Your Doodles Are Bugged – Review
| Game Name: | Your Doodles Are Bugged |
| Platforms: | Steam, PC, XBLA Indie Games |
| Publisher(s): | Blitz 1Up |
| Developer(s): | Spyn Doctor Games |
| Genre(s): | Casual, Indie, Family Games |
| Release Date: | Available Now |
| ESRB Rating: | Everyone |
Your Doodles Are Bugged is a delightful little puzzle game that is sure to challenge as well as charm. It first appeared on the Xbox Live Indie Games Channel in February and is now available on PC and Steam. I sat down with the Steam version and not having much of an idea going in what to expect, and I was pleasantly surprised.
The similarities to Lemmings or even World of Goo are immediately apparent, but with enough of it’s own twist to make this game stand on it’s own. The basic mechanic is that there are a set amount of bugs in each level that hop about, looking for a path to lead them to a pot of honey. It’s your job to use the pen you control via mouse, to doodle ramps. steps, bridges and the like to help the bugs get to the sweet nectar. There are a few basic tutorial missions which allow you to doodle to your hearts content, but when the real game starts, your on your own and have limited ink supply to use.
Simple to learn, hard to master is the theme here. When you are faced with limited ink, you have to figure out how to corral the bugs to checkpoints so you can go back and erase earlier doodles to proceed. The bugs seemingly have a mind of their own and don’t always do what you need them to do, so figuring out how to get the best completion times can be flummoxing. The game does provide a fast forward button, so that when you do make that perfect masterpiece of artistic engineering, you don’t have to sit and wait for every last bug to slowly get to the promise land.
For such a small price, there is a ton of content here. The game includes a robust set of main game missions, each level much more challenging than the last. There is also a Doodle level editor so that you can create your own puzzles which can then be uploaded to the game’s website, you unlock more creation elements as you finish the main puzzles. Conversely you can download and import an unlimited amount of user generated content, and there is also deviously challenging dlc already included in the game.Once you finish all of the main puzzles, you also unlock the free play arena where you can do whatever you want. The game also includes steam achievements and local and global leader boards to boast your best scores.
The art style as you can see from the screen shots is simple and crisp, yet beautiful and elegant. The animation for the little doodle bugs is visually effective, and made me laugh a few times as I played the game with my own custom soundtrack and I swear sometimes they were dancing in time to U2′s “Beautiful Day”. For such a small price, this game offers quite a bit and you would be doing yourself a disservice to pass it up. I enjoyed my time with this little indie title and look forward to what is next from the developer. I give “Your Doodles Are Bugged” a solid 4 out 5 stars.
