For round 11, each GameClub member thought up different themes we could have for our game suggestions. The theme ‘Matryoshka Matriculation’ was randomly selected for round 11 essentially meaning each suggestion needed to be a game filled with mini games.
Everything was simpler as a kid. It’s funny thinking back to what I might have been stressed about as a kid and comparing it to what I am stressed about today. In 2024, things I worry about include (and are not limited to): My own mental/physical health, keeping a job so I can continue making money to pay bills, maintaining relationships with friends & family members (this needs more attention), not letting down people who are counting on me, etc., etc., etc. As a kid, I was stressed about not making my parents mad/disappointed, what was on the lunch menu in the cafeteria, looking cool in front of my 2nd grade crush, and doing my homework. While they seem like small issues today, those were major concerns as a kid because those were the biggest problems I had ever experienced. I suppose each of the kid issues I listed (except the lunch menu one) had the potential to be life-altering in some way. It is just funny to compare the two sets of worries because my concerns now all seem to have major consequences if I make a wrong step in the tango. Who knows - maybe all of these concerns I have now will mean nothing to me if I make it another 20 years. For now, I am just glad I can still find time to engage with my favorite form of escapism — video games. For round 11, we selected a mobile game (noooo!) named
Pureya does not just have a bunch of mini games — it IS a bunch of mini games. The only text in the entire game is the game’s logo. Once you hit play, the game presents a left button, a right button, and the game window. Pureya throws the player into mini game after mini game played with just the left & right button - each one lasting around 10 seconds. Each game’s goal is to collect marbles. Once a certain number of games have been played, Pureya brings the player to a pachinko machine where the player shoots their collected marbles and earns new mini games and/or character skins for their existing mini games. The gameplay loop, while not necessarily that ‘fun’, is pretty addicting due to how fast everything moves. Before you know it, you are hopping to a new mini game and after you spend all your marbles on the pachinko machine, Pureya immediately throws you into the next round.
When click on the app for the first time, Pureya gives you its opening cutscene. This is (not a joke) my absolute favorite thing about the game. In the cutscene, a child is playing with their toys on the floor — action figures, a pirate ship, a firetruck, etc. They turn to see a bowl of marbles high up on a shelf and move to grab the bowl. The bowl is just a little too high and the child spills the marbles all of the floor near their toys. This is the set up for the game — The mini games you play are from the kid’s imagination. A pirate ship dodging cannonball fire from an enemy boat, an RC car driving through a soccer field(?), a spaceship shooting meteors.
The visuals are cute (compliment), but I think they could have used another coat of polish to bring them to the next level. Everything feels like cutting edge design for a 2011 mobile game, but this game was released in 2021. I think the graphics all just need a little bit of ‘funk’ in them. Something to make them distinct from much of the generic design I see.
Unfortunately, Pureya lacks substance and many of the mini games equate to the same thing - dodge/shoot and collect marbles. That aside, it is impressive how addicting the game can be. It feels like the developer really made a point to have the marble collection be 1:1 and because of this, the games all feel very similar. If I were to improve anything about Pureya, I would add in mini games that feel entirely different. I think you could come up with some really interesting mini games that aren’t just ‘collect marble’, but maybe at the end of them, the player gets a set number of marbles for succeeding.
While Pureya doesn’t have too much meat on its bones, it is pretty clear the game was made by a small team that is probably still cutting their teeth on game design. With this in mind, the game is pretty impressive, because I certainly could not make something like this with my current game design skills. If by some chance the person who came up with the idea of the marbles getting mixed in with the kid’s toys is reading this — I am a big fan.
I’ll be honest — this game didn’t distract me from my life worries for too long. But that’s okay! (maybe a good thing?) It felt good to write this review and think about a time when I would get lost in my imagination playing with toys. When my own worries weren’t as serious as they are now and when everything was just simpler.
"The story was my favorite part"
"Not a lot of fundamental flaws, but did not spark joy"
"I'm going to keep touching it"