Little Inferno - Burn, baby, burn!

It's already been mentioned in the "Upcoming Indie Games" post, but as Little Inferno is approaching its release I think it deserves its own thread. Especially since there's some hints etc. people may want to share.

Synopsis: Little Inferno is being developed by Kyle Gabler (World of Goo), Allan Blomquist (World of Goo Wii) and Kyle Gray (Henry Hatsworth). It's remarkably simple: You toss items into a fireplace and watch them burn. Once stuff burns up, you'll get money which is to be used to buy more stuff to be burned. There's a semantic relationship between specific pairs or triples of items if you burn them at the same time - by finding such combos you unlock more catalogues to buy stuff from. There's a small narrative woven into the game as you're receiving letters from your neighbor and the 'weatherman'.

If you're pre-ordered (as I did), you can now access a Windows beta of the game. Tried it out - and as simple as it sounds, it's fascinatingly entertaining. You'd think that setting fire to stuff gets boring after five minutes* - it somehow doesn't. The game has also some nice particle systems and physics going. Also: no time limits, no score = completely stress-free experience.

Windows and Wii U versions will be released on Nov. 18th, Mac/Linux to come. I'd be highly surprised if they don't release an iOS/Android version at some point down the road because it would/will work really great with touch controls.

*Alright, alright - "guys" will probably never ever cease to be entertaining by igniting things.

I'm definitely intrigued by this although I expect the story will be as disjointed/tangential as World of Goo's was. Since I'm getting a WiiU, I think I'm waiting on reviews to determine if PC or WiiU is the way to go with this.

Does the behavior of the fire and smoke change depending on what you burn?

'Cause if so... um, yeah, I'm a closeted pyro and will probably get this.

Whee!

@shoptroll: Yeah, if will get a Wii U, it's a good idea to wait for the reviews. It's definitely something that could work really well with touch. That said, I currently have no intention to get a Wii U, so I simply went for the PC version. Side note: The devs are selling the PC version directly through the Humble Store, so it's DRM-free.

@Farscry: Haven't paid particularly attention the smoke - stuff does smoke, and it's nicely animated though. As for the rest: Yes, plush toys, spiders, and nukes do have different burn properties.

I was actually pretty cool on World of Goo, and I can't even get my head around where the appeal of this game lies. I'm going to try my damnedest not to buy it in a fit of "I need to buy everything on my new console ASAP."

Steam pre-order page is up for those interested

Judging by the store description they're using some iOS specific language (IAP vs. DLC), so I think I'll wait to find out which platform this plays best on.

New trailer. Note: The hand is just added to the video in order to show how touch controls work in the case of the Wii U version. In the PC version you simply use your mouse cursor.

As charming as World of Goo was- this is something I have to get. I can't see picking it up now as I'm buried in two other games, but I'm super interested to hear more about it once people start giving it a go.

I believe I've been playing the 0.8 beta version, but it seems pretty complete. It's really a very simple game and most of the draw seems to be aesthetic, very much feels like World of Goo. The gameplay mostly involves trying to figure out combinations of things to burn together based on the name of the combo. There may be a bigger meta puzzle going on but as far as I can tell you mostly just want to find combos and buy every item at least once. The way you get things to burn just feels like a parody mechanic of social games, you have to click on coins that pop out of items after you burn them but they're not a very limited resource. It also takes time for an item to be delivered but you can shortcut that using stamps that either drop randomly or you get for finding combos. It seems like these systems are mostly in place to just get you to puzzle your way through the combos rather than just randomly trying everything with everything else.

Love the people working on it, but are the trailers underwhelming in terms of showing what gameplay will be like?

Looks utterly psychotic. I can't decide if that's a good thing or a bad thing.

garion333 wrote:

Love the people working on it, but are the trailers underwhelming in terms of showing what gameplay will be like?

I watched some of the Giantbomb WiiU livestream. They made it seem like it was much less of a "game" than world of goo. Mostly just spending coins to get items to burn, which, depending on the combos (putting a Sea Captain doll and a toy boat in the fire at the same time, for example), gets you more coins. Looked like a fun pick-up-n-play with kids kind of game.

Sounds a bit like Doodle God. Should be fun time waster if anything.

Undoubtedly, the audience Little Inferno will appeal to is smaller than the one World of Goo was able to reach. It's certainly not for everyone as some players will go: "Wait, that's it? You put stuff in a fireplace and burn it?!" You can't die, you basically can't do anything wrong, there's no time pressure, and there's no score. The only challenge there is the use of your imagination and logic to guess the combos. As for myself: I just love toying around with physics/particle simulation in games and simply wasted hours on this solely creating chain reactions and whatnot.

Spoiler:

The 'ending' makes me wish they did an adventure game or platformer - I just adore the weird impression of depth/perspective you get there.

shoptroll wrote:

Sounds a bit like Doodle God. Should be fun time waster if anything.

Funny, that's the exact reference Jeff made on the stream.

I usually find it easy to anticipate the next game a dev makes after a great one. But they've done a terrible job marketing this game, which is to stay, they haven't. I don't get it at all. If a dev can't even be bothered to promote their own game, why should I give it the time of day? I doesn't seem like they care, so I don't care. Which is perfect in this case, because it seems like such a throwaway game.

Interesting interview: http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/i...

Kyle Gabler: You may have heard of the Yule Log TV program - the burning log you find on TV around the winter months or in hotel rooms. It started in 1967 by a TV station in New York, originally as a 17 second loop of a flaming log. And we thought "Man, that's like a super boring game that some awful company will totally make for the Wii or smartphones." And then "Wait, WE could be that awful company! But I wonder if we can start with an exceptionally underwhelming premise, but then actually make the game really really surprisingly good?" And Little Inferno is the result. We hope we've succeeded!
We believe the best way to make people interested in our games is not to talk endlessly about them ourselves, but to make games that people want to talk about. Games that are good. Games that are different. Games that people will remember years from now.

That said, I finished the game earlier and it's just not nearly as good as World of Goo. While it's still a charming game, its appeal as a game is limited. I think you can finish the game easily without worrying about the combos so for the most part the goal of the game seems to be to play with all the items. Many of the items have cool effects, but a lot of them just limply burn in the fireplace. The later combos are hard to experiment with because you end up exhausting your stamps and coins, the stamps especially don't come fast enough. If you don't understand the clue for a combo then doing trial and error is just frustrating. I will say that it's surprising that the game is as good as it is given its initial half-baked premise, but it's still hard to recommend it except as a curiosity.

cyrax wrote:
shoptroll wrote:

Sounds a bit like Doodle God. Should be fun time waster if anything.

Funny, that's the exact reference Jeff made on the stream.

I usually find it easy to anticipate the next game a dev makes after a great one. But they've done a terrible job marketing this game, which is to stay, they haven't. I don't get it at all. If a dev can't even be bothered to promote their own game, why should I give it the time of day? I doesn't seem like they care, so I don't care. Which is perfect in this case, because it seems like such a throwaway game.

Erm, marketing does cost a good bit of change. Also, that criticism should be more readily leveled at the distributor than the dev. I don't mind seeing past the advertising- and would use Super Meat Boy as a game that initially simply didn't have (to my mind) any marketing push. Still loved the game.

I am interested in playing this game, but am curious where the game is- I wonder if the experience is simply more than the description (burn for combo, repeat).

I don't think that's much of a valid excuse given the three man dev team. It's not like they work for a dev and contract the trailers out (which they still might do), they are the devs. The Goo team had at least some gameplay in their pre-release videos.

cyrax wrote:

The Goo team had at least some gameplay in their pre-release videos.

I thought with the initial trailer, they were intentionally being cryptic, as if there was going to be a lot more to the game than just putting things in a fireplace and burning it. At this point, I'm almost at the very end of the game (from what I can tell), and I can tell you that all there is to the game is: buy items, drag items into fireplace, click items to set them on fire, watch them burn, collect money, repeat. What you see in the trailers is pretty much the extent of the gameplay.

This game is going to get really polarized reviews, I predict. I think people that liked World of Goo more for its aesthetic are going to like this, as Kyle Gabler did the art and music for both games (as well as design and other aspects of the game). I think people that liked World of Goo for its puzzle gameplay are going to be really disappointed in Little Inferno.

Bought it, having fun.

It's relaxing.

I'm having a lot of fun with it too. I don't even know why, but I'm enjoying it immensely. The story really keeps you going, I think.

I want the ipad version to come out.

This is an odd, twisted game. And yet, it's strangely entertaining.

I'm enjoying the game. I'm surprised so few people on my friends list have it.

It's simple but it's perfect for when I'm watching TV and want to game in the background rather than vice versa.

So this came out for the iPad this week. For $4.99 you can burn many many things.

Also, I didn't realize how dark this game would be until I set fire to a bus of schoolchildren. My god, the screams!

Spent last night sucked into this. I would play more facebook games if they were like this. It makes my brain hurt trying to decide if I can't do a combo yet with what I have, or if I'm just too dumb to do the combo.

I think any combo that isn't greyed out you do have the items available.

I don't know what the different colored borders of the items in the catalogue mean. Just that you've ordered them?

I think that if it's not greyed out, it means you have at least one of the items available, but not necessarily both. I'm pretty sure there are a few that are active when you get the first catalog, but you can't complete until you get the second or third. I'd have to double check though.

I've been assuming that gold borders mean you've finished all combos with that item. I hope I'm right, because I've been ignoring the gold border items for combo solving.

The first and only time I played the game, I spent 4 hours without realizing it. I had to see the ending before I was able to quit and go to bed.

I bought it again for the Wii U.