Stairleporter

Platformers are easily the most popular genre of video games out there, especially now that developers have such an easy time putting them together. Granted, coming up with an original concept and making the experience enjoyable is just as hard as it has ever been, which is why good platformers are pretty rare. On the other hand, it’s nice to see so much variety and interesting attempts.

Stairleporter is a 3D platformer in which your only goal is to collect glowing orbs and make sure that you manage to teleport between platforms as quickly as possible until the time runs out. Obviously, the real challenge is to collect as many orbs as you can until you run out of time, but the experience can be pretty tough if you are new to platformers.

It must be mentioned that the game was designed by a single man for a jam, which means that it has a lot of rough edges and not nearly enough content. On the other hand, the levels are actually procedurally-generated, which is great for replayability. Even so, there’s nothing much to see around you other than the white platforms and the stairs you have to climb.

Since there are no other obstacles than the stairs themselves, you rarely need to jump, but it comes in handy whenever you want to go down the stairs a lot quicker. However, you must watch out for the fact that there’s nothing but void underneath the said platforms, which means that any wrong step means an instant death and a restart that causes you to lose precious seconds.

As far as the graphics are concerned, there’s nothing exciting to write about, since everything you see is just a bunch of white platforms and the nauseating void that awaits beyond them. Nothing exciting happens from a visual point of view, but on the other hand you’ll be too busy trying to beat your own records to pay attention to the weak graphics.

When it’s all said and done, Stairleporter could be improved with more work and dedication, but in this state it is nothing more than a momentary distraction that may be able to provide you with a few minutes of fun on a rainy afternoon.