TheNewDerf's Profile

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Joined on: Jun 28, 2017

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if you're reading this i'm asleep

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33 Ratings!
24 Reviews!
2 Screenshots!

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24 Reviews

TheNewDerf
For: Fangame: UNLIMITED
Rating a game like this feels perverse. As if it needs a rating. As if saying "10.0" is a meaningful statement to make. It's almost insulting -- that I think my opinion on a game by fucking tijit is worth reading.

Regardless, this game is -- to risk a cliche -- fresh but familiar. Dare I say that it reinvents what a fangame is? Not in some crazy, look-at-me, experimental way. But in a deep, subtle way. It's Fangame if Fangame was made in 2024. What a dumb statement! But it's true...

I can't think of another fangame which is actually aimed at newcomers and isn't just a 60 diff needle game. I can't think of another fangame which goes back to basics of old adventure fangame feel, while retaining all of the polish and 'accessibility' of post-Celeste precision platformers. f:U sits alone in rethinking fundamental questions about what a fangame should look like.



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[9] Likes
Rating: 10.0 100       Difficulty: N/A
Oct 18, 2024
TheNewDerf
For: I Wanna Go For Another Ride
One of the beautiful things about fangames is that, from a simple set of core ingredients, people are able to express so much of their own unique identity. The rapid-fire avoidance-platforming memescape that Randy's games explore feels so fresh to me every time I play it. In many ways it leans into things I am not generally fond of -- and yet it manages to be so compelling and fun. I think it's a real testament to Randy's aesthetic sensibilities that between the chaos and irony and joking, every so often something small and emotional peaks out -- the telephone across the screen at the close of final avoidance strikes me as one of those moments.

Now onto the negatives about this game -- the reviews. Most of them suck.

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[4] Likes
Rating: 10.0 100       Difficulty: 50 50
Jan 10, 2024
TheNewDerf
For: I wanna Impeach The President of the United States
it's a watergate

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Watergate_scandal

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Tagged as: its_a_watergate
[3] Likes
Rating: 10.0 100       Difficulty: 10 10
Sep 22, 2023
TheNewDerf
For: I Wanna Escape Into My Mind
As works of art, fangames have the capacity to act as vehicles for deeply personal story-telling. In that vein, I Wanna Escape Into My Mind perfectly balances overt expression and narrative abstraction. The overall contour of the story is clear, but there's enough fuzziness around the edges to make it exciting to engage with.

For instance, the alcohol gimmick is an intuitive way to illustrate a particular relationship that one can develop with alcohol. The more you drink, the less you see the real world for what it is, but that in itself can help your mind temporarily escape elements of the real world which are traumatic or damaging. It's not a permanent or healthy solution, and I don't think the game suggests it is -- but the games does do, is show a very human vulnerability through level design.

Other parts of the game's design, however, are less clear-cut. Eyes that follow and grab at the player reflect how we can become trapped in someone else's gaze -- someone else's *idea* of what we should be. But where do the ghosts fit in? I'm not sure -- but I'm looking forward to seeing how a second play-through makes me re-think these things. I'm also interested in hearing if people interpreted parts of this game the same way I did: i.e., are the biblically-accurate angels a play on the idea that the way we idealize things, like angels, is often far removed from reality?

It's almost a given that telling a symbolic / emotional story will result in at least one or two accusations of meaninglessness or weird-for-the-sake-of-weird-ness. Not every artistic desicion this game makes is immediately and obviously decipherable -- however, I do think that, more than just being technically gifted, Jane's art shines for its emotional resonance. This game takes you on a very personal journey that few other fangames could match.

There's a lot I loved about this game on a mechanical level: the slightly off-kilter physics which only heighten the games central themes; the high octane set pieces (j'adore Void Kid); and the rad bosses. I'm not in love with every gimmick, or indeed every song choice -- but, I rarely had to wait long for something new to appear. I could be more granular about my criticisms of this game, though it feels like it would miss the point to nitpick missing QoL features, or less-than-ideal engine quirks (like the room transitions). At the end of the day, this game illustrates a level of creativity and ambition I hope to see more of.

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[8] Likes
Rating: 10.0 100       Difficulty: 59 59
Aug 10, 2023
TheNewDerf
For: I wanna be the Oblique Torment
Of all the games that have been inspired by HB2, this comes the closest to feeling like it could be part of that world. For that reason, as I played this game I experienced an intense wave of grief. Grief for a lost time when I could spend days making strange and inscrutable works of art with my friends, and could drop them in a small puddle of a community, watching the ripples spread out. Now our community is more like an ocean -- deeper, vaster -- for better or worse. So things change, so things stay the same -- a game like this gets low ratings, and the maker wears their insecurities on their sleeve.

<i>Oblique Torment</i> is rough around the edges. But the fish boss and the 'Something is missing...' screens are oddly beautiful and promises, I think, of something greater. My overall reaction to this game is, obviously, personal -- but, I still think games like this have more to give than most other fangames. My main advice to the maker is this: exorcise HB2 from your system, but keep hold of the irreverance and creativity. Making fangames is tough work, and maybe people won't appreciate your work in the moment, but you will, hopefully, reach a point where you can look back and be proud of what you've made on your own terms. When you get there, it's worth more than any DelFruit review could ever say.

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Tagged as: temporal_mirror
[10] Likes
Rating: 10.0 100       Difficulty: 50 50
Aug 6, 2023

5 Games

GameDifficultyAverage Rating# of Ratings
Derf Engine 97.0 1.0 4
Holocene Juveniliax 71.0 9.3 6
Homunculus 35.3 7.3 8
Shiz Nits 49.5 8.4 18
XIFT 57.1 7.9 65