eternitys-child posts

Welcome to a new weekly column here on Big Download! Independent Minds aims to take various aspects of indie gaming and present them to you each week. From game round-ups to design elements to interviews with prominent members of the scene, it's an exploration of what makes indie gaming great as well as what makes someone an indie. The very first topic of conversation is something that, given the failure of Eternity's Child and the success of Braid, has been on a lot of minds: criticism. How do you respond to people tearing apart your most beloved works?

After receiving a perhaps overly harsh review of his Eternity's Child platformer, independent game designer Luc Bernard has proclaimed that he will never make another video game.

Eternity's Child is an episodic series of hand-drawn fairy tales created for WiiWare and PC, the latter platform seeing distribution via Valve's Steam service. Though critics and consumers are complimentary toward Bernard's fantastic art style, statements concerning the allegedly horrible gameplay were made in the comments thread of a Destructoid review, which prompted Bernard to angrily retort.

"Eternity's Child was fun to work on," writes Bernard, but he also admits that it was simultaneously horrible due to not have sufficient funds to develop the game.

Apparently fed up with the negativity, Bernard wrote that he plans to exit the industry "In a couple weeks ... with a big boom that no one is expecting, and it will even make haters shut up."

Gamers interested in a stylistic approach to 2D platforming should note the arrival of Eternity's Child on Valve's Steam digital distribution service. Even better, the visually appealing platformer developed by SilverSphere Studios is currently marked down 10 per cent from its standard price of $4.99, weighing in at only $4.49 until August 7.

Boasting "quirky" hand-drawn 2D graphics, Eternity's Child should be a breath of fresh air for gamers tired of the seemingly never-ending swarm of photorealistic shooters. Graphics can only look so realistic, but games such as Team Fortress 2 and Eternity's Child, which feature a unique stylized approach, can seem fresh due to the unique approach to aesthetics.