PEGBRJE: Petty Puny Planet and Project Kat
A Small Simulation, and a Horror for Hallowe’en.
Petty Puny Planet is a ‘planet simulation’ game created for Ludum Dare 38 by Whales And Games, an indie trio that creates games and game jam projects. For this little adventure, players will be managing an entire planet from afar, making decisions and hopefully ensuring they don’t all end up miserable.
As the controller of this world, players will make a decision given three separate choices that will take in to effect immediately, visualized by the planet now having an accessory that associates with the decision. For example, that hat above is supposed to be for when I allowed my people to learn what farming meant (even if I now only can see it as a fedora). Most decisions will have an effect on the people immediately, indicated by the two meters at the top representing happiness and wealth. Both numbers can go in to the negatives, but that is not recommended. After a brief explanation of what the decision has done, a century will pass and an update will be given if any events transpired while the player waited, with the possibility for dire consequences upon the planet such as wildfires, poverty and ice ages. Many of these dangerous events can be mitigated by player choices, as if the people of the world have an ability or knowledge to mitigate the disaster they will avoid the negative score effects, such as losing happiness or wealth.
As players navigate through these decisions, there will be some that appear due to specific player triggers that can allow for the world to ‘end’, which will cause the player’s run to finish and receive an ‘ending’. These usually correspond to either certain actions taken by the player like acquiring specific technologies or routes, or it is due to one of the two meters reaching a certain threshold. The easiest routes to acquire are the worst two, which involves the people of this world being poor or miserable, but the other eight endings require a bit more finesse in order to discover. Or players can simply abandon a world.
That’s the beauty of Petty Puny Planet, it is able to crunch so much fun and style in to such a simple, small title. Every action will have some quirky dialogue to accompany it, negative effects will get booed while positives will be cheered, and the planet’s terrifying visage will continue to morph as new items are added. It can even be experienced in browser for all of you that wish to simply jump in to a game and try out a round or two and accidentally destroy a planet in the process. the world is your oyster, and this one will alter to your liking. If you enjoy messing with a world for a few minutes and seeing what crazy antics can occur, try this little gem out.
Project Kat is a horror adventure prologue created by Leef 6010, two indie developers in a team creating the full length title in their spare time. As the title suggests, players follow the tale of Kat as she awakens within her school at night in order to attempt a bizarre storied ritual.
As Kat, players will attempt to complete objectives to ensure that the ritual she is attempting is successful after she interrupts three other students in the occult room. Ever the skeptic, Kat wants to continually try out these terrifying rituals in the hopes of seeing if any of them actually hold up to their stories, and this one is relatively extensive. Most of the requirements and materials are not necessarily on hand, so it is up to Kat to explore and discover a way of acquiring them to ensure that the ritual is followed correctly, at least according to the paper she has on her. Much of the game will be interacting with everything and anything, from inanimate objects that may have usefulness and get stashed in the inventory, to talking with the three somewhat hostile girls who are also breaking in to the school after hours to play their own occult games. Items found can then be used in various ways, either for the ritual’s sake or for uncovering different mysteries to continue exploring the school in the dark.
What makes Project Kat stand out, however, is in the sheer amount of variance that is subtly allowed but never outright noticed. At the beginning there is mention of how ‘there is always another way’, which isn’t something necessarily ‘new’ to video games but rarely built upon. For Kat, however, everything she does matters for the execution of the ritual; every action taken is noted towards how the future plays out, and the order that each action is taken is just as important. Kat’s interactions with the girls can vary vastly depending on how often she attempts to talk with them, what she returns to them and if she keeps her word. Transversely, how players attempt to solve the ‘puzzles’ of the game as there are more solutions than can be expected, to the point that it almost punishes the player for taking the most obvious path. For example, Kat needs to acquire a tuft of hair, and acquired a pair of scissors early on — for some reason, that lead me to snipping off some of the one girl’s hair, and it caused them to scream at Kat (I don’t blame them). Upon experimentation, there were multiple ways to acquire that tuft of hair, leading me to discover the vast multitudes of ways that I could have gone about each solution to each puzzle. If players are looking for the best example, the very first puzzle of the game does it phenomenally. I won’t spoil, that’s just something to experience firsthand.
Project Kat’s subversion to expected gameplay tropes is its strong point, and helps to bolster up the narrative and cast as Kat explores the ritual and its side effects. It only takes under an hour, but has 8 confirmed endings to alter just how Kat’s experience with the ritual goes. I’ve detailed extensively that I cannot stand most horror games over this bundle’s current span, so I’m curious as to the fact that I wasn’t terrified but left intrigued as to where the plot wished to go while I unwound the tension that was built. As it is with a prologue, it wants you as the player to witness a small portion of what can be expected narratively and mechanically, which does lead to some feelings of wishing for more. If you wanted a small taste of horror for Hallowe’en, this does bring that unsettling tension that many crave; hopefully with more in the future as they work to completing the full title.
