Before I say anything else, I want to state for the record I like strange games. Unfortunately, if a game is being touted as a bizarre tale I need to know a bit about the plot. In Sally Face, outside of the main character having a “prosthetic face” there’s little that we know. What exactly is a prosthetic face, anyway? It’s not mentioned beyond a short “That’s a story for another day” blurb at the bottom.
Based on what little I know about Sally Face, I like the idea but the pitch is a bit too anemic for my tastes. An adventure game, at its core, is the story and puzzles. Neither are adequately discussed in either the text nor video. The first episode is available for free, though.
When A Demo Isn’t Enough
Is there enough there to download and try out Sally Face? It’s certainly piqued my interest. Will I try out the demo? Probably, just to get a better understanding of the story. However, not everybody is going to play it. It’s important for developers crowdfunding a project to realize that while a demo is great, people need to have their interest piqued if they’re going to bother clicking that download button. For this reason, having something concrete in text or video about the plot is needed. Just a paragraph or two more in the case of Sally Face would help a lot.
The biggest issue I have with Sally Face, though, is it’s funding scheme. I hate IndieGogo’s “flexible funding” option. No matter how well or poorly a project does, it still gets whatever’s pledged. At least with this one, we sort of know what will happen if it doesn’t get every penny asked for. It just means fewer episodes will be released.
I don’t use IndieGogo for a variety of reasons, but the biggest one is regarding their “flexible funding” option. I don’t like seeing projects that go this route because they’ll get the money regardless of if they “fund” or not. I really do find Sally Face intriguing, but even if I do like what’s there so far I won’t be backing it on principle. I might pick it up when it releases, though.
So, I finally took the time to play the demo and I have to say that it’s really weird and creepy. Just the kind of game that I like. If it weren’t for being a flexible funding campaign I’d consider backing it now.