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I played: The Guardian

I played Nicole Brauer's The Guardian. It's a Flash-based sidescroller and takes about 20 minutes. (I think? I took a break in the middle.)

Screenshot of the village in the game

It suffers from some pacing problems. I hardly ever enjoy screens with slowly appearing text.

What's cool is how the scale of the game - you're a single pixel - changes how you parse the landscape. Shapes that would be irrelevant details in other games take on an active role helping/hindering you. The scale also changes the primary verb. It's mechanically identical to "jump" but the sizes and angles involved make it feel more like climbing.

(via Shawn Trautman's Discover Games)