Absolutely adore this game. The prompts are well written and inspiring, providing just enough detail to really get your imagination going. They're not too vague or too specific.
The fact that you're describing a world through the eyes of a character just adds so much character to the descriptions. Near the end of my playthrough I stumbled upon a place that was just so obviously where my character came from, even though I started the game not knowing anything about them aside from their name.
The countdown too added a lot to the story. I found myself stretching it as much as possible, and then feeling so sad for the areas of the world I had to leave behind without documenting them.
It's just amazing how powerful a worldbuilding and storytelling tool this is. I've been working with this world for weeks now, using it as the setting for a novel. But aside from that it's also just a great game that I'll definitely play many more times. It definitely tugs at your emotions, to describe a world that will soon be destroyed or lost by whatever you decide the doom to be.
I've played a couple of other Carta games but this is my favourite so far. I really liked the combination of drawing and journalling, and as a cartography game I appreciate the simplicity (others I've looked at have often been a bit intimidating). From a game design point of view, I thought that having to balance the countdown with trying to maximise traversal was smart (though I forgot about the latter until about halfway through my playthrough, so still had quite a bit left on my countdown by the end--my bad).
As a storygen tool, I like how much of the worldbuilding is left to the player. There's a lot of freedom here.
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Absolutely adore this game. The prompts are well written and inspiring, providing just enough detail to really get your imagination going. They're not too vague or too specific.
The fact that you're describing a world through the eyes of a character just adds so much character to the descriptions. Near the end of my playthrough I stumbled upon a place that was just so obviously where my character came from, even though I started the game not knowing anything about them aside from their name.
The countdown too added a lot to the story. I found myself stretching it as much as possible, and then feeling so sad for the areas of the world I had to leave behind without documenting them.
It's just amazing how powerful a worldbuilding and storytelling tool this is. I've been working with this world for weeks now, using it as the setting for a novel. But aside from that it's also just a great game that I'll definitely play many more times. It definitely tugs at your emotions, to describe a world that will soon be destroyed or lost by whatever you decide the doom to be.
Thanks for the nice review!
I'm glad it's being a helpful tool to help create your stories :)
I've played a couple of other Carta games but this is my favourite so far. I really liked the combination of drawing and journalling, and as a cartography game I appreciate the simplicity (others I've looked at have often been a bit intimidating). From a game design point of view, I thought that having to balance the countdown with trying to maximise traversal was smart (though I forgot about the latter until about halfway through my playthrough, so still had quite a bit left on my countdown by the end--my bad).
As a storygen tool, I like how much of the worldbuilding is left to the player. There's a lot of freedom here.
Thanks for the game!
Thanks for the review!
I'm glad you enjoyed the game : )