Beeswing is a semi-broken gameplay-void experience - an experience that wrecked me, over and over and over again.
In between crashes, or moments where the dialogue boxes seemed to disagree with the rest of the game, Beeswing delivers a litany of beautiful moments, both visually, through the gorgeous water-colored art style, (an art-style that occasionally drastically changes,) and musically, through this wonderfully relaxing acoustic soundtrack. The writing too is brutally excellent, switching effortlessly from literal toilet humor to a calm discussion of death, and the plethora of grief that comes with it, eliciting nearly every emotion as you explore rural Scotland. The ending moments especially comprise of the kind of stuff that simply sticks with you, as the credits fittingly come when you're not quite ready for them.
It's hard to fully recommend this game, especially given the fact that it crashed on me ~6 times, and the only way to save is by fully quitting out, but, if you can fight some jankiness, there's some truly life-changing stuff in here. After all, just like a good tree, a good game has victims.
9/10
Game #25 of 2024, April 20th
In between crashes, or moments where the dialogue boxes seemed to disagree with the rest of the game, Beeswing delivers a litany of beautiful moments, both visually, through the gorgeous water-colored art style, (an art-style that occasionally drastically changes,) and musically, through this wonderfully relaxing acoustic soundtrack. The writing too is brutally excellent, switching effortlessly from literal toilet humor to a calm discussion of death, and the plethora of grief that comes with it, eliciting nearly every emotion as you explore rural Scotland. The ending moments especially comprise of the kind of stuff that simply sticks with you, as the credits fittingly come when you're not quite ready for them.
It's hard to fully recommend this game, especially given the fact that it crashed on me ~6 times, and the only way to save is by fully quitting out, but, if you can fight some jankiness, there's some truly life-changing stuff in here. After all, just like a good tree, a good game has victims.
9/10
Game #25 of 2024, April 20th
An interesting game worth experiencing. Jack's talent as a graphic designer is particularly worthy of praise.
An impressionistic quilt of people and places past and present, remembered and rediscovered. Figments of our childhood plant seeds, emotions, attitudes and ideas, and when revisited in dreams are spoken through by us, projected onto so that we may nurture those seeds. A watercolor smearing of the individual self and the collective, how much of our memories are really us, but how much can they be anything else. When we move away from home, we begin viewing ourselves as distinct from our roots, having grown totally apart. Most people don’t, of course, we just feel like we do. No matter how far we run, we still remain there, both an NPC in someone’s else’s dreams and a wanderer ourselves. We represent something specific to people, we were, and continue to be, formative in some way to someone. Everyone exploring the same spaces alone, everyone simultaneously forming the composition together. When people I’ve met journey in our shared lives, I hope I’m warm. I hope I’m smiling.
It has many moments of profundity and is held back by being far too roughly cut to have things like goals and stories to follow. The game has a habit of crashing, a poor differentiation between what you can interact with and can't, bad collision with interactable objects. Overall it's too frustrating to try and get through a lot of the meat of the game or even to just kind of relax and see where it takes you. Because you're always fighting with the controls. It's nostalgic, thoughtful, morbid, and has a lot of really interesting things to say, but my tolerance for going back to it after it crashes is low.
Every single game from this guy I've played has genuinely been one of the most thought-provoking experiences in the whole medium. It's messed up that he hasn't had the attention he deserves.
Even the kids at the park have more insight about life than life itself. Almost every minor encounter left me dumbfounded
Coming off of something very long and convoluted this was refreshing. So small and simple and true. A raw little window into the mind of the creator illuminated by wonderful flourishes. Just wish it wasn't so buggy. I did need to reset it several times just to get through.
“The song of the years, the melody of life. Everything else - is not you, all others are strangers. And you yourself, who are you? You don't know. You'll get to know it later, when you string the beads of memory. You'll be what is most endearing, most cruel and most eternal.”
- Sasha Sokolov, School for Fools
Um museu construído através de fragmentos de uma vida. Cada caixinha de texto, uma pedrada. Díficil encontrar mais emoção por metro quadrado do que aqui.
Ainda que extremamente pessoal, seus personagens e galerias representam uma universalidade presente no bizarro gerado a partir do real, quando vistos por imaginativos olhos infantis, criando pontes da Escócia até Minas Gerais, me fazendo sentir que também vivi, em partes, a vida que ele viveu. Sem falar uma palavra, apenas através da forma como se apresenta, também conecta a relação que um tem entre a nebulosa memória da infância e a sobriedade da realidade adulta.
Possui certo atrito um pouco desagradável devido aos bugs/crashes e controles um pouco frustrantes. Só tome o cuidado de salvar constantemente.
- Sasha Sokolov, School for Fools
Um museu construído através de fragmentos de uma vida. Cada caixinha de texto, uma pedrada. Díficil encontrar mais emoção por metro quadrado do que aqui.
Ainda que extremamente pessoal, seus personagens e galerias representam uma universalidade presente no bizarro gerado a partir do real, quando vistos por imaginativos olhos infantis, criando pontes da Escócia até Minas Gerais, me fazendo sentir que também vivi, em partes, a vida que ele viveu. Sem falar uma palavra, apenas através da forma como se apresenta, também conecta a relação que um tem entre a nebulosa memória da infância e a sobriedade da realidade adulta.
Possui certo atrito um pouco desagradável devido aos bugs/crashes e controles um pouco frustrantes. Só tome o cuidado de salvar constantemente.
I've knocked a half star off for the six times a glitch caused me to have to reopen the game within three hours and for the two story aspects that required having to do things in a particular order with no indication that this was the case, but otherwise this game is absolutely charming!!!
It's such a love letter to the past, soft and nostalgic and overflowing with care. It got straight to my heart. I also couldn't help but smile when one of the characters spoke of where my Scottish ancestors also came from. 💙
Slow, sleepy, full of heart. Some people didn't like it for its themes are quite in your face, but these honest reflections did nothing but make me appreciate how candid the whole game feels! It's definitely worth a play through.
It's such a love letter to the past, soft and nostalgic and overflowing with care. It got straight to my heart. I also couldn't help but smile when one of the characters spoke of where my Scottish ancestors also came from. 💙
Slow, sleepy, full of heart. Some people didn't like it for its themes are quite in your face, but these honest reflections did nothing but make me appreciate how candid the whole game feels! It's definitely worth a play through.
This review contains spoilers
Beeswing is a beautifully and at times uncomfortably personal experience. Jack King Spooner takes you through a visit back to his hometown, visiting his old friends and family. The game is spent walking around and talking to people. And then, when you feel that you're ready, you take a bus out of town, ending the game.
The game follows a few interwoven thematic threads closely, and after finishing it I realized it was a tightly written and intentional narrative than I had thought in the moment. With the frequent references to the elderly and dementia, and to the negative effects of television and the internet on our mental health, Jack is clearly concerned about how our spirits will fare in this new world where thoughts and identities are being presented in entirely new ways. I remember from a video walking through a previous game of his that he said he wanted to talk to us, the player, and let us know that there was a person on the other end.
I was completely captivated by the experience of talking to all of the people in town. Some of them will tell you stupid drivel or funny quips, some will give kind words, some of them will be scared and confused, some mournful of a life of regret, and a few will tell you moving stories of a human life in all of it's pain and beauty. Beeswing is the experience of finally taking the time to have tea and talk with an elderly neighbor who's more interesting than you ever would have imagined, and leaving with the impression that there's more to people than you'd thought before.
Now, if you haven't played the game, please do before reading this. It's free on itch.io and only a couple hours. It's worth your time. I have to talk about one scene specifically, as it has stuck with me by far the most and I think about it often. You visit a friend whose mother had died from dementia. You were close, and you remember being there for her decline. How she started to communicate only by written notes, and one day, the note she wrote was just nonsense. It's been a long time, but your friend is still devastated. You offer some trite advice and he's brushes you off. After talking about it with him for a while, you come to the slow, crushing realization that there's absolutely nothing you can do for him. Nothing you could say to him would really help. It was then that I decided to walk to the bus stop and leave town.
Although a bit rough in its presentation and interaction, Beeswing shines with humanity and makes me very excited to play more of Jack's games.
The game follows a few interwoven thematic threads closely, and after finishing it I realized it was a tightly written and intentional narrative than I had thought in the moment. With the frequent references to the elderly and dementia, and to the negative effects of television and the internet on our mental health, Jack is clearly concerned about how our spirits will fare in this new world where thoughts and identities are being presented in entirely new ways. I remember from a video walking through a previous game of his that he said he wanted to talk to us, the player, and let us know that there was a person on the other end.
I was completely captivated by the experience of talking to all of the people in town. Some of them will tell you stupid drivel or funny quips, some will give kind words, some of them will be scared and confused, some mournful of a life of regret, and a few will tell you moving stories of a human life in all of it's pain and beauty. Beeswing is the experience of finally taking the time to have tea and talk with an elderly neighbor who's more interesting than you ever would have imagined, and leaving with the impression that there's more to people than you'd thought before.
Now, if you haven't played the game, please do before reading this. It's free on itch.io and only a couple hours. It's worth your time. I have to talk about one scene specifically, as it has stuck with me by far the most and I think about it often. You visit a friend whose mother had died from dementia. You were close, and you remember being there for her decline. How she started to communicate only by written notes, and one day, the note she wrote was just nonsense. It's been a long time, but your friend is still devastated. You offer some trite advice and he's brushes you off. After talking about it with him for a while, you come to the slow, crushing realization that there's absolutely nothing you can do for him. Nothing you could say to him would really help. It was then that I decided to walk to the bus stop and leave town.
Although a bit rough in its presentation and interaction, Beeswing shines with humanity and makes me very excited to play more of Jack's games.