App Army Assemble: With the Wind

Each week, we send out early codes of selected games to members of our App Army and ask for their feedback. One top pick this week was Twirlbound's With The Wind, a grid-based puzzle game about collecting bags of wind.

Let's see what our App Army had to say...

Dan Sydes: Well, this game did not grab me.

I thought the puzzles were simple, elegant and well thought out. The presentation nice and crisp and loved to see it was made in Unity as many of my students love tinkering with Unity at College.

It just seemed like a windy Lara Croft in a very samey world. After about 21 levels of very similar gameplay I was yearning for some new mechanics. Having two blocks to blow around rather than just one just did not cut the mustard for me.?

It's a nice addition to include a level editor and a potential community for sharing levels, I just needed more mechanics and visual variety.

Gabriel: I think With the Wind is pretty graphically appealing for a puzzle game. The concept is also pretty decent: it is simple, yet occasionally challenging.

However, I could not help but feel a little bored after playing through the first 20 levels. The more you progress through the story, the more the levels feel like they are the same.

There are almost no new aspects being presented, like new blocks, or new level structures; which kind of makes the game dull in the long run.

Kainen Ryan: With the Wind looks pretty good. It has some cool effects, but each level looks more or less the same. It's like being stuck in a time loop where each time you reset something small changes, but everything else stays the same.

The sound and music fit the look of it, but it never changes so I ended up turning off the sound. It's certainly easy - I found myself completing most levels in one go.

The addition of a level creator is a nice touch, but I wonder how many would use it after playing the core game. It would be rather sad for the development team seeing levels come out that are better than their efforts.

If I had to sum this game up in one word that word would be... BORING. From the second level you can see it's going to be more of the same throughout. It's a shame as they could have done so much with this. I would not have been happy if I had paid for this game.

Luke Rooney: I thought the Greek Mythology aesthetic was a waste... the bags of wind you collect could have easily been a box of treasure or any other reward. This makes makes the game come off as bland and boring.

As everyone else has described, the mechanics barely evolve over the length of the entire experience, with the wind serving as the only unique mechanic to set the game apart.

The level editor, although a good idea, doesn't lend anyone the opportunity to truly separate their creations from the levels that come with the game.

I agree about the music too - it's not interesting in the slightest.

Dan Sydes: A bag of wind! Definitely more of an insult than prize. Gabriel: Something that kind of threw me off was the cloud animation between each single game sequence. It really breaks the rhythm of the game and after seeing it a hundred times you just want to exit the game and do something else. Kainen Ryan: I think it's worse than that. More like a bag of hot air than a bag of treasure. Redinorun: This feels like the type of game you'd play before you go to bed. It feels very calming with the soft visuals and slow music with the birds in the background.

It doesn't really feel challenging. I agree that the game starts to feel plain boring after doing the same thing over and over again - it just makes you feel a little sleepy.

Since the concept isn't exactly original, and the graphics don't feel polished enough, I don't really think the game is worth the buck.

Funem: The game itself is nothing new so it wraps itself with some mythology story to cover this up. You may be collecting bags of wind, but unless they are going to be used for something then it’s a wasted plot point.

The graphics are serviceable but they are too simplistic when on an iPad and too small on an iPod. Personally I would drop the plot and redesign the graphics from the ground up.

I think the storyline they chose, which in turn drives the graphical style was the wrong choice/ I’m not even sure how the moving blocks even fit into the storyline they have. It becomes nonsensical.

Strip all that away and the game has bags of potential (pun intended), as the puzzles themselves are quite good. Coupled with the unlocks which you can use in the level creator I think there is potential.

If they can get people interested, then the puzzle creating community could help sell it as they can create their own levels. This could however work against them as it really means no DLC they create would be worth buying as levels are already for the community.

GShocker: I have played the first dozen or so levels of With the Wind. Someone mentioned if they had paid for the game they would have been disappointed. I agree.

The levels were pretty repetitive and I had no feeling of achievement when I completed them. Sorry to say I am not keeping it on my phone. However, with a major overhaul the game could be good.

Kainen Ryan: Just tried the level creator and it's... not good. This whole game is flawed and I think we all agree with that. The App Army have spoken! If you'd like to sign up, please have a gander at our App Army application article.

Did you pick up With the Wind? What did you think of it? Let us know in the comments below!