March 2022 Progress Report

Chionophile, a charming and short 40+ minute walking sim accompanied with a poem by Archibald Lampman, an 1880’s Canadian poet and lovely instrumental music by Pınar Karabaş. Explore a beautiful winter day in two chapters, find glowing Crocus flowers and place them on their pedestals to reveal the next part of the poem and unblock the next area.

The first part of the game is very linear, but the second is a very big open area. Certain flowers go to certain pedestals which unblocks an area where another flower is, which can add a couple frustrating minutes as you try to find which flower you can grab next. Graphics are very pretty, and with classical music in the background and snow crunching underfoot, Chionophile is still a very nice game even if it makes my computer fans work overtime for some reason. There is an option to run instead of walk.

A charming exploration game that isn’t really a walking sim. 30+ minutes to complete; enjoy exploring two areas full of flowers; there are many glowing orbs on the map and touching them will increase your movement speed and make you feel like the wind of spring. Collect glowing Crocus flowers and set them upon their pedestals to unveil a poem; collecting all of them will open the next field to explore.

Finding hidden poems on the map manually is very difficult, but right clicking will mark the locations as well as show where the flowers and pedestals are. Collecting and placing all the crocus flowers to leave the area will introduce you to a sort-of game of tag; avoid the moving lights while trying to tag the green one; however, there is an option to turn the moving lights off in the menu. Loverowind isn’t bad for its price but I consider the other two games in its series “Poetic ones” to be more of a walking sim if that’s what you’re looking for. (Chionophile & Pluviophile)

Nephise Begins is a beautiful exploration and walking sim. Traverse a rather small area of a forested valley, collect mushrooms and animal skulls, investigate an abandoned but tidy house, and stay a healthy distance away from the giant fox blocking a rather interesting and mythical looking cave lest you get eaten.

30+ min to complete, despite this game being about how Nephise started on her orb collecting adventure series, the actual story is… disappointing and sparse; the ending is strange and quick. Despite its faults, I can’t really give this a negative review because the game is cheap and the graphics are gorgeous; I did like walking around for 30 min taking screenshots.

Play as Nephise, an adventurer who explores hidden glades, deep caverns, and misty forests. While out exploring, Nephise has gotten herself lost in Dragon Valley; find four statues to unlock four gates, each with their own challenges and make your way home.

Nephise Ascension is a huge credit to the entire series, 1+ hours to beat, beautiful graphics, fun gameplay, easy puzzles, fine music, it’s a good game to recommend. The weather effects could have been nicer but the huge open areas were fun to explore and actual gameplay progression is really linear and easy to follow along. The last area in particular was stunning, and the ending and beating the last boss was more enjoyable than was expected.

Build the roller coaster park of your dreams. With more mechanics, options, and editing than you could possibly use in a game, you can make pretty much anything. Base models are available if you don’t want to create your own hotels and stores. Manage employees, store pricing, hotel rooms and how much salt you can add to the fries, there isn’t really anything you can’t mess with and edit to your liking.

While there is a lot of things you can do, the game isn’t perfect. Creating a plaza or an open area is pretty difficult and you mostly just set roads next to each other and then cover the weird areas with bushes; and the game particularly hates it when you try to make stairs or underground areas. I seriously recommend playing in Sandbox mode to start out to learn all the mechanics and how to manage rides and employees since you have unlimited money and can’t make any serious mistakes.