Creator's Comments:
TheNewDerf [Creator]
Hey -- I appreciate everyone who has taken time to leave feedback, even though I don't make games anymore.
Just to clear up a common observation on XIFT: this game was part of a larger structure of games which all had certain states of mind as their theme. This game's theme was anxiety. That's the reason why the saves are invisible (to keep players in a state of unease), and it's the reason why the visuals force the player to constantly focus on reading the spikes, instead of passively relying on knowing their shape. These decisions clearly have quality-of-life drawbacks (as with most of the games I made, I was to a certain degree trying to alienate the player), but at the time I felt they were justified to make a unique experience which was different to a normal 50-floor needle game.
You can make your own mind up as to whether or not this was a worthwhile trade-off (just because these decisions were intentional doesn't mean they were good design choices for you, of course). I just wanted to leave this here for the people who think these decisions were thoughtless or arbitrary. Nothing in my games was ever thoughtless--even if a lot of what I made didn't work out the way I wanted it to, and in a lot of respects failed. I was a teenager, and a novice--but I was always passionate about fangames. I think a lot of people were like that, and that's part of the joy of the community.
[14] Likes
Just to clear up a common observation on XIFT: this game was part of a larger structure of games which all had certain states of mind as their theme. This game's theme was anxiety. That's the reason why the saves are invisible (to keep players in a state of unease), and it's the reason why the visuals force the player to constantly focus on reading the spikes, instead of passively relying on knowing their shape. These decisions clearly have quality-of-life drawbacks (as with most of the games I made, I was to a certain degree trying to alienate the player), but at the time I felt they were justified to make a unique experience which was different to a normal 50-floor needle game.
You can make your own mind up as to whether or not this was a worthwhile trade-off (just because these decisions were intentional doesn't mean they were good design choices for you, of course). I just wanted to leave this here for the people who think these decisions were thoughtless or arbitrary. Nothing in my games was ever thoughtless--even if a lot of what I made didn't work out the way I wanted it to, and in a lot of respects failed. I was a teenager, and a novice--but I was always passionate about fangames. I think a lot of people were like that, and that's part of the joy of the community.
Rating: N/A
Difficulty: N/A
Sep 14, 2019
61 Reviews:
Jopagu
XIFT is a supremely beautiful needle game that takes you on a psychedelic journey. The game leads you through the build up and then the wind down of a drug trip, and each act has a very distinct feel that really lends itself to the act's position in the game. The needle itself has a focus on precision, and yet there aren't an overabundance of <3f jumps, so there's no keyboard RNG which is fantastic to see. The visuals are perhaps the best I've seen in a fangame, and the definite highlight of XIFT.
The game's most notable feature is the lack of visible saves. You automatically save when you reach certain spots, but there's no indication when this happens. This creates great moments of tension as you're unsure if you're safe, or if you need to make another jump. The save placement is really good as well, the game really knows when to give you a lot of saves, or when to make you do an entire screen without any. This adds a lot to the game, and if the saves were visible I think it would be a much worse experience.
Overall, I cannot recommend this enough. I consider this one of the best overall needle games, and a must play for anyone who's skills are up to the test.
[1] Like
The game's most notable feature is the lack of visible saves. You automatically save when you reach certain spots, but there's no indication when this happens. This creates great moments of tension as you're unsure if you're safe, or if you need to make another jump. The save placement is really good as well, the game really knows when to give you a lot of saves, or when to make you do an entire screen without any. This adds a lot to the game, and if the saves were visible I think it would be a much worse experience.
Overall, I cannot recommend this enough. I consider this one of the best overall needle games, and a must play for anyone who's skills are up to the test.
Rating: 9.5 95
Difficulty: 60 60
Jul 26, 2022
voraciousreader
Some games are neither the most fun nor the most beautiful, but still very much worth playing for the experience, and XIFT is one of them.
[1] Like
Rating: 8.4 84
Difficulty: 58 58
Jul 21, 2022
Kilgour22
A game that starts off fairly enjoyable but gets progressively worse, culminating in a final stage that sacrifices fun for precision.
Pretty much every unconventional design aspect hindered my ability to have fun. Maybe other players are less picky about quality-of-life concerns, but for someone like myself, QoL is a huge part of my enjoyment.
If you're on the fence about trying it, first consider the following:
- Saves are invisible and automatic;
- You have no control over where the kid respawns;
- Blood lingers long after death, coating spikes and obstructing their perimeter;
- The visuals become increasingly obtuse as you progress, with the last stage even having invisible blocks on which to stand;
- Floating vines are an integral part to the platforming in later stages; and
- Many jumps require low frame inputs, making things easier if you can jump cancel.
Avoid this game like the plague if these harm your fun.
Pretty much every unconventional design aspect hindered my ability to have fun. Maybe other players are less picky about quality-of-life concerns, but for someone like myself, QoL is a huge part of my enjoyment.
If you're on the fence about trying it, first consider the following:
- Saves are invisible and automatic;
- You have no control over where the kid respawns;
- Blood lingers long after death, coating spikes and obstructing their perimeter;
- The visuals become increasingly obtuse as you progress, with the last stage even having invisible blocks on which to stand;
- Floating vines are an integral part to the platforming in later stages; and
- Many jumps require low frame inputs, making things easier if you can jump cancel.
Avoid this game like the plague if these harm your fun.
Tagged as: Needle
Visual_Challenge
[1] Like
Rating: 4.5 45
Difficulty: 60 60
Jun 29, 2022
cLOUDDEAD
Aesthetics and music choices are great (especially stage 4's song), however the needle feels lacking. most of it suffers from what most needle from this era of fangames suffers from, which is a compulsion to be super off-grid and trying to invent new spike placements without necessarily inventing new jumps, or having any regard for how fun or enjoyable a jump is in the first place. Despite this, the needle is fairly enjoyable, or at least I had a fun time with it. I definitely abused numpad cancels for this and I might not have needed to though. My main issue with this game is that the core concept, that being the anxiety created by not knowing when the next save is, falls completely and utterly flat. every screen follows roughly the same formula, of 2-3 precise jumps per save, with the save ALWAYS coming right after or right before a difficult jump. I always was able to accurately guess where the saves are due to how predictable and safe the balancing was. I think this mostly comes as a secondary side effect of the needle design. This concept would work far, far better with long consistency based saves, made up of easier, more lenient jumps. With the style of needle used here however, having longer or more unpredictable save placement would have skyrocketed the difficulty, and it seems that the core concept of the game was sacrificed rather than the design of the needle, which is unfortunate to say the least. Some of the most egregious cases involve single jump saves, and there were only 3 saves that caught me off guard by not giving me a save when I thought I would have received one. All 3 of these instances occurred in stage 5, and 2 of them were 4 jump linear corridors that I expected to be 2 jump saves but instead were 4 jump saves. The final instance was the final screen, which I suspect was a 1 save screen but I don't know because I first tried everything after the 4th jump since it was all very very easy.
No rating given, because I don't wish to align myself with the low ratings (who complain about trivial things or complain about the parts of the game that are (or could have) made it great, such as the unusual visuals and the main idea behind the saves), nor do I think this game really deserves a low rating, since that usually indicates a poor experience. This game is still fun, bottom line. I just think the primary idea and emotion it tried to communicate through gameplay completely and utterly failed.
[1] Like
No rating given, because I don't wish to align myself with the low ratings (who complain about trivial things or complain about the parts of the game that are (or could have) made it great, such as the unusual visuals and the main idea behind the saves), nor do I think this game really deserves a low rating, since that usually indicates a poor experience. This game is still fun, bottom line. I just think the primary idea and emotion it tried to communicate through gameplay completely and utterly failed.
Rating: N/A
Difficulty: 65 65
Sep 16, 2021
29th_letter
Really unique game. Some things were a little annoying, but nothing too bad
[1] Like
Rating: 8.0 80
Difficulty: 57 57
Aug 25, 2020