Good Game Get! Scarygirl

Scarygirl is a wonderful collab between Touch My Pixel and illustrator, Nathan Jurevicius. It’s a free web game that has some of the best flash work I’ve ever seen. Even better, the music, animated cut scenes, and illustrative work are top tier professional quality.

Like I said, the game will cost you nothing and it would’ve probably been better to have the complete website ready before launching the game. The store is still coming soon which is a bummer because it seems that this “free” flash game will rely on über-cute toys and other merch to make money. Which is perfectly fine, but I think the initial players of the game won’t have a chance to buy Scarygirl products.

The game itself plays out like a platformer and involves collecting different objects such as fish and gems and of course has harder to reach are rarer items to collect as well. The controls aren’t as tight as they could be and the underwater controls are strange and require a slight learning curve and would be much better suited for a controller more than a keyboard.

Gameplay quirks aside, the Scarygirl experience is really about the incredible music and Nathan’s cute, colorful, and creepy art. All of it is beautifully animated in flash with a musical backdrop sometimes similar to former Nine Inch Nails drummer, Chris Vrenna’s American McGee’s Alice soundtrack. The use of toy instruments remind me of Alice, which I must say were an excellent choice for Scarygirl. The rest of the soundtrack is methodically awesome and diverse and fits the art well.

The character design is also well executed and Instead of words the game’s characters use delightfully simple kinetic graphic design and dotted lines to convey their thoughts which is totally sweet.

The game definitely has it’s kinks, but it’s well polished and it shows, and its a joy to play as the visuals are absolutely stunning.