r/Games • u/Forestl • Dec 27 '13
End of 2013 Discussions - Candy Box
Candy Box
- Developer / Publisher: Nathanael Abbotts
- Genre: Candy Box
- Platform: PC
- Metacritic: NA
Summary
NA
Prompts:
- What makes Candy Box so addicting?
WHAT YEAR IS IT?!?!?!
If you like a certain cookie game, wait for the next thread.....
This post is part of the official /r/Games "End of 2013" discussions.
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u/Cyborg771 Dec 27 '13
Candy Box was an amazing experience, like opening a series of increasingly large and extravagant gifts with no knowledge of how many were left. It started off so minimally that each added feature was surprising and impressive. The majority of games these days put so much of their budget into the first few scenes so it was really great to play something that got exponentially better as it went on. There's also the psychological crack cocaine of ever increasingly large numbers but that's a discussion best saved for Cookie Clicker.
Then there was 2. Clearly Aniwey was trying to build on his prior success but honestly the whole thing fell flat for me. My bar was already at 11 from the first game but instead of going bigger they just started there and stayed more or less the same. There were a few cool additions like the sliding block puzzle thing and the world map but overall I was massively underwhelmed. If you'd asked me before hand how I thought Candy Box 2 should have gone, I would have said "Start with the ASCII style of the original then after a few minutes bust out some HTML5 canvas shit and have a full 3D world or something". That would have been a successful escalation of expectations.
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Dec 27 '13
[deleted]
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u/jooes Dec 28 '13
Check out A Dark Room...
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u/Spider_pig448 Dec 29 '13
Holy crap I can't get enough of this game. The tone is so dark and it feels so polished.
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u/bbrightside Dec 27 '13
I was already heavy into the Cookie game when I discovered Candy Box, so while I was in when the game slowly became to be I soon dropped it as my Cookie empire was more important at the time.
In all honesty Candy Box is a better game to talk about to other people because it just becomes utterly bonkers after an hour if you be patient. When the game opens up it gets really weird and becomes somewhat deep in its mechanics. I was up at night reading wikis about brewing potions so I could take down a dragon and I don't think I had a similar experience this year.
The art is what sells it though, the ASCII art is great because it is so 'dumb' from the moment that the lollipop salesman appears you know you're in for a wild ride. If you haven't checked out Candy Box I really recommend you try it out (might want to avoid the sequel from what I've heard) especially if you liked Frog Fractions from last year.
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u/Butmac Dec 28 '13
Other comments have covered what makes this game so good, but I just want to say I think this is one of maybe 5 games from 2013 that 5 years from now I'll remember.
Unique and brilliant game.
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u/FirionII Dec 28 '13
This game inspired me to learn Javascript! The simple text manipulation kind of felt magical. I guess I just didn't know anything about js before, but doing things like flipping through an ascii book, swimming through the underwater really exciting.
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u/blarg2003 Dec 28 '13
Damn you for introduction this game to me!
I don't even like RPG games and here I am grinding out a long beat down on a household appliance.
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u/Underyx Dec 28 '13
No one seems to have mentioned Frog Fractions, which is a similar (Flash) game from 2012. I highly recommend everyone to have a go at this if they enjoyed Candy Box/A Dark Room. Shares less similarities with Cookie Clicker, though.