The Sapphire Void

When it comes to Sapphire Void, to be completely honest I didn't once reach the middle despite all of my efforts. Though the game is simple enough when it limits the player to a single verb, after some time playing I felt a strategy emerging out of my accumulated failures. While the interplay is certainly limited in this game, each time I noticed I had lost a point of 'health', I was always moving my mouse too slowly or quickly. Instead of discovering a secret, optimal technique, I was introduced to the imperfect nature of the collision physics between the circle and the lines. Maybe this is because the size of the circle's collision box (un)intentionally changing: dependent upon the speed at which it moves, or it could be a rendering quirk inherent to the game engine. The latter is probably more likely as the collisions were pretty inconsistent as, sometimes with the right speed, the circle could phase through a barrier. Equally confusing was the game registering collisions when the red circle was visibly between the gaps. This made me wonder as to the existence of some 'meta' strategy which could abuse the quirkiness of the game's collision mechanic to effectively transport the red circle to the center of the void in record time. Suffice to say, I never realized any strategy of the sort in my experience playing Sapphire Void, though.

Contrary to this unorthodox style of play, the mood of the game's soundtrack coupled with the simplicity of its gameplay give it a very calming and relaxed atmosphere when played as the developer seemingly intended. While it is not too punishing, the feeling of playing the game is exactly the opposite. Needle-point precision is necessary in guiding the circle between the lines, because the geometry of the circle and the spaces you have to navigate Sapphire Void leaves practically no room for error. Consequently, this invites the player to experiment with different paces at which to play, as playing to slow may leave you prone to the quirky collision physics while playing too fast will inevitably lead to a mistake being made and a health point lost. If going too slow means 15 painful minutes of anticipating every pixel, and going too fast means dying, repeating, dying, repeating, and dying again synchronized to the game's soundtrack then some balance must be found if one wants to reach the center. Unfortunately, though, I never reached the center of the void so I can not speak on experiencing a reward for all my exploits. Whatever it was that laid there for me, I began to weigh if it was even worth the effort. All these elements blended together then seem to reveal the game's subtle purpose, to incite rage in the player unlike its initial vibe. If that is indeed the aim of the developer then, well in my case he certainly achieved just that. The game with all its simplicity had captured all my focus and investment, and so I rage quit.

I have to say this is a challenging but satisfying game. It is very hard to complete the level, but it is also satisfying when you do so. I appreciate the color various colors, calming background music, and the visual effects of the game. 

I think the designer wants the player to feel challenged because the game experience supposes to be not as simple as just going through the circles. In my opinion, the designer wants the player to be patient in order to succeed. The game includes layers of circle boundaries and strikes (when the player hits the boundary) to make it difficult. The moves are simple: the player could either go clockwise or counter-clockwise in a layer and go through the gap to get to the inner layers. The force that makes player’s victory difficult is the small space between layers and the numerous layers the player needs to go through to win. The player cannot go too fast or otherwise, it increases the chance of hitting the boundary. There are 4 strikes each round, and the player loses when the strike is down to 0. These forces are concrete in my opinion. They are tricking the player to hit the circles. Something that the game is helping me to get through the process is the music. Compared with the intense gameplay itself, the background music is calming and relaxed the gameplay a little. 

The main goal of this game is trying to get through the layers to the center. The core verb for this game is the movement of the small red circle. The player uses this verb all the time during the gameplay. The player could interact with the verb either moving it towards the center or ending up hitting the boundary. The player could get a sense of punishment by hitting the boundary. There’s an electrocuted effect with it to remind the dangerousness of this action. However, the player could avoid this punishment by simply not hitting the boundary, but is challenging to do so. Some risky actions can be taken in the game to maybe make the process easier in a sense. For example, the player could bypass a few circles since there are 4 strikes available. But then that will make the process of going through the circle even harder because losing one strike is more crucial. 

One suggestion I would like to mention is that the red circle can’t go through some parts of the game. For example, some circled boundaries are not complete on the screen, and it is impossible to go beyond the screen. Also, as the other comment said above, there are some minimal bugs. But they don’t make the game less fun to play! I still enjoyed the gameplay, and I was very excited when I finished the journey. I wish to see more levels too. Maybe the layers could be in different shapes (square, diamonds, etc.), and it could get harder by starting at a far away layer. 

I would love to do this properly but the collisions are a bit off in the gaps which made me lose at the last circle.

Work on the collisions a bit more and you got yourself a proper rage game here. For example, with enough speed, you can clip through the circles without getting hurt.