Colossal has a lot to say about how we seek meaning from the symbols and images of our daily lives, and it does so with a magic so subtle that you might not see it at first read.
I played Colossal with a friend over lunch using a standard deck of 52 cards, and you would be shocked how much can be pulled out of even that. Our story felt important, and the community was full of life and character.
The game itself is very nice to look at, and the instructions are both evocative and clear. Would recommend it to anyone.
This game looks pretty and interesting. :3 Imma try to play it although I'm a bit curious about how to use a playlist as divination, do I put it on Random and try to interpret the meaning of the Song in the game's context? :3
Hey, I stumbled upon your jam entry and would like to share few thoughts with you, if you don't mind.
I used my personal AMUSE rating system for review process in which the game can get up to 2 points in each of 5 categories. Let's not waste any more time, the sea creature won't stay here forever.
Aesthetics 2/2
Although the cover image for the itch.io page is not the best available, the rulebook itself is one of the best formatted documents in the Jam. I like almost everything - font choice, alignment, text formatting, usage of colors. The only downside I personally find is the coral background in the colored version. The worn-out desaturated version available as the overview on the page is much, much better.
Edit: I found out that originally I read the Seaweed Edition as "Sweeden Edition", making me think the author is swedish. My apologies and even bigger thumbs up for actual seaweed edition, which is really charming!
Mechanics 1/2
The game does not have lots of mechanics and choice of core interpretational mechanic of communication with the Creature is thrown to choose by reader. That's a big downside for me, as the only thing mechanically related to the rules is setup of the seaside and village, and creation of the villager, an alter-ego of the player. Those sections contain even some helpful lists to choose from, but still, it is not enough to carry whole gameplay.
And it would be a nice gameplay, as the initial theme is charming and game flow division into seven days carries some potential.
Universe 1/2
The universe in this game is left almost completely undescribed and the only thing reader is left with is semi-defined location of the village. However, that itself is quite enough for imagination itself to start doing its magic. Visuals of the rulebook help to setup the mood and few surroundings that players create before the gameplay itself can be enough to hold whole game. On the other side, I can imagine that players with creational block can be discouraged to create the village and its people with so little ideas offered.
Supplements 1/2
I already mentioned that above - the rulebook is airy and formatted with enough empty space so it is a joy to read, but, sadly, that also means it lacks more stuff to give to the reader to play with.
There are two lists of adjectives to create the village, one list of questions to answer each day and a random table to roll for the sea creature's kin. It's really not that much. I'd welcome at least some ideas for player character's struggles, or random unnatural details for the creature to have (glittering skin, extra pair of tentacles, rainbow aura...). As those lists would take only about 6 lines of text, I'd definitely try to implement them in there, just to provide some additional content to the game.
Experience 2/2
The initial experience of reading this rulebook was overly positive and despite mechanic flaws of the game, I still enjoy reading it. This is one of the examples of the form above content, as the game is a pleasure to read and sparks the imagination barely by the clean text formatting. On the other side, the lack of the core resolution/interpretation mechanic of the communication between the sea creature and player characters is a downside that lots of players won't forgive and put the game aside. For those who like just to sit down and meditate a bit though, it is a really nice little game written in a way even someone without extensive RPG history will be able to experience.
Thanks for the kind words & actionable feedback! I have been thinking about making a beefier, more-than-one-page version, and you've certainly given me a lot to consider. Glad you enjoyed reading it!
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Colossal has a lot to say about how we seek meaning from the symbols and images of our daily lives, and it does so with a magic so subtle that you might not see it at first read.
I played Colossal with a friend over lunch using a standard deck of 52 cards, and you would be shocked how much can be pulled out of even that. Our story felt important, and the community was full of life and character.
The game itself is very nice to look at, and the instructions are both evocative and clear. Would recommend it to anyone.
Hello, this looks really cool! Are there anymore community copies?
Just added a few more!
Thank you very much
This looks really interesting! I don't suppose any community copies are on the way?
Thanks for checking it out! Just added a few more community copies :)
Oh wow, thank you! I'm going to try it out right now.
This game looks pretty and interesting. :3 Imma try to play it although I'm a bit curious about how to use a playlist as divination, do I put it on Random and try to interpret the meaning of the Song in the game's context? :3
Yup, that's exactly it! You'll want to interpret some meaning from the song that relates to your character's situation. Thanks for checking it out!
Hey, I stumbled upon your jam entry and would like to share few thoughts with you, if you don't mind.
I used my personal AMUSE rating system for review process in which the game can get up to 2 points in each of 5 categories. Let's not waste any more time, the sea creature won't stay here forever.
Aesthetics 2/2
Although the cover image for the itch.io page is not the best available, the rulebook itself is one of the best formatted documents in the Jam. I like almost everything - font choice, alignment, text formatting, usage of colors. The only downside I personally find is the coral background in the colored version. The worn-out desaturated version available as the overview on the page is much, much better.
Edit: I found out that originally I read the Seaweed Edition as "Sweeden Edition", making me think the author is swedish. My apologies and even bigger thumbs up for actual seaweed edition, which is really charming!
Mechanics 1/2
The game does not have lots of mechanics and choice of core interpretational mechanic of communication with the Creature is thrown to choose by reader. That's a big downside for me, as the only thing mechanically related to the rules is setup of the seaside and village, and creation of the villager, an alter-ego of the player. Those sections contain even some helpful lists to choose from, but still, it is not enough to carry whole gameplay.
And it would be a nice gameplay, as the initial theme is charming and game flow division into seven days carries some potential.
Universe 1/2
The universe in this game is left almost completely undescribed and the only thing reader is left with is semi-defined location of the village. However, that itself is quite enough for imagination itself to start doing its magic. Visuals of the rulebook help to setup the mood and few surroundings that players create before the gameplay itself can be enough to hold whole game. On the other side, I can imagine that players with creational block can be discouraged to create the village and its people with so little ideas offered.
Supplements 1/2
I already mentioned that above - the rulebook is airy and formatted with enough empty space so it is a joy to read, but, sadly, that also means it lacks more stuff to give to the reader to play with.
There are two lists of adjectives to create the village, one list of questions to answer each day and a random table to roll for the sea creature's kin. It's really not that much. I'd welcome at least some ideas for player character's struggles, or random unnatural details for the creature to have (glittering skin, extra pair of tentacles, rainbow aura...). As those lists would take only about 6 lines of text, I'd definitely try to implement them in there, just to provide some additional content to the game.
Experience 2/2
The initial experience of reading this rulebook was overly positive and despite mechanic flaws of the game, I still enjoy reading it. This is one of the examples of the form above content, as the game is a pleasure to read and sparks the imagination barely by the clean text formatting. On the other side, the lack of the core resolution/interpretation mechanic of the communication between the sea creature and player characters is a downside that lots of players won't forgive and put the game aside. For those who like just to sit down and meditate a bit though, it is a really nice little game written in a way even someone without extensive RPG history will be able to experience.
Total AMUSE score: 7/10
Thanks for the kind words & actionable feedback! I have been thinking about making a beefier, more-than-one-page version, and you've certainly given me a lot to consider. Glad you enjoyed reading it!