Djilyaro

I'm not really sure if Djilyaro is an asset flip. Some elements of this game certainly make it seem like the developer put some effort into assembling some kind of original here. On the other hand, a lot of the game assets don't seem like they were created by the developer, but they haven't credited any asset creators for supplying assets, which might be a case of plagiarism. There's no evidence, so we need to give the benefit of the doubt... regardless, asset flip or not, the quality here is indistinguishable from many asset flip/cash grab scams, and that's a problem in itself.

Djilyaro is a short "art experience" that has you move through some almost certainly asset flipped low poly tree environments and some other stuff, with some strobey flashy lights... yeah, the most amusing thing about this is the developer actually thought this was worth money. No wonder they shoved it quickly into shovelware game bundles, desperate for a few cents for this garbage, but isn't worth even that. This is considerably worse than free student projects you see on Steam from DigiPen, Breda and SMU Guildhall.

Trying to be more "art" than "game" doesn't result in a decent gaming experience for gamers, and it's not okay for developers to use the excuse "It's ART!!!" if they can't come up with decent gameplay. I'm not trying to say that video games can't be art, but art is where the pinnacle of craftsmanship meets the pinnacle of imagination, design, and narrative talent. None of that is present here, the quality is low, both in design and in technical delivery. This isn't making art better, it's making video games worse.

The developers didn't design the game for modern gaming PCs, as such the display resolution caps out at 1080p, a very low resolution that became mainstream back in 2006 and became obsolete when 4K entered the mainstream in 2014. The game simply won't look right on modern gaming displays due to this failure on the part of the developers.

The game features lazy low-polygon "retro" assets, making this look like a barely functional 3D game from the 1990s. It's unclear why the developers weren't able to arrange high quality, high polygon count contemporary assets for the game, and also irrelevant... what matters is that this looks bad as a result of their decisions, a compromise PC gamers shouldn't have to put up with. The game assets are fairly mediocre/low quality which fits with the idea they weren't developed by the game creator... they look like they're "just reasonable enough" to go on sale as part of an asset pack. The issue of asset flipping aside, ultimately the quality of these assets is low and low quality always makes for a less than optimal gaming experience.

These technical defects push this game below acceptable standards for any modern PC game.

The poor quality of this game is reflected by how many people spent time with it. At the time of this review, SteamDB shows the all-time peak player number was only 2 players. This is a remarkably low number, and now, the only player activity occurs once or twice a month, presumably someone loading it up to see what it is then quickly uninstalling it. Considering there's over 120 million gamers on Steam and well over 110,000 games for gamers to choose from, the overwhelming lack of interest in this low quality game is to be expected.

So, should you buy this game? Is this one of the best of the 110,000+ games on Steam?

Djilyaro is relatively cheap at $2 USD, but it's not worth it. Given the defects and quality issues with the game, coupled with the unrealistic price, this is impossible to recommend. This is also competing with over 14,000 free games available on Steam, many of them far better than this paid product.

Was planning to play this on acid, really glad I didn't. I thought this was only gonna be like a weird and trippy puzzle game. That entity made me panic while sober, it would definetly give me a really bad trip on acid. Would be okay if I knew there was gonna be a jumpscare, but there was no warning.

I do like the artstyle though. It's simple, yet complex with the trippy vibes.

A Bird's Eye View Curator 🦜

Introduction

Djilyaro is a walking simulator in which you collect objects that make the world surrounding you get more trippy and psychedelic every time you pick up an object.

Visuals and Mechanics

It's as simple as it sounds. The visuals are flat and boring and when you pick something up they get a metallic sheen or rainbow effect. The mechanics are literally walk, look around and interact.

Gameplay

The gameplay of Djilyaro is immediately as boring as it sounds. You walk slowly through a badly textured world until you find collectibles that make the world trippy. Admittedly and a definite unintentional analogy for real life, everything gets so trippy that it's hard finding the normal among the insane. Then, after being surprised out of nowhere by a flashy object and a loud jump-scare scream you get send to a vast and empty city I couldn't find anything to do in that had very ominous music I was on edge for the rest of that 'attempt'. Which eventually lead to me going back to the menu to reset the game and again more of the flashy dudes showed up. My only guess is that Djilyaro has the intention to be a Slender-like game where you pick up collectibles and don't get caught but the flashy things always hunt you down and move faster than you can making this a guess without a definite answer and that getting caught just sends you to time-wasting limbo.

Soundtrack

The soundtrack, as far as it's there did make at least an impact on me, but for the wrong reasons. After a jump-scare then getting ominous music obviously puts you on edge, but the area you are sent to is just emptiness making it unease without reason unlike fridge horror.

Conclusion

So in conclusion, I would personally not recommend Djilyaro, I kid you not however when I say that the weirdness of this game does set a poignant tone of unease and 'mood' but at the speed you walk and the vastness without guidance of this game and just how unfair it is. Djilyaro couldn't keep my attention and as there is no saving or no real explanation of an objective, you have to do whatever it is you do in one go so I personally wouldn't recommend this game. It is however very cheap so do give it a look for yourself!

Associated Media

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2341864621

Cool experience, well worth a dollar.

Fun little arty game, definitely worth a play

I was high as fuck and this game was amazing

suuuuuper creepy game. I love it. 10/10

very boring game, walking simulator with no effort added from dev

booo fps

What a mess. This isn't even really a game. More like a "developer's" first attempt at programming something. Game can't even maintain its framerate at points, and becomes nearly unplayable. This would be an excellent free demo on itch.io as something maybe in someone's portfolio, but not a paid game on Steam. Hell, even putting it in your portfolio might do more harm than good.

Silly bollocks really. Not many other ways to describe it. At least they provided an epilepsy warning.

Positive review for now as I actually felt something whilst playing it, which doesn't often happen for me with games at this price range. But it was over all too soon - hit 2 FPS so never got to finish it.

Reviewed in The Steaming Pile #3:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0HBQ7WGSvVE

Like eating too many mushrooms except this game ends before the vomiting.