Kintsugi

Kintsugi is a speedrun of all the storybeat portraying games where you are trying to revive a tree, which you may have heard of from somewhere. With the power of magical glowing gold of unknown origin at your side, you are able to do this as well as platform by grappling, create leaves on walls to hold onto as leverage, and rebuild structures in order to maneuver to places to complete your task all in under 20 minutes, for free.

Kintsugi promised a 10-20 minute experience and it was exactly that. Not too challenging of gameplay, but certainly relaxing and enjoyable. The art is vivid and unique—in particular I like how petals and leaves are drawn. Like ink blots or light strokes of a brush. The sound effects are also quite nice, especially the sound of the double jump. The music made a great accompaniment to everything, as well. The only complaints I have are that it's not long enough! The students who made this game should consider extending it into a full game. I also used to have a complaint about not being sure what exactly the Golden is, but after playing through it a second time (enough to collect all the achievements and form opinions) I had my inferences: [spoiler]I believe that the Golden is a form of corruption to humans, but of reconstruction to nature. We start off the game planting and instead of being corrupted by the Golden we seem to be chosen by it. Kintsugi is the art of repairing broken pottery with golden, silver, or platinum lacquer in order to highlight the imperfections instead of hide them. I believe that in the game [i]Kintsugi[/i] we are repairing a broken or damaged ecosystem. Maybe the game is a commentary on how humans are messing up nature? Can't be sure, but that's how I took it. And it was up to us to repair nature due to our clear love for it. The only counter to this claim is that we also end up repairing some broken man-made items which, while beautiful, is inconsistent with my theory.[/spoiler] Anyway, great job for a student project!!! Would recommend setting aside 10-20 minutes to get through this game! And I definitely recommend to the team that the game be extended with perhaps a more deep story. I could see this game being on par with Gris. After all, it reminds me very much so of Gris and Neva and seems to me like it may have even been inspired by them.

Very short (around 10 minutes) and sweet paltforming game that reminds of games like Gris :) I love these visual and beautiful sidescroling games. My rating: [b]very short n sweet 5/5[b]

JUEGAZO 😎👍💛🌟

Kintsugi is a very attractive and well implemented 2D platformer game, about a young farmer restoring the tree of life to remove a corruption which has infected his country and its flora and fauna. The game is very short (under 10 minutes) but varied and enjoyable; it is also free but, to the developers' credit, needs no allowances made for this. There are achievements, most of which are for optional tasks (e.g. lighting all stone lanterns). I am not very experienced in using a controller nor do I have particularly quick reactions, so the achievement for completing the game in under 7 minutes was just beyond me, but perhaps if I keep trying I may get there in the end...

This game is a brief but very pleasant Proof of Concept for what I would love to see as a fully fleshed out game. The playtime is about 15 minutes, and reminds me of those old online flash games. The art style, music, and atmosphere are wonderful. The basic mechanics of the game definitely have the making for more fun and advanced levels, with a puzzle solving platforming vibe. The set up of the world already has me imagining potential plotlines for the story, which could get surprisingly deep when you ponder it. Spoilers for the game: [spoiler]Kinstugi is meant to fix flaws with gold and make something whole again, but what does it mean to be "flawed" or "whole"? Where does the magical gold in this world come from? Why was it unleashed upon the land? Why is part of the world falling apart? And why was Kyo chosen by the gold and given powers? I'm especially fascinated by the village we find full of people turned to gold statues, desperately reaching towards the heavens for salvation. Did these people attempt to become like the gods, fully rejecting and attempting to change their mortal forms? Was Kyo not connected to these people? I personally like to imagine Kyo has had a disabled right arm for years, but still accepted himself just how he was and is happy with his life, which is why the gold chose him. It fixed his arm but didn't take over his entire body because he still sees himself as whole, unlike the village which tried to reach the heavens. But that's just my own take on the story. The developers have the potential to explore some really neat themes if the are able to one day expand the game. [/spoiler] Overall its a fun brief little experience, and I will definitely spend money to support the developers if they ever decide to make this a full game.

peak

Hey, for the low cost of free, you really can't go wrong with this short little platformer. The graphics are decent, the platforming/jumping controls are pretty tight, and the puzzles (largely movement based obstacles to progress with platforming solutions, rather than actual puzzles) are enjoyable, if a bit simple. Now, the writing (there is no dialogue, so the story-telling is completely visual/gameplay based) is a little weak, especially in regards to figuring out what the heck is actually happening, but you don't really need to understand why there's a golden plague sweeping the land breaking things (?!?!?!) in order to have fun and beat the game. Note that contrary to what the guide says, the achievement for finishing the game in under 7 minutes is not as easy as you might think (I had to try three extra times to get it). Additionally, having unskippable "cut-scenes" that make your movement turn temporarily glacial is just maddening when you have to play through it multiple times to get certain achievements. So, not without flaws, but definitely worth your time and attention. Recommended.