Playing Every Game in the Bundle for Racial Justice and Equality
PEGBRJE: ‘Golem Creation Kit’ and ‘The Red Door’
June. It June.
Golem Creation Kit is a narrative puzzle game by Illuminated Games, an indie studio operating throughout the EU. Players will follow the tale of a young wizard apprentice named Fil, who finds themself in need of protection from an angry mob. Thankfully, the wizard’s familiar has given them access to an interesting tome called the ‘Golem Creation Kit’, in the hopes of creating a golem to scare the mob away.
Inspired by titles such as Doodle God (a personal favourite of yesteryear), players will attempt to build a golem in 90 seconds before the villagers outside ransack the tower. To do this, players will navigate multiple screens, starting with the tower itself. In the tower is the pot, where all ingredients will be dragged from the inventory in so that they can be melted down to their ‘core’ components, indicated at the bottom by gauges. A scroll of magic words can augment these gauges, such as increasing the amount gained or transmuting the resources in to others.
Getting these resources, however, requires them to go ‘outside’ through one of the three windows at the back. Here the player will navigate to three different biomes, and they will grab anything that is visible to add to their inventory. I’m talking about lifting the clouds out of the sky, ripping roofs off of houses and stealing animals from their dens. Much of the 90 seconds will be uncovering which resources are available to grab and which are part of the ‘backdrop’ before returning with a full inventory to dump them. The key is that these resources do no reappear the next day, so utilizing the resistances of the townsfolk is crucial unless the player wants to run out of things to grab and start resorting to more personal items to melt down.
What carries Golem Creation Kit is not this trial-and-error gameplay, but the narrative in between the golem creation. Fil is just trying their best to be patient for their master wizard to come back, with only the familiar Qork to keep them company. Each day, however, they are assailed and need to defend the tower; but this leads to clues as to what is going on in the world, which appears to be more than anyone is willing to talk about.
Things get even more interesting when the Mirror is introduced, a visage of a woman with the ability to see more than most. Interactions have choices, and these choices have consequences for how the Mirror and Qork view Fil, especially if the player tries to push the Mirror to realms that they warn against. The meta-narrative is always lurking underneath the conversations, but the characters themselves are what make it so compelling to move onward.
I nearly passed the game as an asset pack: there have been enough ‘kits’ in the bundle that I figured this was one too. I’m so thankful that I read a little bit farther, because this is by far more interactive than anything I could have expected.
The atmosphere created by the music and art is soothing and beautiful, and the narrative continues to oscillate between spooky and cheeky in a perfect harmony. It will take a bit of getting used to, especially understanding that failure is part of the game itself — its the only way to confirm resistances of villagers. But once that has been achieved it opens up to a visual novel-esque puzzle game that is definitely worth your time.
The Red Door is a horror puzzle game crafted by Aladdin Vargas Vicuña, also known as yunglads25. Players have found themselves in a dark room with a flashlight, unable to understand what has confined them. Slowly piecing together the mystery, they realize that there is only one door out, and one man that really wants to keep them inside.
As with many survival horror games, understanding the goal and what is hunting them is part of the puzzle itself. Players are hunting for keys that open doors, while also uncovering new ways to ensure that the doors are accessible while avoiding a shadowy figure. The ultimate goal is the titular ‘Red Door’ which appears to be the only way out, at least according to the notes left behind by previous victims.
Each room has the possibility for keys and puzzles, such as the sliding puzzle to match the pictures. Items necessary for puzzles are not explicit, and since players can only carry a single item at a time — including keys — there is also an element of remembering where certain items were dropped to grab them later. The kidnapper enjoys having a house full of puzzles, as if this is a game to him, but that constant need to uncover the puzzles is what drives the tension.
The issue is that this house is not only big, but appears to not abide by the laws of physics. There are doors that lead to places that they should not be able to. This is the ‘second’ puzzle aspect of The Red Door. Players will need to keep their brains in check as they move through portal doors to different regions of the house. Since we are in constant darkness with the threat of a kidnapper murdering us, this adds a severe amount of tension to the game as players can run through a door in the middle of the room and not come out the other side. This is a double edged sword, thankfully, as this means that getting lost can lose the shadow figure as well.
I’m mostly repeating myself at this point, but as a person unable to play horror games I found The Red Door achieves that level of tension and suspense that causes me to quit early. Thankfully others are braver than me, so I was able to witness more layers.
There are some janky moments, mostly centering around the interactables, so do keep an eye out for that. Nevertheless, if you need a good scare in June, this will provide it.
