Steam’s Next Fest has shown off a slew of upcoming games, with hundreds of demos out now for free. One such demo I got to try was The Electrifying Incident: A Monster Mini-Expedition from puzzle game developer, Draknek & Friends.
While not a direct spin-off, The Electrifying Incident: A Monster Mini-Expedition does share a similar title to the developer’s previous game, A Monster’s Expedition. Carrying over from the past game is the black blob protagonist. Though this time around, we’re treated to less log-pushing and more box-grabbing.
What we’re already seeing:
The Electrifying Incident is going to be a small game, so there wasn’t too much to cover from the demo. Completing the demo only took about 15 minutes. From what I saw in this preview, it seems that Draknek & Friends are continuing their trend of tiled puzzle games.
In The Electrifying Incident, it’s up to you to investigate a malfunctioning reactor. Along the way you’ve gotta open doors and avoid getting electrocuted. At your disposal is an extendable claw arm, helping you to pick up boxes. Those boxes can then be used to press down button tiles, causing doors to open, electrified tiles to shut off, or any number of other things. Most of this information is discovered as you play, as there isn’t much of a tutorial.
The game is quite simple from a gameplay design standpoint. You can move in four directions, pick up boxes from various distances, but you’re limited in space and movement. For example, the player can’t orient themselves in place, making it challenging to get set up the correct distance from a box.
Oddly enough, movement thus far has seemed a little too fluid, so much so that it took me a while before I realized walking was grid based. It’s a weird feeling to describe, but it was disorienting at first when the animation is so smooth that your concept of your orientation around the space falls apart.
As a whole, the level design is what really makes this puzzle game a puzzle. There’s walls, chasms, and electrified floors, all to restrict how you move around the map. Playing The Electrifying Incident, you’ve gotta think spatially, or else you’ll… fry.
Visually, there’s a cute minimalistic style going on. The scenes are mostly a sterile white, but that means that the splashes of color here and there really pop. Everything comes together to produce the cartoony power plant atmosphere that Draknek & Friends seems to be going for.
Speaking on the audio, there is a bit of disconnect between the menu and the actual game. I found that the menu music was very fitting for a puzzle game: pretty calm and relaxing. Then, actually playing the level, you’re hit with a much louder electronic soundtrack, not bad, but certainly not what I was expecting.
Looking forward:
There are a few rough edges in gameplay that I hope get smoothed out. There isn’t a tutorial or much instruction—which may seem like cheating to you puzzle nerds out there—but for a dumb-dumb like me, was frustrating at first. A lot of the enjoyment I got out of this demo came when I got the hang of it, despite any challenges I faced at first.
At this point, it’s probably too late to rework the soundtrack, so some audio balancing work might also be needed. Though luckily, the demo did come with audio sliders for sensitive baby ears such as mine.
The gameplay shown in this demo has thus far been pretty simple, with a few curveballs here and there, but ultimately sticking to the same shtick of pushing around boxes. Playing the demo, I felt a little underwhelmed with the variety of gameplay, so I hope that the full release shows a bit more in the way of mechanics.
The Electrifying Incident: A Monster Mini-Expedition is planned to release this April for $5. Draknek & Friends estimates the game will be up to 90 minutes long, so still pretty short, but hey for that price, it’s still a hell of a deal. With the relatively simple mechanics and the bite-sized length, I can definitely see this becoming a speedrunner’s game. If you’re a puzzle fanatic looking for a casual gaming experience or someone looking to beat record times, this might be one to keep on your radar.
