Pony Island

Release Date: January 4, 2016

Puzzle, horror, 2D, arcade elements, indie games, experimental/artistic, Game Pass, EA Play, singleplayer

95%

Steam

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Unusual independent game created by Daniel Mullins for the Ludum Dare 31 in 2014 and then released for the Steam platform. The player directs a character trapped in a diabolic game, and his task is to get out and save his soul. Pony Island stands out mainly due to its gameplay.

Plot
Game mechanics
Technical aspects

Pony Island, released on PC, is a short and unusual production combining classic arcade titles with a logical game. The game was developed by Daniel Mullins, known from Grav (2013) and educational Agent Maxwell: Master of Math. Pony Island was founded as part of the 31st edition of the Ludum Dare competition in 2014, and two years later it made its debut on Steam.

Plot

In Pony Island, we play as a player who starts an adventure with a fictional production of the same name. It soon turns out that the program doesn't work as it should, and despite the innocent name, it has a truly hellish origin. Our goal is to outsmart the malicious application and its creator. Our success will save the unfortunate souls trapped in the application.

Game mechanics

The gameplay in Pony Island is very unusual. Initially, the game appears as an 8-bit arcade title, in which we control a pony moving to the right and avoid obstacles. However, after a while the fun and unrestricted gameplay changes, forcing us to cope with further logical games referring to hacking and programming. As we pass the stages, the riddles become more and more complex and the skill levels become more challenging.

An important feature of Pony Island is the continuous breaking of the fourth wall. The title uses various mechanics to remove the boundary between fiction and reality. On the desktop of the virtual computer, you will find smaller games and text files with Pony Island walkthrough. We use the chat windows to have conversations with characters, whether with the creator of the fictional game or a mysterious user called "H0peles$0uL".

Technical aspects

As for the graphics, Pony Island represents a style typical for independent production, also stylized on classic arcade machines. Therefore, the title doesn't offer much in terms of audiovisuals, with 2D (albeit suggestive) graphics and simple colors. The same applies to the sound, which isn't much different from what we could hear in 8-bit productions. However, the soundtrack by Jonah Senzel does a great job emphasizing the unusual atmosphere of the game.

Last updated on February 7, 2020

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