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yellowwincenature

Dark Nugget

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Gifted Games Reviews #3: Universe for Sale​

After waking up on a rainy evening in a rusty-looking district, we enter the only open place: a small teahouse. There the owner and other visitors tell us about the Jupiter colony and acid rains, about the Church of Many Gods and the cultists, about intelligent apes and strange local cats. There we meet a girl with tentacle hair who can create universes...

Okay, let's talk about the game. "Universe for Sale" is a linear visual novel with extras. These extras include a couple of puzzles (pretty easy), short point-and-click segments, and the process of creating universes. That's right, throughout the game, we play as two characters: a being whose floating-over-shoulders head looks like a skeleton and the girl with tentacle hair I mentioned before. Day by day, the story unfolds, and in the end we can see the whole picture. Will this story satisfy people? Well, I’d say rather yes than no, but there’s clearly a group of people who will be more deeply impacted than others.

Pros and Cons time!

Pros.
1. Art. It's outstanding. And I mean it. First of all, just thinking about how it was all hand-drawn blows your mind. More than that: it imitates 3D with 2D drawings. That alone justifies the existence of the game.
2. World. The universe in which the game takes place is interesting. But you may miss it if you’re skipping through unnecessary conversations with NPCs. All the small details build the world, and the game would be lesser without them.
3. Weather effects. You can almost feel the rain, wind, and thunder.
4. Universe creation. We have several segments where we play as the girl selling the universes she creates. The business plan is pretty straightforward: we get a client, they state what they need (sometimes very vaguely), we create a suitable universe by mixing two out of six ingredients and shaping it, and then we sell it to get money to buy unnecessary stuff for the house. If you can't create what was requested, no worries – several mistakes, and the customer will leave, and a new one will take their place. You can’t really lose anything. I was stunned not by the idea of that market, but by the girl herself. She has the power to create universes, and she doesn’t care. If you want a universe to study "impossible" plants – here, take this. If you want a universe you can use as a ball to play with – here’s one for you. Oh, you want something yellow? No problem! Made a mistake? Well... destroying a universe is as easy as creating one. Truth be told, I’m not really sure how I feel about that.

Cons.
1. Fake choices. Sometimes during conversations, we have the option to choose between two opposite replies like "I agree" and "I don’t agree." Pick whatever you want; it will affect nothing but exactly the next line. As they say, "yeah-yeah, ANYWAY..."
2. Text bubbles. There are some you can’t skip, and they become annoying. For example, after each mistake during the universe creation segments, we have the exact same dialogue with the same customer until we get it right or he leaves. You can’t go back to a previous bubble without reloading the save if you accidentally clicked before finishing reading.
3. World. Yes, the same one I mentioned in the pros. I really wish we could dive deeper into this world. It has so much to tell us, and yet we get so little. There could be so many more stories...

I didn’t mention several important things. Soundtrack. It exists. It neither disturbs nor adds much to the game. During the universe creation segments, it may become repetitive and annoying, but there’s an in-game switch to turn it off. Plot. I didn’t get attached to the characters enough to be greatly impacted by the story. It’s not bad – on the contrary, it’s nice (mostly because of the intriguing world) – but I just think it could be much better.

It took me about 7 hours to beat the game, and my final conclusion is that "Universe for Sale" is a good game. Not as good as Steam’s rating suggests (95%), but definitely top-25%. And, again, the art is magnificent.

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Last edited:
whatnitrus

WhatNitrous

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ivo-ivic said:
It's called Ren'Py for a reason. 🤷‍♂️
Click to expand...
You ever try Quick Basic? Hell even python itself is made in C/C++ and it has almost zero code from actual C++ syntax...when I say its python I mean raw python.

Actually one of the tricks i've picked up is using @pure which actually works as if writtin in raw python (the equivalent of using assembler in C++ instead of inline assembler, since pure python is well...straight python only and nothing external--faster)

I was looking for something on the pure statement and came across this which was pretty funny.

chrome_screenshot_Oct 12, 2024 3_35_11 PM EDT.png
 
Last edited:
syleox

syleox

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whatnitrus said:
You ever try Quick Basic? Hell even python itself is made in C/C++ and it has almost zero code from actual C++ syntax...when I say its python I mean raw python.

Actually one of the tricks i've picked up is using @pure which actually works as if writtin in raw python (the equivalent of using assembler in C++ instead of inline assembler, since pure python is well...straight python only and nothing external--faster)

I was looking for something on the pure statement and came across this which was pretty funny.

View attachment 19830
Click to expand...
math-hmm.gif
 
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