Imagine Me is the first title from new developer KinifiGames. It was founded by Christopher Figueroa, a former employee of ActiVision who left to create his own game and his own vision. Imagine Me is a precision platformer along the lines of Super Meat Boy where you have limited controls, namely move and jump, but you have to make each of those movements count, as sudden death lies around every block.
As the game is currently in progress, this will be less a review and more of an impressions article. A ‘how’s it coming?’ of sorts. I’ve been playing the game on and off for a while, and at this moment there are only a handful of levels, they do show promise. Currently there are twelve tutorial levels, a daily challenge and the random level creator. The tutorials won’t take long to complete, but the random level is quite a bit of fun. It does currently have the unfortunate ability to create unsolvable puzzle, but as this is an early build it’s quite forgivable.
The mechanics, while basic and familiar, are quite solid. Enter the room, avoid the spikes and pitfalls, time your jumps correctly and make your way to the door. The character, Robbe, is responsive and controls well. Also, full controller support is implemented.
At the moment, there is little story, other than Robbe’s room and a single memory. Time will tell if this ends up as platformer whose story is merely an excuse to ties the levels together, or that which takes the game to a whole separate level entirely. Even though platformers are essentially about moving the character through the right set of movements, a story that lets us care about the character and why he’s moving through these deathtraps can make the game truly memorable.
Imagine me is a promising initial endeavor from a first time developer, and I am excited to see what it becomes when it is complete. It can be found here on Steam and early access is available for $9.99.
