Swiftly

I am 32 years old.

My ex-wife and I have a daughter together, and we adopted our son together. Both are now 4 years old.

When we were going through our separation, I felt lost and unhappy. I was self-destructive. One day, I was so angry with everything spiraling out of control that I punched a concrete wall in a moment of overwhelming emotion. This resulted in breaking my fifth metacarpal in my right hand—the hand I worked with, played games with, and used to carry my children to bed—the hand I desperately needed to ensure I could continue providing.

Upon learning the severity of the self-inflicted damage, I became almost suicidal. Keep in mind that just a few months before this, I was the happiest man, with no history of depression or anxiety. I had never experienced anger outbursts, nor was I the type to break down and cry, but I was in a tough situation that truly prevented me from seeing the light on the other side.

With nothing better to do, I looked for a game I could play WITH ONE HAND while recovering. Somehow, I stumbled upon this game and read some of the comments. I decided it was worth a try... I must admit I didn't beat the game, nor did I play as much as some of you. In fact, I may have played this game for only a day or two. That being said, after doing so, I had a new joy and hope for life. I managed to leave behind the pain and suffering that had been thrust upon me. I could experience the joy and happiness of other people. I relaxed for 5 ♥♥♥♥ minutes listening to this music, long enough to realize that I would be okay.

After realizing this, I turned off the game and went back to work. My hand hurt a lot, but I was motivated. I stopped feeling so sorry for myself and became the father I needed to be at that moment, not the weak boy I was behaving like.

Today, I am close friends with the mother of my children. We don't fight, argue, or say hurtful things to each other. We are parents and friends.

Now I have 3 children. My third child is, wait, ALSO 4 YEARS OLD. The woman I am with was going through a very similar situation at the time of my separation, and we just unexpectedly stumbled into each other's lives. We have been dating for a year and are very happy together.

Moral of the story: you never know what life has in store for you, and if I had given up when all odds were against me, I wouldn't be where I am today. This silly little game helped me realize that.

Thank you.

Although this game is very cheap it's still not worth your money. The game boasts itself as a "very challenging platformer game" but the challenge doesn't come from challenging timings or complicated levels like in another far better platformer game Celeste but instead from the extremely annoying floaty movement combined with constant ice-physics everywhere.

The game's art style is extremely bland with no unique scenery in any of the levels. The music is the exact same short loop in all levels making it rapidly grating to the ears.

There are also multitudes of bugs regarding the different types terrain such as: Moving in a straight line from a red to a blue platform can sometimes cause the player to get stuck as if they had hit an edge even though they are on level ground.

Overall do not buy this game, you could probably make a far more enjoyable experience yourself with the free Unity game engine and some Youtube tutorials.

I had the chance to play Swiftly, a challenging platformer game developed and published by Cleverweek. The game has simple graphics and easy-to-understand rules, but it's not as easy as it seems. The levels are very challenging, and I had a hard time completing them.

The game has different types of platforms, each with its own traits. Blue platforms are your average ones, while green platforms have a bounciness of 120%, and red platforms have zero friction. Throughout the levels, there are also gears that aim to kill the cube, which is the player's objective to lead to the winning point. The game has checkpoints scattered throughout the levels, which are helpful in challenging stages.

Swiftly is a fun and entertaining game for those who enjoy platformer games. Although the game has mixed reviews, I found it challenging and engaging. The game's graphics might not be its strength, but the gameplay makes up for it. It's a great way to pass the time and challenge yourself. I recommend giving it a try if you're a fan of platformer games.

the physics are junk tbh. You can only accelerate significantly in the air. On the ground you are soooo slow. And a lot of obstacles are such a stupid height that you have to jump in a stupid way. You can't even modulate the jump height. And the hitboxes are wrong as well. You have huge cogs with massive gaps between the teeth and it count's the gap as a hit.

Purchased this game at some point in time. Gave up and forgot about it, I've since returned and have finally figured out the mechanics (I believe anyway). I passed a few levels, and once you start passing them the game is actually a bit more enjoyable.

Avoid this game at all costs! It's like playing Super Meat Boy with NES Castlevania controls. Speaking of controls, you'll have to likely revamp them from the ground up if you're using a controller.

I often like picking up some of these cheap platformers for just a quick change of pace (and some relatively easy achievements, but that's beside the point). Swiftly certainly is a cheap platformer, but even for £0.79 it was not worth it.

A note to artists - there is a difference between "minimalist" and "dull". This game is very dull to look at (and that's on the best graphics preset out of the six available so I don't really want to think about the lower ones). You control a grey square as you make your way through levels consisting of blue, green and red rectangles and spinning spiked wheels...and that's pretty much it. There is no variety there, either in terms of levels feeling different from each other or in terms of hazards. The spiky wheels don't even move around at all.

Each different colour of platform has different properties - blue ones are "normal", green ones bounce you higher as you jump on them and red ones are basically frictionless like video game ice (personally if I was designing a game like this I would've made the blue platforms the frictionless ones to conform to the ice=no friction thing that most games do, but that's a minor point). These are the only surfaces you have in the game, with the hazards being the aforementioned spiky wheels along with the bottom and top edges of the screen. That means that there are only so many different variations on obstacles to get past. This is one of those games where 25 levels feels simultaneously like too few and too many.

It's not much better when it comes to the sound, either. As far as I can tell there are only 2 music tracks in the game - one for the menus and one for everything else. They aren't even particularly catchy tracks (then again, hearing the same music over and over for that long is pretty bad, anyway). There are also no sound effects whatsoever - not even a little victory fanfare for beating a level or the game as a whole. I think that's a pretty major downside of the experience as it results in a lack of audiovisual feedback. Frequently I have fallen into a pit or run into spikes because there's no easy way to tell how fast you're going; you can't judge this based on noise, because there isn't any, or on visuals because the backgrounds are so indistinct.

Gameplay is very basic. Functional, for the most part, but it doesn't feel very nice to control, again partly due to the lack of audiovisual feedback. Also some of the spawn points are placed directly over a pit or a spiked wheel, which is in my opinion the sort of thing you see in those "Kaizo" romhacks that used to be popular. It doesn't make things harder - only more annoying.

I'm also impressed by how buggy the game seems to be despite being so simple. The level timer seems to only record the time for the first level you play and then just freezes when you go to the next one without resetting or tracking time across multiple levels. It only seems to reset when you exit a level back to the main menu. This timer seems to be pretty pointless anyway as the game doesn't appear to save your time for each level, nor do any of the achievements seem to make use of it.
The walljump mechanics are also some of the worst I've ever experienced as sometimes when trying to jump away from the wall, your...character, for lack of a better word...just goes straight up, completely robbed of any sideways momentum (admittedly it's very possible I'm just bad at it, but when this happens the square doesn't gain any sideways momentum no matter how hard I press the button - unlike, say, falling off a ledge for example). According to some of the reviews I read before deciding to try the game, they actually used to be even worse than this. I would hate to see that.
Also sometimes when you attempt to move to a green platform directly after a blue one, the square will just stop stuck at the edge they share, even when there's no visible gap or bump in the terrain.

Finally despite how basic the game looks, I occasionly found the game frame-stuttering which didn't help when I needed to input a direction at a prescise moment.

There is trading card support, if you're into that. I honestly think that these are the dullest-looking cards for any game that I have ever played on Steam. One of them is literally the grey square you control in-game in front of an off-white background. So a grey square on a flat colour. Obviously a lot of people who care about the trading cards don't actually care about what's on them, but come on.

I beat the game in under two hours and have basically no desire to go back to it at present. I simply can't recommend this game, unfortunately.

Swiftly tells an exciting story with a deep message and a surprising twist at the end: you buy a game for 0.49€, and it turns out to not be good.

It's not as obvious as it might seem, though. I got Super Meat Boy for 0.69€ and it has since become a proof to me that "cheap" doesn't have to mean "bad". Even if SMB's case remains an exception more than a rule, I refuse to treat uncostly games any differently from all the other ones. I expect, at worst, a fun distraction that lasts way too short, or something of this sort.

Swiftly, in any case, is a non-descript, generic game in the hardcore-platformer-with-minimalist-aesthetics genre. It has no story, worldbuilding or joke to it. What you see on the screenshots — black square, spiky wheels etc. — is all you get. It's super basic, and nothing changes during the game either; no new mechanic appears, even the background and the music remain the same throughout. (In fact, the single music track is looped, and there are no other sounds.)

If there's one distinctive element to Swiftly — and maybe the one thing that could have saved it somehow — it's the focus on physics. I should, however, put "focus" in quotes here because it really only is lip service. While the game makes the notions of having some very physics-y stuff in it (e.g. you "add force" by pressing move buttons, according to the help text), there isn't any actually to be found. What's more, you shouldn't even expect the most basic physics to behave correctly. Some of the things that happened to me when playing Swiftly:

I strafed in the air.

I jumped in the air. But I think it only works when you're falling.

I jumped in the air when hitting a bouncy platform and got rocketed into the sky.

I also got sent into the sky because I moved between two different-colored segments on a platform.

I got stuck to the ground.

I got locked in between two blocks with no way to restart from a checkpoint. (In fact, there is no pause menu; you just exit to the main one.)

And many, many more surprising situations. Or, as one might call them, bugs.

To make things better, the game explicitly includes wall jumping which I guess was added just 'cause it's cool — so much for the "scientific approach".

For what it's worth, Swiftly is relatively challenging, so at least one of its claims is true. (Although maybe I should say, relatively unchallenging, since while it was somewhat hard at certain points, the game doesn't come close to the difficulty of VVVVVV or SMB, or many other titles.) At least it is short, so you won't suffer too much if you do buy it (took me 2.8 hours to beat). I can't recommend getting it, though.

"Square returns home"

Floatiest platformer ever made. https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=710537064
Going fast is not an option because it takes ages to speed up and slow down. It has these locations where the height of your jump is slightly too much but you don't expect that, so first you mess up, go back to a checkpoint, and next time you have to remember to jump in a weird way so you go right when you start falling. And that has to be well timed, too. Almost everything is based on perfect positioning but the way the "character" controls really sucks. Oh and sometimes you get stuck in the ground.

This all happened to me on the first level. I gave up.

★☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆

If anyone see this. I need help. In level 5 of this game. The first check poin brings you to a place where we have to jump on the green floor twice and go foward in the stage but right there, there is a big spike ball that is spinning which i cannot go through. I cannot jump over it but i cant go under it either. Please help me. Idk what to do

I have conflict avoidance issues. For example, I tend to not take action when something is bothering me—messy roommates, a bad meal, terrible kissing—for the sake of harmony.

However, I've been learning to speak up more often, as I should. In this case, I am finally able to muster the courage to not recommend this game.

It was cheap, and so I wanted to give it a chance, as I love platformers more than any other genre. Plus, I like the idea of trying out a game with mixed reviews, because I always try to find something redeeming about nearly everything.

Unfortunately, ten minutes of this game did not provide any incentive to continue. The graphics, physics, poor hitboxes, controls, lacking sound design and the plainness (plain is different than minimal) are so unrewarding, that I did not want to waste any more time on it.

I like a good puzzle game every now and then. This game looked like it could be fun so I purchased it despite the bad reviews. Wthin minutes of playing this game I realized the potential it could have. Unfortunately I also realized that it was way to challenging for the first level. In fact it was more frustrating than fun. Luckily I paid way less than a $1 so I didn't loose much. I can't recommend this game because it is more frustrating than fun, especially at the very first level.

First 5 minutes: Simplistic, I like it, I'm jumping around, dying repeatedly. I fail to reach even the first checkpoint, I throw my laptop to the ground.

Next 5 minutes: I think to myself, why did I only play this game for five minutes, I jump around, dying repeatedly. I reach the first checkpoint, I continue to die repeatedly, I throw my laptop at a wall.

10/10 Would rage at again.

This game is very fun and challenging! This game is great for anyone who likes any sort of video game. The two hours I played to beat this video game have been the best two hours of my life 11/10 would play again.

took me 93 minutes to complete (spent some time on trying to eat my keyboard). Some levels felt more like a torment than a game.

Would recommend for hardcore platformer fans. Definitely DON'T buy this game if you dont have the patience of a saint.

Also: The collision in this game hates you.

This game is pretty fun but it still requires some work, took me about 20 minutes to get past level 1 but after that the levels were relatively easy. i didnt stop playing till i got to level 10, the beginning of the level you have to make not one but two pixal perfect jumps through spike wheels which is then followed with a frictionless wall jump. im 99% sure that frictionless wall jumping is bugged because it doesnt let you jump off the walls, i gave up after about 5 minutes of literally going nowhere. the physics seem really off but this is due to no air friction to slow your acceleration and to help you slow down, the only friction is on the ground. the green floor feels really off because it kills all forward motion with which im use to having to kill myself, had to get use to that to get past the first level. Personally all this game really needs is better indicators around the spikes because it doesnt look the spkies are killing you, its more of the air around the spikes. for the dallor i spent on it, it was totally worth.

Dev told me to have a go again at the game, and so I did.
There was an update that made the game better.
It was better.
It still needs improvement though.
This games physics are trash still.
I can't beat level 1, not because I suck at gaming but because I simply can't figure out the physics.
Also for a level 1 kinda level it was really hard and pretty long.
After playing for a while the music goes away so you become bored.
It needs more music and better music to catch the attention that this game is going for.
If this game improves I will again change my rating to what I see fit, this game will become good in-time.

So I'm going to break this down into categories for easy readin' n reviewin'

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Game was updated 27/01/2016. I'm using this space to update my review based on those changes. Original review is down below.

They have implemented WASD controls and have now made wall jumping a tad easier. This makes playing the game more comfortable and with the improvements to wall jumping less frustrating.

Fixed the music abruptly stopping after death. You can now finally hear the chill music track and I dig it.

They've implemented a level counter. A small change but it's nice to know you've completed a level.

Small introductions to new mechanics. Base game had no tips, more info about new mechanics is always welcome.

Updated score 7/10.
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Original review:

Pros:

Price is on point - For such a simple game I feel they nailed the price point perfectly. If you enjoy challenging platformers, I feel you can get your £0.79 worth.

It's challenging - Not a surprise there! If you're like me and like a quick challenge there's something in here for you.

Simplicity - You're a square avoiding death, it doesn't over complicate things, it knows what it is and sticks to it.

25 levels - 25 doesn't seem like a lot but having spent an hour on just 6 levels I feel there's easily enough content.

Devs listen - They're very open to feedback and have proven to change the game based on said feedback. Fantastic to see!

Cons:

(Fixed as of 27/01/2016) - 1 Music track - Swiftly fails hard on the music front. I would like to say I've heard the whole track however when you die (And you will die a lot) the music instantly stops and starts from the beginning. Within just 9 minutes I hate to mute the game entirely and put on my own music! Extremely frustrating to listen to.

(Improved as of 27/01/2016) - Controls - For the most part the controls are fine, so why is this in the cons section? Wall jumping. Yup. Wall jumping. Wall jumping is the most infuriating part of this game, it's not challenging, it's not fun, it's a wrestle with the controls and it sucks!


Improvements:

(Fixed as of 27/01/2016) - Don't restart music upon death, let that little sucker continue playing! The addition of 2 or 3 more music tracks would be extremely welcome.

(Improved as of 27/01/2016) - Re-work wall jumping! I can't even put down in words how frustrating it is to mash up & left then quickly let go to mash up and right in the hopes it's timed correctly to achieve a wall jump. Make is so your square can stick to the walls for easier jumping or rework the whole wall jumping together!

Achievements don't pop at the end of levels - They only pop once you go back to the menu.

(Implemented as of 27/01/2016) - Add a level notification, I had no idea I had completed 5 levels till I exited to the menu. Once the player has moved to a new level and quick flash of level [number] would be welcomed.

Simple leaderboads - Just to add a tiny bit of competitiveness to the game. Add a simple leaderboard of the top 10 fastest finishes. It's simple and could spur somebody on to beat that No.1 - adding a small amount of replay-ability.


Conlusion:

If you like quick, fun, challening levels I see no reason why you shouldn't pick this up. The game needs improvements there's no doubt about that. However, what we have now is still an enjoyable game despite some flaws. Overall I give Swiftly 6/10.

I saw this game on 15% off and thought i could spend around a dollar on a ''simple'' game like this and have some fun
i feel like i got way to little for my buck, no offense to the creator but just by playing the first level i can say that this was a project made in less then a days time or even hours. you start of with a block wich you can barly move since the game had no work put into it so you try to jump you can barly control your block in the air.

hitbox from the objects are not finished or polished,if you manage to fix any of this ill give you props and maybe just maybe play your game some time later 4/10

EDIT: The developer is responsive, but the controlls still feel stiff and buggy i would love to see some tweeks here and there in the future if the dev hasn't given up on the game completely.

Ooh yay, yet another 'hurr-durr dis gem iz hard' game.

Ok, I get that some people get some entertainment out of these, and most of them are cleverly thought out and put together, so that no time is spent figuring out the mechanics. But this game just doesn't play well at all. I couldn't figure out what the hitboxes of the wheels were, making the game not just hard, but also annoying. It wouldn't have been bad if I could have set my own controls. Using the arrow keys to move is meh, I prefer AWSD, but using the up arrow to jump just makes this game unplayable. Also the physics are st00pid.

Unfortunately I can't recommend the game, despite the low price. Save your pennies, folks!


UPDATE: So I was contacted to change my review in light of recent changes that have been made by the developer.
One thing I can give credit for is that the developer seems to care about constructive criticism and wants to improve upon what he has made and has as such implemented AWSD controls after my review. Jumping however, is still a pain as I'd rather have a dedicated button that isn't part of my control pad. Music doesn't restart upon death anymore, fortunately removing another layer of obnoxiousness. Hitboxes are still eh.

A small thing I forgot to mention in my first review was how the first checkpoint was stupid, because you need a run-up to do the next gauntlet, meaning you have to track back a little every time you die. This doesn't make the game hard, just annoying.

All in all, I'd say that maybe I was too harsh at first and the game is just unfinished and needs some polish. This game does have potential to be functional, and I'm sure the developer can do it!