Space Giraffe is here
184 words, 1 image Before accepting a lift to work from Debbie, I found time to download the trial version of Jeff Minter’s Space Giraffe — available at last — and run through the tutorial mode.
Of course, having been following progress, I knew mostly what to expect, but this was the first time interacting with it, and the first time seeing it at full resolution and full frame rate.
My first smile was in the menu screen, hearing a child’s voice speaking random numbers in Welsh: “Un… Tri… Tri… Naw… Chwech…”.
It all appears appropriately nuts, but of course you have to learn to look past the swirly effects to the game behind it. I kept getting killed by things I hadn’t seen, and I understand that they’re there to be seen, and I just have to learn to see them.
Important status indicators are in cleverly visible places (for example the “power zone” indicator, which tells you whether it’s safe to barge enemies off the top of the web, is built right into the web itself).
I achieved per-level scores with ratings like “unambitious”, so lots of skills to work on…