Windosill (Video Game Review)

Video Game Review
Windosill
Windows/Mac
2009
Developer: Vectorpark
Publisher: Vectorpark
Website: http://windosill.com/

If you were to play Vectorpark’s Windosill in full, you would have enough time to cook a frozen pizza if it was already half-cooked. Windosill feels more like a demo more than a full fledged game. It wouldn’t be so bad if the game brought something to the table. Unfortunately, it is forgettable and a mindless time waste while you wait for your pizza to cook.

Each of the ten levels of Windosill comprise of one screen with a bunch of objects. You basically have to manipulate the environment to produce a small cube that fits in a car so you can drive to the next level. To do this, you need to click on the various objects which react differently. The idea is that you need to click and move your mouse in the right order for everything to click properly. Generally, everything sort of makes sense in a Dr. Seuss sort of way as go from step A to step B. You can breeze through some levels when you realize what each object does and you can put together how the equation is supposed to work.

One of the biggest flaws of the game is that you can get away with clicking on random things until you complete the level if you get stuck. Nothing is too complex that prevents you from doing this without eventually achieving success. It would have better if the puzzles were more complicated or if they threw in some dead-ends, it would have added to the challenge of the game. The game is not all that challenging so even if you have trouble seeing the objects on the screen, you’ll still be able to somehow finish the level.

The other major flaw of the game is that it is incredibly short. This cannot be stressed enough. Even though the cost of the game at the time of this review is $3, the game will probably only take the average player thirty minutes or less. Players more accustomed to point-and-click puzzle games will probably flip through this game way quicker. It gets to the point where even a low cost still doesn’t justify such a short game, especially when you can play half the game for free through the demo.

It would have been better if Windosill was longer. Much longer. I can’t recommend this game even at the low cost of $3 because it is way too short. The puzzles are interesting but the game is too easy and too short. It would have been better if the game is longer. If Vectorpark had made the game at least three times longer, it would have been an easy recommendation; even if they had bumped the price up to somewhere between $10-20. Hopefully, this game is the start of something special that the developers are going to unleash to the public in the future. As it stands now, Windosill feels like a technical demo rather than something that anyone should buy.

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