Misty Hills is a choice-based work by Giuliano Roverato Martins Pereira that was entered into Spring Thing 2021.
I enjoyed how Misty Hills provided a low-stakes opportunity to explore a fantasy environment that was engaging mix of the familiar and the magical.
I also appreciated how there weren’t any unpleasant surprises or unfair traps — you might miss the tram, but it will be the result of deliberate decisions.
I liked the premise but I think it really needed a goal / secret.
Although a bit buggy, the time factor made me want to find the perfect combination of actions to reveal something, but I couldn’t find anything (particularly special).
That sounds like a personal preference.
It’s a valid preference, but I would have felt cheated if a game saying “take your time and enjoy yourself” turned out to have a single, correct path that you were supposed to follow.
Very true! Though I have to say I enjoyed the branch where the ending changes because you adopt a cat, which one could view as the True Ending (though one would be wrong).
That’s true, I prefer exploration when there’s another layer on top of “get one thing for this other thing”. I guess the secrets were there, I just didn’t like the payoff (my preference, ofcourse)
The only other point I’d make is that if the game is to “take your time and enjoy yourself”, then adding the time factor into the game makes that a bit awkward.
I enjoyed it nonetheless 