REDDER
It's bigger, badder, and, yes, REDDER than other platformers. A retro-styled adventure of space exploration set in your browser, REDDER offers a big map to explore chock full of challenges. Collect the gems you need to escape and make your way back home... or settle in to stay with the scenic vistas, strange environments, and hostile red robots. We won't judge you.
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Neat game, but kinda boring. Definitely didn't play this one all the way through.
There is a mute button in the top right of the menu screen.
The game this most reminds me of? Pieces.
More like a bigger version of tonypa's tiny game if you ask me.
As a huge fan of metroid-like games, this nails the atmosphere. I wish the music changed it up a little, but it's still a good track.
I wish more games got this level of effort put into them.
Sometimes the graphics are a bit glitchy.
Yeah, yeah, I know.
I can't tell if this is intentional or not
graphics become increasingly glitchy until you get the last piece and they become entirely blocky like an early spectrum game
Anyone else get this?
graphics glitchy? at first, yeah. then as I progresses, the graphics delved into complete chaos, as tiles were randomly switching what they were constantly, until I collected the least gem, in which case all the pictures disappeared completely and I was left only with flat colors for everything.
Rather annoying
Argh! I had only one gem left to get, and then it turns out that you can finish the game with less than all of the gems! Oops. I wanted to get that last one, but I ran to the rocket and it launched. (I think that's what those three differently-colored spaces for gems mean: you don't have to be perfect to finish.)
If anybody finishes with *all* of the gems, let me know if it does anything different besides showing the rocket taking off, and then showing credits, and the title of the game.
I'm surprised the reviewer didn't say anything about the graphic glitches, either.
Yeah, yeah, I know about the glitches.
I think that it's supposed to glitch as you progress, some of the buggy music seems intentional. Makes me think that the astronaut is suffering from oxygen deprivation, or worse...
Oh, hrm, you can restart the game by closing the window and re-opening it, and then you start out at the ship with all the gems you previously collected (even if you finished the game), so you can get those last gems if you accidentally didn't.
On another note, anyone know why there's the outline of a tank icon in the lower-left corner?
Also, there's at least one secret in this game that I've found:
Are you sure?
Really sure?
There's a secret room below one of the rooms at the bottom of the map. I think it's the middle room, but I'm not too sure. It's just an aquarium with some purple seaweed and "ANNA" spelled out.
Man, the ending is a trip!
I feel bad for the little astronaut guy, he just wanted to go home, not go crazy :(
i liked it, until i had one gem left. my eyes are literally hurting from the strain of the background. it should have an epilepsy warning.
This game gave my computer a seizure.
Otherwise it was okay.
Simone -- isn't the tank the Newgrounds logo?
I won't begrudge anyone who, like the first commenter above, finds the game boring -- different strokes for different folks, etc. -- but I do feel the need to insist that this is a truly excellent example of its genre. There's a purity of level design here that we've only seen recently with VVVVVV.
As for the glitches, at first I'd notice one or two out of the corner of my eye, often, it seemed, when just about to exit a room. I literally thought I was just seeing things. A bit later I assumed they were slight mistakes in what was making to be an otherwise (mostly) flawless game. A touch more intense and I realized we were seeing oblique narrative.
There are, of course, a number of ways to interpret what's going on, but the two clear elements are the astronaut needs/wants to collect these gems (to fuel the ship? for wealth? for science?), and something is going very wrong. Eventually it becomes clear that things become more wrong with each gem collected, that the gems -- your only purpose here -- are trouble (radioactivity making you sick or crazy? a curse? the world literally falling apart?).
I like how this is communicated completely through the game mechanics and visual/music design. It strikes me that with more extra-ludic narrative devices, it might have been neat to subvert the collection/completionist desire a bit more strongly: a "reward" for stopping early; a sense of "you have enough - no need to be greedy" that's commonplace in the real world and never present in these sorts of collection-minded games. That said, I think the design elements hint toward that sort of story/parody -- especially given what happens once the last gem is collected -- so I'm satisfied.
I wonder if the "walked away" medal -- awarded for "completing the game with at least 24 gems" -- was originally meant only to be awarded for finishing without collecting all the gems. The name would suggest it: i.e., "just walk away..."
I have a couple small critiques:
1. At first I wasn't a fan of the mid-level intensity glitchiness. I loved the aha moment of realizing the glitches were intentional, and then again later for realizing their intensity was tied to the number of gems collected, but between those two realizations I had a sort of "why bother making it more intense" feeling. This all became justified later, of course, but until making the connection I felt like I would have preferred it stick with the more uncanny infrequent glitches.
2. Until it started really glitching out, the music started feeling repetitive. This was made worse, I thought, by its return to the beginning of the song-structure after collecting each gem. Again, later you realize why this might have been necessary and/or helpful, but I do think it's a flaw in an otherwise wonderful experience. A different song for each of the 9 map sections would have alleviated this, but that's a whole lot more work to lean on one's composer for. I think I would have felt better about it had it merely not started the track over again for each gem collection. (As it were, I was ruing the lack of a mute-music button. Seeing where it ends up, of course, I'm glad I wasn't given the option to mute the music earlier on.)
I almost forgot:
I found one secret, the same one as Simone above. Has anyone found the other two?
I found a single secret area as well (so far):
it says "Anna" on the bottom part of the level.
Given that I already had a headache before I started playing, the game didn't particularly help that... I too noticed the occasional glitchy tile, but I wasn't far enough into the game to realize that
it was intentional (though I vaguely noticed that the glitches were more common as I continued playing).
The music is definitely quite repetitive after a while in the beginning.
Also, people: spoiler tags! Use 'em. (Though I suppose the "ending" in this one is revealed as you play through the game, rather than just at the end.)
I came to pretty much the same conclusion as Nobody, in that I think this is an anti-completionist type game. I almost wish I had stopped before the end, just to see what happened. Does anyone know if it was different? (Other than the fact that the ship would obviously have been visible, rather than a huge flashing block.) Poor, poor mind-tripping Astronaut.
Also, I would like to second V2Blast, please use spoiler tags!! I for one am rather fond of finding out things, such as
the fact that the glitchiness was intentional
for myself in games like this, and it makes it much less enjoyable when someone else told me about things like that in the comments. General gameplay I don't mind so much, it's more the plot related stuff it would be great to hide.
In my house, spaceships run out of magic glowy crystals and crash onto uninhabited planets much more than dudes and football, or ladies and shoe shopping, but wevs.
I enjoyed the twist at the end. Combined with the pretty clever level structure (Puzzles were each contained in a small area, so backtracking was limited) and the distinct style of each zone made for frequent changes in scenery.
The inclusion of the secret areas gives me reason to go back and explore more.
I think I know where there's another secret but...
I'm quite certain there's a secret in the upper-left hand corner of the map, but I'm not sure how you would ever reach it, unless there are hidden platforms up high in the air...
Regarding the graphics,
I got the feeling like instead you were given the feeling that collecting the gems was downright bad for you. You were doing something wrong, perhaps, or your actions were destroying the world. At any rate, your actions were having an impact on your character. It actually reminded me of Shadow of the Colossus a bit, in that in SotC you eventually came to notice your hero was looking dark and ragged. Same effect here, only much more pronounced, and with a different surprise at the end.
All in all, a great offering. It's worth playing through to the end, unless you totally can't stand exploration platformers.
-SirNiko
Found them all. Big ol' spoilers.
Secret 1:
At the bottom center of the map, in the zone with the electricity all over. You can pass through the solid walls at the lower left and right of the zone to reach the area underneath. There's an obvious hole that lets you drop down into a strange water area.
Under this it says "ANNA".
Secret 2:
At the far left center of the map, in the zone with large open rooms consisting mostly of switch blocks. There's one room where you can jump up into the top left corner and pass through the ceiling, though you'll need to loop around to get the green blocks active so you can reach the room above. You'll know it when you see it. Follow the path to another underwater room.
Under this one is says "TRAP".
Secret 3:
This is on the far right middle of the map, in the rooms with metal panels and laser cannons shooting through the pipes. There's a room with two robots moving through narrow tunnels so you must wait for them to pass. Instead of going left, go to the right of the bottom passage and jump up through the ceiling. Follow the tunnel to a third underwater room.
In this one is the word "PART".
Feel free to speculate on the strange nature of these secrets.
-SirNiko
@SirNiko:
Well, they're all palindromes, at least taken together. TRAP PART, ANNA, even the title REDDER. Other than that, though.. unless there's some significance about things being the same backwards and forwards, I can't think of anything interesting.
Honestly, I got sort of fed up with the monotony about 2/3 of the way through the game and gave up. Pretty fun while it lasted.
Nice game! No powerups, which is what killed Knytt for me - I found that one deathly dull. But the single mechanic of the switches, along with some exceptionally clever level design, made this feel more like Pieces, even though I wasn't actually collecting more skills along the way. Awesome puzzles.
I was a bit irritated by the glitches.
Until I realised they were intentional. Wow.
I did realise I was able to return to the ship at -3, and in fact I found the state of things at -1 so disconcerting that I just left, getting the "Walked away" medal.
Wow, I love the implication that these gems are bad somehow. You need them, because they're your way out, but they're also screwing up your mind. That's a surprisingly compelling twist for a wordless platform game.
Highly approve.
SirNiko's comment that has been posted at the top as a "Walkthrough Guide" is not a walkthrough. It's a list of easter eggs. If I were looking for a walkthrough for Redder, I would be disappointed to have the easter eggs spoiled for me instead.
[That's the closest thing we have to a walkthrough at the moment. Besides, it's clearly marked as "secrets" and the contents are hidden with spoiler tags. -Jay]
Just wanted to comment on the 'secrets':
Put together the words are a large palindrome - PART-ANNA-TRAP, or TRAP-ANNA-PART - however you choose to put it. Not sure what it means, just thought it was interesting!
Brilliant use of the medium! I loved the effect of this game as well as the
zen-like, insane
ending.
even if the
glitchy tiles are intentional they made me not want to play anymore. Hard on older eyes.... maybe a version without them.
I was enjoying the game immensely until all that started
Wow! I haven't played a game this delightfully disconcerting since Eversion. The changes in the game progression did make the game very hard to play toward the end though. I could barely tell where I could stand or walk.
I'm wondering if we can put together a list of the medals you can get? I got:
"Thorough" and "Addicted". I'm not sure what triggers them, but I will say that I found all the gems and I found the ANNA underwater room.
I wish I had known that
You could get the "Walked Away" medal for completing with the minimum number of gems. Now that I've finished, I won't be able to get it, will I?
That was lovely. Not overly sophisticated but the increasing madness was a great dimensionand it kept me thoroughly occupied for (checks clock) Oh crikey, is that the time?!
Eureeka: the medals are all listed out on NewGrounds. That's also where you can view the ones you have (There's no way to check in game).
Walked Away: Finish the game with 24 gems.
Addicted: Finish the game with all 27 gems.
Thorough: Reveal all the map spaces.
Secret 1, 2, and 3: Find the 3 secret areas.
-SirNiko
This game felt like Metroid, except with more Knytt-like level design, and with all powerups, shooting, and puzzles (for the most part) taken away. I really liked what there was of a story, though, until I quit because my eyes hurt. I agree that an epilepsy warning is in order, at least for people who plan to finish the game. There were two gems I couldn't get though, and I didn't feel like struggling through the areas to get the last two. I also didn't feel like struggling to get back to the ship either.
DO NOT CLICK THIS unless you have played the game. Seriously. I want to talk about my ideas, but I don't want to spoil it for anybody.
The glitchiness was alright at first, I was actually enjoying it. Stuff like robots flying backwards and seeing smiley-face tiles was entertaining. But once I got to the point where I only had like 5 or 6 left and the screen was really wigging out, I changed my mind. What I got as the story was something along the lines of how the planet needed the power of the gems to survive, and when you go around collecting them the planet starts falling apart. That or the gems are radioactive something fierce and, like real radiation, the longer your exposure the more radiation poisoned you are. The astronaut probably ended up dying or something not long after taking off again.
I think if things hadn't gotten as crazy as they had, I wouldn't have quit. But it makes for a good story, so I'm torn.
Also only found one secret, and I thought I was on my way to a secret gem. Oh well. :(
I just finished it, and have to say that I found it thoroughly enjoyable.
The style was absolutely perfect.
I especially liked the simulated memory corruption that slowly comes on, so at first you think "hey, that block is a bit strange", and slowly it gets more and more intense until everything is flickering all the time. The twist when you get the last crystal was the icing on the cake.
The puzzles were amusing, not too hard, but often requiring a bit of spatial reasoning regarding where the red and green barriers are. Enough to make you think, anyway. The open style meant that if you couldn't seem to get one of the crystals, you could go on and explore elsewhere and come back later. Lots of fun.
I noticed something about the secrets
trap when backwards is part. Those words are both found in the secrets. And then Anna backwards is Anna. Don't know why, but it could be something.
An "explanation" for the secrets:
Anna Anthropy is the developer's name.
There is an interview where she talks about game design as the construction of voluntary traps.
Thanks for the help with the secrets SirNiko. Any chance you could put some sort of coordinates in the guide? It's not particularly helpful when
I've already collected all the gems and there are no longer any features in the rooms besides the basics
is this game not supported on firefox? the game loads but doesn't respond to the arrow keys or any of the other keys on my keyboard.
I interpreted the big secret of the game entirely differently.
Crystals were what powered his ship before it died, and (s)he was taking the same kind of crystals from the planet to repair his/her ship. With each crystal removed from the planet, things got worse. The thing that stood out to me was that, up until the end, the astronaut his/herself wasn't glitching at all, even as the landscape was flashing and morphing crazily. In fact, the only things that stayed clean (for the first 24 crystals) were the astronaut, and the sound when a crystal is picked up.
So it seems to me that he was tearing out something that was keeping the planet stable, resulting in the glitches -- the glitches were something the astronaut could see, but wasn't a part of, but rather the cause.
I suppose there are further ramifications for reducing the planet to having no crystals at all. Try existing somewhere that doesn't exist.
Anyway, the going-mad-from-poison-crystals theory didn't occur to me at all, though it definitely works as well as what I was thinking.
I'm having trouble getting my last gem! Its the one at the bottom of the map. If you look at the map it happens to be under your ship but all the way at the bottom. I need a row of Red blocks to be cleared to get the gem. Please help! I want to finish with all the gems.
I'm having trouble getting all the crystals; one seems to be impossible to get. Help!
I think that the secrets might combine to say
PART-ANNA-TRAP, as in a part of the space ship, 'and a (anna)' trap. The gems traps you in something akin to insanity, or a distorted world, or whatever it is that you end up in.
But that's just my take on them *nods*
Like Anon and Katherine, I'd appreciate any hints for getting the gem in the very bottom center of the map.
There's one screen nearby where there's a lot of the back-and-forth enemies, and there's a green switch on the lower right at the bottom of the shaft, on top of a row of green tiles with two more enemies below it. I think that if I could jump up that shaft without triggering the switch, I'd be able to get the piece -- but I'm not sure whether that jump is very very difficult or outright impossible.
Anyway, I'm glad that you don't need all the gems to finish! Some of you may have won with 24 gems because you realized something wasn't right -- I won with 24 gems because my brain and fingers were fried. (Actually, if I have a criticism of this game it's that it'd be nice to be able to use the map to look at rooms you've already visited -- I can't remember what's in what little square, which makes it really hard to plan sometimes.)
Anon and matt w-
To get that gem, start in the room below it. Do NOT hit the green switch; red blocks should be passable, green should be solid. There is a way you can go to the left here; that'll take you where you need to go.
OMG, It's a trap!!!!!
StephenM3 -- not to bug you too much, but can you elaborate? Perhaps it's because the game is at maximum glitch with all but one gem, but I can't see how to go left without turning the switch off -- except
in the secret corridor below, and that takes me out far to the left.
I can get back to the room above and to the left of the gem without any problem, by turning the red switch on in the room to the left of the one with the gem, but without hitting the green switch again the only way I can go from there seems to be down or to the left, and neither of those are productive. If I could jump into the corridor above the switch without hitting it, I'd be OK, but I don't think it's possible to jump that high.
On snagging that last crystal in the bottom centre zone:
Get to the middle room, top row of the bottom middle zone. The way I arrived was from the bottom left zone, moving along the bottom row of rooms, and then straight up through the centre of the zone. (These places need proper names! Norfair, Tourian, anyone?) (There is also a path here leading from the right hand side of the world, that drops directly into the top middle room we're interested in)
In this room, toggle the switch, proceed right. In the next room, toggle the red switch, proceed right again. In the next room, toggle the switch and waypoint, drop down.
Here's the crucial bit: this next room has some red and green block platforms, in alternating colours, and switches. The lowest switch is red and the trick to snagging the final gem is to trigger that last red switch.
You will drop down onto a now activated red platform. Travel left, drop down through the inactivated red barrier and over the three energy fields in the next room, and if this is your last crystal, get ready for the big end of game twist!
I think the glitchyness is part of the game...
All things have a LIFE FORCE don't they?
Maybe the GEMS are the Life Force?
Pathogen -- brilliant, thanks! I now feel somewhat stupid that I hadn't tried that last part before -- I'd been in that room, and maybe had even realized that that was something I could do, but had never done it (and had certainly never realized that that would get me where I wanted to go.)
Just to be clear, I think your solution starts from the room that's three rooms directly above the room with the gem in question. You can get to it from anywhere within that zone, too.
My interpretation of the ending:
If you've played to get all the gems, you're being driven by a the desire to play the game rather than the desires of the character (who would probably like to get back to her ship and away from all these things that are trying to kill her) or even of yourself as someone other than a gamer (because by then the music and graphics are getting pretty annoying). So when you collect the last gem, things turn into pure abstract gameplay -- just blocks and dots.
On the way back I visited the last room I hadn't seen. It wasn't hard to get to at all; I just hadn't gone left from a particular room while exploring the upper part of the maze.
First of all, I thought the game has an excellent theme- loved it. In fact right from the start it reminded me of the movie "Sphere". Lot's of parallel between the two.
And as far as the meaning of the secrets, I thought it was pretty obvious:
TRAP-ANNA-PART is the same spelled backwards. Also notice how the TRAP room is on the left, ANNA middle, and PART right. =]
I really enjoyed this game.
I JUST realized, after beating the game, that
just like the secrets
, REDDER is also REDDER backwards!!!!!!!
I can understand the glitches to a point, but
glitching the CONTROLS in a twitch game is too much. Graphics, sure, but the random controls sticking or jump not responding caused the game to simply not be fun any more once I reached about 6 gems left
. If it wasn't for that, I'd rate this pretty good, but that mechanic left a very strong bad taste in my mouth.
If you're having trouble finding gems, someone on deviantart has made a map.
Massive spoiler warning:
wow, i love the gem in the top left part of the game, where youhave to jump the cliff and fly through the air, through three squares and just barely land on a high platform. GREAT!
I love this game- I'm pretty sure that the graphics and music getting all funky as you get more gems is Not a glitch. Its supposed to put the pressure on. When you get the last gem it goes to solid colors. I disagree with it not having any replay value - I played it like 8 times in a row. I'm trying to beat it without dieing- Almost did it- died once- its really difficult to do even after you know where every thing is.
Beat it. Graphic issue as the game progresses.
@Arainach: Are you sure it's not just your keyboard, or your computer having trouble with the number of objects in the game? I had no control issues at all...
When I played this game It said a Trojan virus was blocked!!! Take this virused game off the site please...
[False positive. -Jay]
I played this at 3am through to the end. I don't think I've ever had a greater zen-gaming experience in my life.
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Game of the week
Walkthrough Guide
(Please allow page to fully load for spoiler tags to be functional.)
Found them all. Big ol' spoilers.
Secret 1:
At the bottom center of the map, in the zone with the electricity all over. You can pass through the solid walls at the lower left and right of the zone to reach the area underneath. There's an obvious hole that lets you drop down into a strange water area.
Under this it says "ANNA".
Secret 2:
At the far left center of the map, in the zone with large open rooms consisting mostly of switch blocks. There's one room where you can jump up into the top left corner and pass through the ceiling, though you'll need to loop around to get the green blocks active so you can reach the room above. You'll know it when you see it. Follow the path to another underwater room.
Under this one is says "TRAP".
Secret 3:
This is on the far right middle of the map, in the rooms with metal panels and laser cannons shooting through the pipes. There's a room with two robots moving through narrow tunnels so you must wait for them to pass. Instead of going left, go to the right of the bottom passage and jump up through the ceiling. Follow the tunnel to a third underwater room.
In this one is the word "PART".
Feel free to speculate on the strange nature of these secrets.
-SirNiko
Posted by: SirNiko
|
March 11, 2010 10:43 AM
Here's a map to help you get your bearings:
https://jayisgames.com/images/redder_start.png
Posted by: stephan
|
March 14, 2010 1:20 PM