Playing Every Game in the Bundle for Racial Justice and Equality
PEGBRJE: ‘MetaWare High School (Demo)’ and ‘Portal Dogs’
Monday!
MetaWare High School (Demo) is a visual novel created by Not Fun Games, a solo indie dev and musician based in the Netherlands. Players will get to warp in to a lovely high school setting and meet five cute characters to talk to, which is super exciting! Oh and they definitely know you are the player, and that they are in a demo, which means that it is short. Uh oh.
To give a bit more context without spoiling too much, players are brought in to MetaWare in a similar way as to every other visual novel: through a fade in. Unfortunately, they are greeted by text of the characters already discussing their plans, who are shocked when the player suddenly starts to exist in from of them. From here, players will interact with the five characters as they attempt to wrap their heads around this event and what it means for their game.
Chris is the levelheaded member, who greets the player even in the awkward beginning. Aspen is a forward non-binary who assumes that this is a dating sim. Hope just wants mochi, and Nari only seems to tag along with her. Isadora is the one most fearful of the demo-status, and wants this experience to be as perfect as possible. From here, player’s will make decisions to shape how the demo plays, and see what they can accomplish in a short time.
It is a little too obvious, but this is a ‘demo’ fully built on visual novel meta-commentary. Subversive content is a fine line to tow, especially in narrative and visual novels, as without a proper structure the reader can feel as if they are not really a ‘part’ of the game. There are many examples out there of subversive visual novels — DokiDoki was a massive one a few years back — but MetaWare goes even further beyond the traditional ‘awareness’ and makes the entire game and plot revolve around itself.
Isadora is freaking out the entire game because the game is a demo, so she knows there is little time to explain or do anything. Aspen wants the game to be a visual novel, but that stems from the fact that she — and the others — have no idea what the game actually is. It is all crafted so that players feel like they are interacting with five individuals wanting to know what this meeting means just as much as the player does, rather than waiting to pull a meta ‘gotcha’ later on. The game is the meta-commentary of itself, and as one might infer it does not go well for many involved.
That is all I’m willing to share, because this was a sleeper hit I was not expecting to enjoy as much as I did. Meta games are fun, but MetaWare High School (Demo) did such a good job I was starting to get suspicious that the demo tag was also part of the joke. It’s written to entertain in a multitude of ways. If you adore visual novels that are seeped in subversion, this is the game you’ve been waiting for. Will it ever be ‘fully’ launched? Who knows, but if this is it I can’t complain.
Portal Dogs is a puzzle platformer created by Brain Connected, an indie studio based in Germany. Assuming the position as the great Dog King, players will find their loyal subjects scattered throughout the worlds and return them to portals so they can all go home.
In the format that has been popularized and found in many platforming games (especially mobile ones) players will load in to each level with the three goals. The mandatory one is to get the king through the crowned portal to continue onward, but it is the least fruitful for completionists.
Saving dogs and returning them to portals is the second key objective, which involves waking them up from slumber and taking them to non-crowned portals. Once the dogs are awake, they will perform any command that the king does at the same time. This is simple at first, but over time many puzzles will require the use of many dogs split up, and players will need to use the terrain to block them. It is a tried-and-true puzzle method, and one that works well here especially as the dog portals can only take a single dog before shutting off.
The third and final objective is to grab the golden bone, seen as a ‘bonus’ objective of sorts as it is usually found in difficult to reach locations — but who doesn’t love an extra challenge?
Thanks to the various difficulties and customization modes — there’s even a map editor! — Portal Dogs fits snuggly in with the puzzle platformers that can fit on your phone. Some solutions will come instantly, while others may leave you scratching your head for hours while the dogs keep jumping in place. Regardless of your skill, it’s a great game to play during downtime.
I had hoped to get the third one in here as well to finish off the page, but I’m still recovering and couldn’t get the rest of it slotted in here with confidence. See you tomorrow!
