windowframe

Platformers are usually designed to be as tough as possible, especially those that don’t feature anything but endless levels filled with traps and pesky enemies. However, some of them are more challenging in other ways, such as when they provide the players with puzzles to solve in order to move on to the next level. Whatever the case, platformers are bound to stay interesting for decades to come.

Windowframe is a unique platformer designed to change the way you interact with the game world and the puzzles that await you. Hence, instead of the usual gameplay mechanics that can be found in most games, here you take advantage of the application window in order to achieve your purpose. It’s pretty disorienting at first, but it becomes second nature after a few minutes of gameplay.

As such, the goal is to explore each stage and find a way to the exit. To do that, you sometimes have to get over seemingly impossible tall walls, or jump over very long gaps with no platforms in sight. Thankfully, you can manipulate the game window and create your own walls, by dragging the sides around and using them to climb over most obstacles.

There are also other challenges to take into consideration, such as the enemies that come after you, or the traps that require lightning-fast reflexes to avoid. Granted, they are not much trickier than in a classic platformer, it’s just that you feel more constrained by the small window. In fact, not being able to see more than a few steps in front of you can actually be very annoying, although that’s the whole goal of the game.

As for the graphics, they are obviously of no consequence to the gameplay, but they are not ugly either. Everything is as basic as possible in this regard, but that only makes the experience feel more retro. It would be pretty tough to keep good performance levels when the game window is constantly shifting and changing.

In the end, windowframe is tough enough to give you a headache, but it’s also original and fun enough to keep you playing in spite of that. Hence, it’s worth a shot from every puzzle-platformer fan out there.