutely incredible visual design, love it!

I have only played a bit so far, but it is a stylish and fun puzzle so far. 

y2k aesthetic

Very smart and relaxing minimalist puzzle game. After figuring out how the rules of these puzzles are set up, you have all information at your hand you need to solve the level, which is an incredibly soothing affair due to the very pleasing sound design. Great puzzle ideas, unique mechanics, fantastic art style and simply easy to fall in love with. 4.5/5

Impressions website: https://indietiative.com/
Racial Justice Bundle itch ranking: https://itch.io/c/915453/quick-impressions-bundle-for-racial-justice

Game Review:

Reky is a fully-fledged and very polished puzzle game. I liked the puzzle mechanic and the atmosphere, but had several issues with the minimalist art style.

First and foremost, there are *significant* issues with the puzzle perspective. Blocks are flat without shading or outlines, which often makes it nigh-impossible to tell whether any two blocks line up horizontally or vertically. And this is not a small issue! It makes the already challenging puzzles even more difficult, and for no reason at all. I had a similar problem with the game Induction. 

In a related issue, many levels involve multiple doors (= teleporters), and some are just mazes. And yet the art style is so obstinately minimalist that there's only the barest visual difference between normal doors vs. the level exit (wtf), and absolutely no indication for which doors are connected (wtf wtf).

Finally, the core puzzle mechanic involves blocks of different colors which can be moved by clicking on them. There's nothing to indicate the length of the movement. I think the same applies to the movement direction, too, though I think there's at least a consistent color coding in each specific puzzle level - not that I could ever remember which color corresponded to which direction. More opacity that necessitates annoying trial & error, when the game could be entirely clear by just putting an arrow and a number on each colored block.

To summarize, in all these issues gameplay quality was sacrificed on the altar of aesthetics and minimalism. It didn't have to be this way. For instance, I just finished Path of Giants, a puzzle game with a similar isometric perspective, and that game manages to clearly communicate how tiles line up and which puzzle elements are connected.

There's also a highscore system with a par move count for each level. It's a pointless mechanic that doesn't suit the genre, and yet you're forced to interact with it to some extent because you get stars for beating that par move count, and these stars are required to unlock later stages; just beating a level is not enough. This weird mechanic subtly discourages exploration, and exacerbates the opacity problems which force you to use trial & error to find out how blocks or doors are connected. At least there's a robust undo... Plus some of the later levels are *huge*. What exactly are you supposed to do when you miss the par of **164** moves by 2 moves, as happened to me once?

Ultimately, I liked the puzzle mechanic, and some of the levels were genuinely great. But due to the significant opacity issues, my overall experience of the game was rather mixed.

Hi there! I picked up Reky as part of the Racial Justice mega bundle and wanted to say that you've got a really polished game here! It's so stylish, and the audio engineering is fantastic. Got real Monument Valley vibes from it all. Sadly I got burnt out in section C due to all the back-tracking and such, but that's not to say they're badly made puzzles, just that they don't gel with me personally.

I've attached a playthrough video if you're interested.

This game is a very good puzzle game with a neat aesthetic and a quiet mood. However, for me it's something more interesting. Reky has been released a few days ago on Steam for a few bucks. As an indie project, I assume that it could raise a significant amount of money to its developers during a few weeks - and after a short time, like many other little games, it will be forgotten. This is the cruel rule of market. Being aware of this, developers did a real sacrifice so as to add this amazing game in a bundle in order to support antiracism movement. I like such point of view - some selflessness. As an indie dev, I don't know if I could have such morale fortitude or conviction. Impressive. Thank you for your good exemple. I really appreciate Reky. You deserve my respect. I wish you the best ++