The Valley Rule: Kinda like Knytt Stories

Developer: Ryan Carag (With music by Bill Kiley)

Publisher: Ryan Carag

Format: PC (Browser/Adobe Flash)

The Valley Rule is a simple little 2D platformer with fittingly simple puzzle elements thrown into the mix. You play as a little girl who is underground on a quest to reach the surface. To do this you need to open up the gate by collecting four white triangular gems. As you go you gain upgrades, allowing you to explore more areas until you eventually explore everything and open the way to the surface.

The mechanics generally revolve around two things: platforming and puzzles. The puzzles are very simple, always being the same old push-the-blocks-on-the-buttons thing. You can't always solve them right away though, as they require a specific upgrade to get to the block or something. The upgrades not only affects the puzzles but also affects the platforming as well. Heck, it mostly affects the platforming! There are two upgrades: The Will to Climb, and The Will to Air-Jump. So basically climbing on walls and wall-jumping as well as double-jumping. Because they are considered upgrades, you do not have these right away. This leaves you in a open world with only one true path you can go on, with a bunch of dead-ends to prick your curiosity. As you collect these two upgrades, you can go through more paths, retaining that open world feeling

My one real complaint bout the game has to be about it's insane difficulty curve at the end of the game. For the majority of the game it's pretty easy, with simple platforming that utilizes the mechanics very well, but never becomes excruciatingly hard. Until you get to the end that is. You basically have to jump against the curve of the ceiling, which becomes steadily more dramatic in difficulty. The worse part isn't really how hard it is. It's how it's designed. It's designed where if you fall down a little bit, you fall ALL the way back to the bottom, where you have to start all the way over.

The aesthetics are great in both departments of Art and Sound. The art-style is a very simplistic pixelated style, helping with the tight platforming. It's color palette is an interesting case, using shades of purples for the ground, select browns for the boxes, buttons, and other miscellaneous platforms, a milky white for the water that kills you, an orange for the player character's hair and a pale white for he body, and then finally a block for the background. It's got a good amount of contrast without loosing that lonely atmosphere that the game has.

This atmosphere is also represented in the sounds and music. The music itself is a very calm and sorrowful melody that represents the journey you're on quite well. The birds chirping, the waterfalls flowing, and your constant running all have sounds that work very well with the atmosphere.

All in all, this is a great game. It is rather short, but what can you expect from a game made in roughly 48 hours in the Ludum Dare contest? It's nothing ground-breaking, but if you're looking for a good and simple platformer, this is one I'd suggest. I'd actually suggest it just because of the atmosphere it envelops you in. It's a nice experience that this game provides, which can be sometimes ruined in the later part of the game due to rage.

Play The Valley Rule HERE

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