Release Date: 12/01/2017
Played On: Win
Available On: Lin / Mac / Win
Time Played: 1h 10m
Progress: Completed
Developer: Flynns Arcade
Publisher: Back To Basics Gaming
Without a doubt, we are in the digital age where everything and anything will be distributed and sold online. The barriers to entry have fallen so low that just about anyone can make something and find a platform to sell it online to others. In a lot of ways this is awesome, as we get more variety and more contributors. Let's face it though, that's not always a good thing.
Laraan isn't the first game I've played that sparked this train of thought, and I fear it won't be the last, but it takes me back to when I was a kid. My friends and I used to have fun performing and filming short little skits and routines, as most of us wanted either to act or make movies. I still have the tapes sitting in a cupboard somewhere, and every now and then I pop them in my old VCR to feed my nostalgia for the fun times we had. In fact there's a lot I love about those videos, but every time I watch them I'm reminded of one inescapable fact: the quality is objectively awful.
Most of the time we didn't write a script, instead just winging it as we thought of jokes along the way. We used props and costumes that were easily found in our homes and wardrobes, so some of the combinations made no sense at all. What's more, I shot it all on my family's 8mm camera that had an onboard microphone and a fade-out button. If we wanted to include music, we has a boom box playing a CD as the scene unfolded, which tended to drown out any dialogue.
Short version is; the whole exercise was a complete mess. However, that wasn't the point, as we were exercising our creativity and letting our ideas run wild as we concocted each performance. The point wasn't to make a quality product, the point was to have fun, and that's exactly what we did.
The reason I mention this story is because this all happened in a day before the internet was as ubiquitous as it is today. We would end up with one copy of our efforts on a single VHS tape, which meant if you wanted to watch it, you had to go around to whatever house it was at. These days we might have shared the results with each other via YouTube, and I wonder if we would have kept each video private, or made it public to the world. What's more, would we have tried to charge strangers for the pleasure of watching our in-house jokes and low quality short films; it's hard to ever really know.
It's the kind of thing I think about when I play a game like Laraan, which is clearly an experimental game made as a proof of concept, but far from what I would consider a final product. The only reason I even have a copy of the game is thanks to a random bundle that I picked up somewhere along the way, or a code that a friend might have given me (I can't remember which), so this wasn't a purchase I actively sought to make. After playing it, I have to be honest and say that It's probably not the kind of product that should be available for purchase in the first place.
There have been a few games now that I've played and wondered why anyone thought it was worth selling. I'm not talking about the abominations that are nothing more than cynical cash grabs, as those are often intentionally misleading and poorly made. What this whole explanation is leading to is the idea of people messing around with making games, and then trying to sell their experiments to the public, as if they were selling completed products.
Without being an old man and talking about "kids these days" or anything like that, it seems like the internet has made it possible for anyone to sell anything. As I mentioned earlier, this is great for those that would otherwise have been denied the opportunity to reach a mass market, but doesn't mean that everyone should jump on board and sell their crap.
Laraan feels like the kind of game you'd make when you're learning how to make games. There are only a few mechanics, which mostly involve running and jumping around a low-poly environment. The progression is broken up in such a way that it feels like each level serves a single idea, but has little to do with the next. There's one with traps, one with a space-bike to ride, on with an enemy to fight, and then lots of exploring in weird environments.
Even the environments feel random and without purpose, despite being told that they're meant to represent an abstract alien landscape. Instead each environment feels like it was a collection of random shapes and geometry that someone formed into a space to run around in. There are plenty of inclines and elements that aren't seated properly, or designed to be explored, causing a lot of glitching over uneven surfaces. What's more, in some of the more difficult platforming sections, the safe terrain is indistinguishable from danger, making for a confusing jaunt through nonsensical pathways.
There's a combat section toward the end that makes no sense at all and the only way I could beat it was by standing on the player spawn block where I couldn't be hit, but could still hit the enemy. This sort of glitching can be fun when it's a big budget release fully of complex systems and mechanics, but the glitches in Laraan only ever feel like mistakes. I mean, the spawn blocks remain visible in the world and can be messed with, which in itself is a big blemish to overcome.
Don't get me wrong though, I'm not here to completely bag Laraan and all that it stands for. The plus side is that it definitely stands as a neat proof of concept, with some interesting ideas here and there to tease out and expand on. There's far more game in there than I could conjure, so I applaud the developer for having a crack and making something functional. If you sit back and look far beyond the cracks, there are some original and interesting ideas starting to shine though.
Although, it's not my job as a player to find the value in a product to justify its existence, so I'm not convinced that this should have ever been sold in any form. This is the kind of product that would have been better received if I'd found it anywhere other than on Steam with a price tag. There are communities and sites for developers to share their experiments and for students to share their ideas, so perhaps there's a better place for something like Laraan to exist.
I suppose my thoughts on a game like this has little to do with the game itself, and more to do with a misguided choice to charge money for something that shouldn't be sold. I know there are some folks out there who think that every small game should be free, but this is not one of those arguments. Instead, there's a certain level of quality that needs to be adhered to before slapping a price tag on your game concept.
Just like when we messed around with a video camera as kids, the end result was what we learned, and the fact that we had a good time in the process. Sure I don't think anyone is entitled to those videos other than the people involved in their creation, but they're not up for grabs anyway. It doesn't matter if I'd charge a stranger for a copy, as it would never be an option thanks to the fact that those videos are nothing but a bunch of kids having a good time. While we could argue the artistic merit in such a thing, the point is that they aren't products to be distributed and sold.
In the same way, conceptual experiments like Laraan and other "games" of its ilk, should not be available for distribution and sale either way. These games have value in that they are a way for a creator to show what they're conceptualising, or practice their skills in the medium, which I want to stress emphatically. I'm not saying this is a bad game; only that it should never have been available to the public in the first place.
Not because it's bad, but because it's clearly not a completed product. At best this is an excited creator wanting to put their work out into the world and be validated as a developer. At worst, it's an arrogant insult to consumers who trust that they will receive a complete product in exchange for their cash. I try not to assume the worst and I really believe that stupidity often trumps wrongful intent, so let's try and learn from this experience and keep our fun little experiments to ourselves in future.