Release Date: 18/01/2017
Played On: Win
Available On: Mac / Win
Time Played: 3h 26m
Progress: Completed
Developer: Jumpsuit Entertainment
Publisher: Ysbryd Games / WhisperGames
Sometimes it's worth remembering that when you've created something excellent, it needs to speak for itself. When you have a core set of compelling mechanics presented beautifully, there's no need to inflate the facts. Countless little indie treasures could learn from this, and She Remembered Caterpillars could as well.
For a number of years I've kept in touch with the Intel Level Up competition. I can't speak on the competition itself very much, but it's definitely a good place to discover some interesting and unique projects that are under development. They award game demos in a number of categories, and have turned me on to some excellent titles that I've very much enjoyed.
She Remembered Caterpillars was the winner for Intel's Best Puzzle Game, which is probably the sole reason I ever knew it existed. This is a little indie project that could have easily passed me by on a random Steam list, so I'm glad to see it win an award and receive more attention.
Although, after showing up as a blip on my radar, what really sold me on the game was its striking graphics. You can see from the screenshots in this post that there's a detailed and colourful art style used throughout. There's no doubt that this is a good looking game, but is there anything else going on under the hood?
If you read the Steam page for She Remembered Caterpillars, you'll get a few paragraphs about this being an ethereal story and universe. I don't know if I wasn't paying attention enough, or if I'm just a bit thick, but I didn't pick up on any kind of meaningful story at all. Considering that I usually drool at the opportunity to sink into a good narrative, it says a lot that I can't remember there even being one.
However, the game is not without context, as there are little hints along the way that give some kind of ambiguous structure to the universe. Although, with the way the game is structured around its core mechanics, I think I can forgive myself for not picking up on any story beats.
After all, She Remembered Caterpillars is a puzzle game from start to finish. The only interaction you have with the game is to solve puzzles, and once a puzzle is solved you're sent to the next puzzle. Each puzzle exists within its own self-contained environment, there are no branching paths, there are no cut-scenes; this is all about solving puzzles.
It's why I'm left wondering if there's enough game in this game, as it tried to present itself as more than it is. If you believe the sales pitch, then you might be disappointed. Of course there are other puzzle games that offer nothing more than puzzles, but they tend not to spin tales using terms like 'fungipunk' or 'phantasgamorphic world'.
I suppose the difference is that if I'd played She Remembers Caterpillars without a sales pitch, I might not have felt like something was lacking. Instead, I was told there would be abstract and surreal narrative elements, which I'd later find to be missing.
This is a good lesson in marketing, both for developers and consumers, as the burger doesn't always match the photo. It's a shame that games like this get exaggerated above what they actually are, because the core gameplay in She Remembers Caterpillars is really good.
The entire game is a series of puzzles. Completing one lets you move onto the next; there really isn't anything else to it. As you progress through the game, the difficulty increases and solutions become more complex and obfuscated. This is standard puzzle game fare, and it's executed wonderfully.
On each level there are a number of bugs and little people, situated in a colourful jungle-like environment. The ground is divided up into hexes and different sections are connected by colourful caterpillars. Each level tasks you with leading the little people from their starting location to a goal somewhere else on the map. The trick is that they only have access to certain areas based on their colour, so it's not just a simple maze to navigate.
Let's say you start with a blue little dude, and a red little dude. The Blue dude can cross blue caterpillars, and the red dude can cross red caterpillars. The same can be said for gates and other kind of barriers that come into play later in the game. The main point is that there are different coloured little people, who have to deal with different coloured gates that block them from their goal.
So the little blue dude can't cross the red caterpillar that crosses a gap, but the red little dude can pick up the blue dude and carry them across. Then the blue can carry the red across a blue caterpillar, and so on. It's a simple system that can be broken down to matching colours to open up pathways to the end goal.
Except, the real genius of She Remembered Caterpillars comes in as the puzzles increase their difficulty. Before too long you get to combine your little dudes, so a red and a blue becomes a purple. The purple dude can pass through red and blue gateways, then divide again into individual red and blue dudes.
As the number of colours and the complexity of the levels increases, it's easy to see how out of control the puzzling can get. I was pleased to find that toward the end there were some real head-scratchers that took multiple attempts to solve. Like other puzzle games, once you figure out the language of the main gimmick you're set, but there's enough complexity to still maintain the challenge after you figure it all out.
What's more, I can't stress enough how much She Remembered Caterpillars is elevated by its art style. The illustrated levels and animations are not only beautiful to look at, but they offer a challenge of their own.
Each puzzle can be transposed onto a simple grid if you want to simplify things, but having the detail and colour from each illustrated environment adds another layer of difficulty. Especially on some of the later levels I found myself getting a bit of Where's Wally syndrome, where the details started to blend together on the screen. Thankfully it's not just a result of hideous graphics bringing on eye fatigue, and seems purposeful and measured.
In fact, I'd be surprised if the art style was accidental at all, simply because the early levels are much clearer than later ones. The density of detail and colour increases along with the difficulty, making it harder to discern the easy way forward. It's an elegant and effective way to add to the difficulty curve, but it's not something we get to see very often.
Usually puzzle games just get harder and harder with little change to their presentation, which is why She Remembered Caterpillars hooked me in with its visuals. What's more, the changes in the art were where I found most of the narrative, as the universe you're in progresses around you. Whatever might have been lacking between mechanics and story has been compensated for with the art.
Thus, there really isn't a lot to She Remembered Caterpillars after all, but what's there is used wonderfully. The simple mechanics are easily understood, but devilishly challenging in later levels, while the beautiful art carries the weight of context and progression through its own escalating journey.
If this had been advertised simply as a complex puzzle game with awesome art, I would have been completely satisfied. However, there's too much padding on the store page to avoid the unfair feeling that something is lacking. Where this could have been a brilliant puzzle game, it's left to be a game that doesn't live up to its potential. If there's one thing to take away from this, it's that you should never play this game expecting it to be more than it is.
She Remembered Caterpillars is a challenging and good looking puzzle game that will give your problem solving and logic synapses a workout. There's a lot to enjoy and a lot to sink your teeth into, so long as you ignore the promises and stick to the facts.