STAGE 2 - Flow Review

Flow by Jenova Chen

Since the console version of Flow differs from the PC version for instance graphics and mechanics, I will solely focus and discuss the PC version to help me create a game of my own:))

Play Flow here: http://www.jenovachen.com/flowingames/flowing.htm

Credits level

Flow by Jenova Chen is a top-down video game exploring the oceans depths whilst an aquatic creature consumes organisms, to evolve and advance their creature further down to ultimately a new beginning. Although there is no narrative behind this video game, it does feature a very interesting design that allows the player to progress at their own pace. I think that this feature is cleverly embedded into the game with the two dot-like organisms (one red & one blue) representing progress (red) and regress (blue) of levels.

Nokia's Snake (1998)

When I first began playing Flow, I reminisce the good ol’ times playing Snake (1998) on my mom’s Nokia. The concept of Snake is where the player manoeuvres a line which grows in length when eating dots and fruits. Likewise, Flow features dot plankton for your player to eat and grows/evolves as it eats more and more. 

Visuals

Flow has a simple but fascinating art. The creature you control is made up of multiple circles connected that form somewhat of a snake-like shape. The game starts off with a bright luminous color then as you advance levels, the atmosphere darkens almost as if you’re going deeper into the game. As you play, you can see in the background your next level. I thought this was cool feature to have in a game as it shows the player their future challenges. Some may say that the visuals of Flow are avant-garde with its radical creatures and hydrosphere game-play.

Sound

The game begins with choir music playing in the background. It is slow and has a calm tempo. The music draws the player into the game as it gives off a relaxing atmosphere. Additionally, when you consume other organisms a sound effect is played. In a way, this sound was satisfying when I heard it, making me want to eat more of those dots!:))

Game-play

In the beginning of Flow, I was very confused as to what the game was about or what I had to do. It didn’t provide any instructions, introductions or even controls. I think that not having these guides force the player to explore the game.

Flow has a basic and simple game-play. Your controls are the mouse or mouse pad (If you’re playing on a laptop), and your creature follows wherever your cursor is on the screen. Your objective in flow is to consume, evolve and survive. However, things do get a bit tricky when faced with AI (Artificial Intelligence). For example, when you consume a dot from a sting-ray creature, it changes its color to orange and accelerates through space drastically. This makes it difficult to consume its dots thus changing the way the player must play. The player must click the mouse button to accelerate to the speed of the sting-ray in order to consume it. I thought that this was a challenging task to do yet fun as I tried to beat bosses using the acceleration feature.

Learn

I have taken into consideration of game elements like sound effects/music and difficulty. I realized that sound effects/music is an important aspect in Flow and really enhances game-play. The difficulty of a game is also another important aspect to take into consideration because a player may get bored if a game is too easy but if a game is too hard the player will get frustrated and quit. 

"In order to maintain the Flow experience, people need to adjust their experience, balance the challenges to their abilities, keep themselves in a safe zone where psychic entropies like anxiety and boredom would occur" 
(http://www.jenovachen.com/flowingames/missionstatement.htm)

These two elements are major factors in Flow and video games in general.