The video game industry is constantly expanding and while the big triple-A development houses continue to squeeze their most famous and profitable IPs, an increasing number of independent developers are putting creativity and aspirations into creating a product that can attract the interest of an audience of fans more and more curious and in need of novelty.
And it is in this sea of good and bad ideas that Steam is flooded of, that we want to show our full support to the small Italian development houses, which deserve to emerge thanks to the care and dedication that characterizes their projects.
And it is with great pride that today we bring you an exclusive analysis of Summertime Madness, a puzzle game with picturesque tones developed by DP Games, a team of 3 people led by Davide Pellino. It is necessary to premise that the version that we have been able to complete is still in development, the game will, in fact, be released in full in June while a demo will be available starting today.
An artist-proof incipit
Summertime Madness tells the story of an artist, living in Prague during the famous siege of 1945, who, in order to escape from the horrors of war, paints beautiful landscapes, as a contrast to the decadence that surrounds him. One day the artist is visited by a mysterious man who, after observing his works, offers him a deal:
The artist would be given the opportunity to enter his paintings, but only if by midnight he would be able to find his way back. Otherwise, he would get trapped in the paintings forever.
And it is from this brief but intriguing premise that the game’s fantastic picturesque setting originates, which we’ll tell you about below.
When video game and art come together
What inevitably strikes the eye of the player from the very first moments of the game is the peculiar aesthetics of the title. Being extremely pleasant and well maintained, it’s designed specifically to recreate in the game itself the sensations given by a painting. The vividness of the colors and the dynamism offered by the movement of the leaves and grass in the wind makes it all utterly poetic and surreal.
Although the game is initially presented with these features (reminiscent of the stylistic choices of other exponents of the genre, such as the Witness), it slowly turns into something darker and sometimes even disturbing, demonstrating great creativity and skill from the developers. Playing a similar role to the protagonist of the game, they shape the environments just like the painter would do with his canvases. We also appreciated the presence of an entire gameplay segment dedicated to the style of the famous artist Escher, as well as various references to other artists scattered throughout the various puzzles. The fantastic atmosphere that we have described can only benefit further from the presence of the constant accompaniment of the soundtrack, which blends well with the graphic style and environmental sounds. The English dubbing is also excellent.
The enigmatic heart of the painting
The gameplay of Summertime Madness is a succession of surprising ideas and situations perhaps too difficult to unravel. Although much of the gameplay proposes complex puzzles which can be enjoyable and entertaining to solve, we sometimes came across puzzles in our opinion too cryptic and not very intuitive to crack. Although we are absolutely sure that this problem can not be considered as universally valid ( for example to the eyes of the most experienced fans of the genre) we would like to propose if possible the introduction of a classic mechanic that dispenses vague but useful optional hints to the player in case you find yourself wandering in the same area for too long. In this regard, we would like to thank the developers for providing us a guide that has been useful on a couple of occasions at the beginning and towards the end of the game.
As mentioned in the incipit of the plot, our time in game will be limited, we will have only 6 hours to complete everything the campaign has to offer. During our test, we have reached the game over once, but reloading the chapter was enough to find a more efficient and fast way to solve the puzzle and then continue our journey undisturbed. There is also the possibility to perform some small extra interactions that will allow us to unlock achievements. Once you have completed the campaign mode, you’ll get access to the exploration mode that lets you travel between the various environments to collect the missing secrets. A further note of merit goes to the stability of the title, during our test the game did not present a single bug or crash, even though the final version will be released in a few months.
Ultimately we feel like recommending this title to anyone looking for a great puzzle game that can squeeze your brains without ever giving up on aesthetics and fun. To those who intend to support the importance of our nation in the independent video game industry, this is your chance to play a game without sacrificing the experience of a quality product.
Our test bench:
-CPU: Intel Core I910850KA 5.3Ghz
-GPU: Nvidia RTX3080 10GB GDDR6X Founders Edition
– Mobo : Aorus Z490 Elite v1
-RAM: Kingston HyperX DDR43200Mhz 16GB 2×8
– Monitor:Philips 276e8vjsb 4K 60hz 27″
Steam page: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1360550/Summertime_Madness/