Electron Dance

@electrondance

Words on videogames. Video essays on videogames. Ex-Thinky Games streamer-in-residence. A place - www.electrondance.com

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Electron Dance@electrondance· 24d

Optional collectibles seem to be about messing around with how the world looks. I assume this isn't going to be a key part of the game but you never know. The only thing is, if you select a particular look, the settings will be reset when you move into an area with its own visual style.

The library with the "Trippy" color grade set turns the scene into a heat map with all of the colours of the rainbow exploding your eyes to shit.

Electron Dance@electrondance· 24d

Dialogue is hit and miss. You have 'infect daemons' and each one has something to say. That's a lot of random disconnected dialogue to write - a mix of fun and forgettable filler.

Electron Dance@electrondance· 24d

It is a strange old game. Mechnically a mass collectible fest with a few "huh how do I get there" places and a light metroidvania feel. It seems to be a meditation on AI but by god it's easy to get lost. It just goes on and on and nothing is in a straight line.

"Let none but Geometry pass through this door" is written into the ground below where a door should be. We're actually looking into a classroom and a huge face - a teacher - overlooks the Daemon "kids".

Electron Dance@electrondance· 24d

I have pulled myself away from gamedev at the moment because brain has melted into goo. Randomly installed Carceri. Primarily a first-person wanderer (okok walking sim) that has floaty jumping and has me thinking of Supraland.

It's almost impossible to describe what I'm seeing here because it's all garish colours and polygonesque shapes. There are there coloured lines (pink, yellow, cyan) that wind their way through the environment on the left but the rest of it is platforms and walls and a tower (that is largely pink). Shapes that resemble trees dot the landscape. There's a small pyramid wireframe structure on one platform. The sky is blueish.

Here, we can see real human art of geometric shapes inside a sheltered location. We can look out at the Carceri landscape. A small catlike figure sits atop a triangular mound. The catlike figures are called daemons.

This area in Carceri is easier to parse except for all the light beams popping out of the ground which, here, is all my fault. I can explain that another time. There are various arches spread out across the landscape and there is a general violet/pink hue here.

A catlike figure is looking at a arcade game called "Life as a Human" and saying: "A walking sim? That's not a game"

Other arcade games the character could be playing are Yet More Boss Fights, Super Block Craft 64 and Evergreen.

Electron Dance@electrondance· Jul 4

Current state of Bivium, July 4, 2026. I don't think I have any more tweaks to make to the layout - so this is likely to be what you see on release.

Title screen leading with the graphic of a yellow line forking inside a white box. Under the title graphic is the word "BIVIUM". Below that it reads AN ELECTRONDANCE GAME INSPIRED BY BLUE PRINCE.

Further below are the options to "Begin" and "Load Saved Game".

Orange screen declaring your location is Tent on Day One. Text below reads:

Your name is Nelson Bottle.
You awake with hope that you can assemble the Verum Occultum and smuggle it out of the country. You must make it back to the Tent alive to make useful items permanent.
You emerge from the Tent.
You have 4 steps remaining. Click the hand icon to project.

There is a sidebar with options to Check Backpack, Load and Save with four orange squares.

A hand icon lingers at the bottom of the page, longing to be touched.

Two cards are laid out in the middle of the screen on a grey stone-like tray.

The first card is black and reads "STREET" featuring the image of a grim cityscape perhaps in the evening or in the presence of smog.

The second card is green and reads "CRESCENT" featuring the picture of a door with a crescent shape on its surface.

Electron Dance@electrondance· Jul 4

Saw this AI generated ad on YouTube and immediately thought "this app can convert you from the buff guy on the right to the waif on the left" thanks red arrow

AI-anime ad for a fitness app showing the app in the centre and a buff guy on the right with a red arrow pointing from the guy into the app

On the other side of the app to the left is someone who is clearly not buff and has plasters on their face.

Electron Dance@electrondance· Jun 16

And that's a wrap! I haven't really attempted any of the trophies yet but I didn't know they existed until I went online and asked about secrets :S Brings to mind that slowburn depth that Leap Year brought. Each new discovery a new step in the progression from monochrome to full colour mechanics.

Öoo level where our little cute caterpillar has to across a platform above some spikes and then up through another platform at the top left. I considered this level just impossible until I solved it.

Electron Dance@electrondance· Jun 15

SÖooo I'm playing Öoo. Some of these bits, you're like no, you don't mean I have to --(drinks heavily)-- shurley theresh been shome mishtake. But it's yes, you do. And you do it. And you continue to descend into the twisty depths. (of course I'm only writing this post because I got stuck again)

Part of the in-game map from Öoo, there are magenta, cyan and green trails of rooms.

Electron Dance@electrondance· Jun 4

Last call for Crashbook, so don't delay! 22 games I haven't played! If you don't read it soon I might have played some! The list: www.electrondance.co... Screenshots shown: WALL STREET RAIDER, INKBLOOD, she danced in the wind like a holographic dream before the world died, THE DARKEST FILES

Wall Street Raider: It's like Bloomberg Terminal: The Game. The screen is full of stocks and prices and little coloured graphs. Look closely and you can see buy and sell buttons.

Inkblood: It's the game's map - drawn or tattooed on someone's back. That someone is smoking a pipe.

she danced in the wind like a holographic dream before the world died: Yes, it's more decaying Brutalist structures to look at, but everything is suffused with a sandy yellow colour.

The Darkest Files: A cutscene showing three Nazi soldiers moving through a wine cellar. Subtitles indicate Alfred Faltmann is speaking, saying "We went to the captive. Kiebitz, Schickert and I."

Electron Dance@electrondance· Jun 4

As I'm spending 95% of my spare time on The Game, about all I'm good for writing is a new Crashbook! Here are 22 games that caught my wandering eye... www.electrondance.co... Screenshots shown: MOTORSLICE, THE TALOS PRINICIPLE III, AUTOMATON HEART, ÉCLAIRCIES.

Motorslice: A woman with blue hair, sporting an orange top and orange puffy trousers, holds a chainsaw while facing off against an enormous truck which is bigger than a four storey building.

The Talos Principle III: Yes, I see some floating islands with some roots growing out of them into weird pustule-like growths and the sky is a touch lilac. However, there is a puzzles in the middle of them. At the top of the screen is a sequence of triangles which seem to indicate progress.

Automaton Heart: A blue-skinned guy seems to be looking up a sandy wall or slope. Above is curved road that climbs way high into the sky towards the top a skyscraper. My god there are a lot of big buildings in Crashbook this episode.

Éclaircies: A forest scene on bright day, bathed in shadow. The graphics are charmingly lo-fi. The trees and undergrowth are made up of polygonal layers while the track through the forest is flat, made up of giant pixels.

Electron Dance@electrondance· Jun 4

Here is another list of 22 games that looked interesting to me and the mystery question is whether I will play any of them! Go take a look: www.electrondance.co... Screenshots shown: BACKTRACE, DITTORI, LUNA ABYSS, SNAP & GRAB.

Backtrace: This looks just like the original Apple Mac desktop; all monochrome, pixelated graphics. One window called HELLO_WORLD, contains a waveform puzzle with a code size challenge and a step count challenge. Behind is a FILE SYSTEM window containing various options and a progress meter.

DITTORI: A red figure stands on a raised platform. There are two green panels located either side of the figure. There is a higher raised platform a little further back, with a ladder to help climb it. The depths are misty, with the bright fog obscuring the floor. It is a puzzle game of some sort.

Luna Abyss: A monstrous megastructure-like skyscraper dominates the view. It is grey and metallic with red strips of light oozing from some of its grooves.

Snap & Grab: We see a vibrant, neon flooded penthouse flat with a swimming pool and bar area. Well, I guess its a penthouse flat. It could just be some club. I mean, I haven't played the game, so I have no idea how you expect me to know these things. The penthouse club is surrounded by other skyscrapers. It's not the only game featuring the neon 90s but, yeah, all I can see is GTA: Vice City.

Electron Dance@electrondance· Jun 3

Time to wheel out another Crashbook, fellow kids. 21 games I've made the personal commitment not to play so I can put them in an article about games I haven't played. All here: www.electrondance.co... Screenshots shown: ALGOLEMETH, DUNGEONS OF FREEPORT, ELMIN, PHONOPOLIS.

Algolemeth: Dungeon Master vibe, with four characters lsited across the bottom with stats, a main 3D view showing some creatures encountered and a minimap of the left. Everything is in black and white.

Dungeons of Freeport: The centre looks like a colorful Nethack-style dungeon crawler and there are various lo-fi windows scattered around the display, showing inventory and things you can see in the room.

Elmin: We look through a stone tunnel onto the sea, through which we see a bird resting on a a pile of stones, part of a ruined building. It looks good, man.

Phonopolis: We see a building composed of oval-shaped floors, that make me think of biscuit tins but also freight containers. Together, they look a bit like a boat. Anyway, it's all in Amanita's playful style.

Electron Dance@electrondance· May 23

Learned people cast great shadows #StephensSausageRoll

A coin with the legend "LEARNED PEOPLE CAST GREAT SHADOWS" around it's edge. In the centre is the fork used by the guy in Stephen's Sausage Roll.

Electron Dance@electrondance· May 10

Bug report

Fragment of text:

--always coming. They were always going to find an--
COULD LOOK LIKE THE GAME IS ENDORSING VIOLENCE.
--we should not have killed some innocents on the--

Electron Dance@electrondance· May 1

Last call for the new Crashbook post. Some games that caught my eye which I just had to share, even if I didn't play them once. Everything is here: www.electrondance.co... Screenshots shown: A Permanent Echo, Derelict Star, HYPNOS and Stardream.

a permanent echo: The display looks like a collage of shapes, punctuated with vibrant colour. Images and text suggest you are watching some courtroom scene through a networked interface of some kind. There are heavy-looking robot figures flanking the main characters in the scene.

Derelict Star: A pixellated platformer scene that looks like it was made in PICO-8.

HYPNOS: The statue of skeletal figure looking at something in it raised hand stands in the centre of a city square. There are various small figures scattered around it but just seem to be treating the area as a meeting place. Renaissance-era Northern European style buildings in the background block out the sky entirely.

Stardream: We are in a garden underneath a dome through which a bright blue sky is visible. If you've seen the trailer, this sky is most likely projected onto the dome because the story takes place in space. There is a yellow and white sun umbrella standing to the left over an orange chair and small table. An orange car can be seen at the front of the garden and large gates open onto a road. Other houses can be seen hugging the road as it curves to the left.

Electron Dance@electrondance· May 1

Everybody's favourite Electron Dance post is back after a long hiatus - Crashbook! This time it's almost thirty games in the list. Games I haven't played. Read here: www.electrondance.co... Screenshots shown: Relooted, The Mound: Omen of Cthulhu, Astro Protocol and Key Fairy.

Relooted. Cross-section of a building, revealing various rooms of a high-class apartment. There is a list of instructions on the top left such as "Collect: Vigango Statues".

The Mound. The forward deck of a wooden ship from a previous century, with a number of characters positioned around it. The ship is approaching land with is covered with a tropical jungle. The ship flies a white flag bearing a red X.

Astro Protocol. A large hexmap with each space filled with icons. There is a small teal-coloured section of the map ont he right and a larger purple-coloured section on the left. A menu offers options to build a ship. You can also end your turn.

Key Fairy. A lo-fi clearing in the middle of some lime-green woods, shown against an indigo background. A creature with one eye surrounded with thorned vines is in the centre of the screen, accompanied with a smaller figure implying a little girl, although it's difficult to tell. This figure wears a bow and her face is concealed within the dark of her head gear.

Electron Dance@electrondance· May 1

I posted another Crashbook which is renowned for highlighting games I have not played. How many this time? A grand total of 27, which you can find listed here: www.electrondance.co... Screenshots shown: Dap, DEMON DUST, Planet of Lana II, Quite a Ride

Dap. A forest of some kind, in the rain. There are giant flowers which seem to have opened on the floor of the forest, emitting some white particles. White figures, reminiscent of the forest spirits in Princess Mononoke, congregate around a campfire. Look more closely and many of the features seem composed of a looping lines and not solid regions of colour.

DEMON DUST. A low-resolution first-person scene where you are looking into a chamber with yellow stone walls across a specular walkway. On the left is shown your hit points, your dust level and an hour glass. On the right is your inventory, such as bullets and a phone.

Planet of Lana II. A character pilots an underwater vehicle through a flooded section of some old city; there are benches on the floor of the scene. The vehicle lights up a painted scene on the wall which depicts a woman holding hands with a robot as if coming to an understanding or meeting for the first time. Other people and robots are in the scene watching this moment. Fish float by.

Quite a Ride. A section of a town, tinted green, and dark figures stand on the rooftops whose dimensions do not look entirely human. The first-person protagonist is holding a mobile phone which reveals the battery charge is 42 and the picture of a person who *might* have angelic wings.

Electron Dance@electrondance· Apr 30

If you want to know what I have been messing around with this week, it's Sol Cesto. I like this but also harbour some grumpy thoughts about upgrade gating. It is nice to get 800 coins in the bucket tho

Sol Cesto: In the centre of the screen there is a bucket, with the number 801 on the side, hanging in a shaft. A hand reaches up towards a handle beside the bucket. There are a lot of icons on both sides of the screen which I'm not going to ALT TEXT except for the teeth. You can replace your teeth for upgraded teeth.

Electron Dance@electrondance· Apr 30

It's been a while, but definitely time for another Crashbook post. 27 games I haven't played all wrapped in a shiny bow. Blog. I mean, shiny blog: www.electrondance.co... Screenshots shown: 1 Billion Spells, Crisol: Theater of Idols, Dreams on a Pillow, I Saw a Flying Saucer

1 Billion Spells: A visual of something that looks like a circuit or a tech tree with numerous coloured icons are connected on a path. It appears to overlay a map of some kind.

Crisol: Theater of Idols. A wooden figure with a bull's head seems poised to strike you with a frying pan. The wooden figure is worn and old. There is a large gap of air where its torso should be.

This seems to be a first person shooter where you're holding a gold and blue pistol of some kind with a bright red power source or barrel. The room you are in has a tiled floor and the walls and doors have a mint tint. It is not clear what this room was - a shop of some kind. Maybe a butcher shop or deli?

Dreams on a Pillow. A lone female figure is near the bottom of the image probably wearing an abaya and hijab, walking beside a white mosque. The mosque has a dome and several stained glass windows.

I Saw A Flying Saucer. a low resolution image with scan lines depicting a gas station with a large triangular forecourt under which a car rests. Cacti hover near the front of the image. This is a low colour image - white, light brown, dark brown and olive seems to be the full gamut.

Electron Dance@electrondance· Apr 22

New Blue Prince room just dropped

An abandoned shop with a couple of pawns in the window

Electron Dance@electrondance· Apr 18

Read through Final Cut this week week which is full of long silences, repeating motifs and a general sense of unease running through every page.

Two pages of Final Cut by Charles Burns. On the left page is a variety of drawings by one of the characters in the story and on the right a woman and a man discuss them.

Electron Dance@electrondance· Apr 18

Tape 05 on repeat until I finish the game You know I've listened to a lot of music during the making of Bivium but Tape 05 is a perfect match for its themes. Absolute mood.

A passage from a Twine editor with the name "Candy-Finale". There is one arrow leading into and two leading out.

Electron Dance@electrondance· Apr 6

Furking hell, this level, 4-8 Parity Adjustment is hard. There's also a frustrating step counter. Spent a lot of time on it. Unfortunately, after spending some time on a walk thinking about it, I solved it and felt like a boss. This means I now think its the greatest puzzle in the world and I'm rad

A puzzle from A LITTLE PERSPECTIVE with cyan blocks forming a grid for our cheeky Red Cube Protagonist to solve puzzles. There is a deep blue block near the bottom left, which is basically a shuttle. There are also some purple blocks which have the numbers 0 and 1 on, these are step counters, and I am not sure I like step counters, friends.

Electron Dance@electrondance· Apr 4

Well this got me looking it up on Wikipedia - is a childhood Bak injury somewhere amongst this history?

Electron Dance@electrondance· Apr 2

It's the new Contac

Old magazine advert for Contac which is an cold medicine that contains lots of tiny beads which they call "time pills"

Electron Dance@electrondance· Mar 28

Indeed, although the first DWG board did not BEHAVE. The third, in contrast, was THERAPEUTIC.

Dave's Word Game leaderboard showing MAUEFW with 327 points, VEDABROWN with 268 points and good old Electron Dance hanging in there with 267.

Electron Dance@electrondance· Mar 27

Exploratory descent. U doesn't appear for awhile. A mediocre score here but I wasn't really trying.

Grid of letters where the word WINNOWED is highlighted

I'm in tenth place on the leaderboard with 137.

Electron Dance@electrondance· Mar 27

Okay a 16/9 vowel/consonant spilt. How can you have 16 vowels and not a single U? Unbelievable. I've been scammed.

Electron Dance@electrondance· Mar 27

Haven't attempted Dave's Word Game today so I thought I'd check out the leaderboards first and... look if 218 is peak score today that is freaking me the fuck out That is like way too low

Dave's Word Game leaderboard showing the top score is 218 which is equivalent to two cleared boards

Electron Dance@electrondance· Mar 19

What we want, said the followers of an account of someone who writes about games who hasn't written about games for months, is an update on the Dave's Word Game scores today. Of course. Three have ascended through the 200 barrier. I remain locked outside like a chump.