The Game You Didn't Know You Wanted | -SPROUT- and . Reviews

[@sparkeesoftware2475]

Thanks so much for the review! This made my day for sure.

[@ctb3335]

Just for the record, how much psychic damage did you take from the terrible dashing?

[@sparkeesoftware2475]

Haha it was definitely a critical hit, and it made me rethink my assumptions about teaching game mechanics. I put a ton of effort into trying to make the early levels in each area act as the tutorials, and it seems I missed the mark a bit haha.

[@Graeldon]

Not all! It's just a case of "streamer brain is dumb". I swear my intelligence is halved when I'm trying to multitask like that. Great fun though!

[@Jaspovideos]

Just recently read a comment on a game dev Discord channel that streamers generally tend to hate reviewing puzzle games because it might (no, probably will) make them look stupid. So I think you're in good company.

[@Graeldon]

@@Jaspovideos I don't mind reviewing puzzle games, but trying to stream them is hard. My brain doesn't work fast enough when trying to entertain at the same time XD

[@corb805]

Don't worry, you can play celeste once you reach the letter C in a few decades!

[@andreworders7305]

He has to play through every game starting with the word “a”

[@Graeldon]

I hope I still have the reflexes for it by then!

[@LakeGameCreepr]

​@@Graeldonassist mode is always an option!

[@petersmythe6462]

Is C actually getting closer or further away? What is the rate of expansion of the steam universe? I think he will have to accelerate dramatically if he wants to ever reach C.

[@corb805]

Basically, if it is random what letter each game starts with when added to steam (it isn't but this logic still holds): Even though the number of games between Grael and C is increasing (it does not matter how fast), as Grael continues down the alphabet, there are less possible titles that would fit between Grael and C, so the rate that games are added between him and C slows down as he approaches it. Also rate of expansion implies that games are being added at a measurable, accelerating rate. Which I really doubt without putting in any research in whatsoever

[@zelenpixel]

the character model shrinking into an itty bitty size every landing is the funniest part how does that even happen

[@WohaoG]

might be an attempt at squash & stretch, though a very poor one

[@calemr]

Seems like a really low quality way of having them crouch or something, upon hitting the ground... only minus the whole "Putting in the slightest level of effort to make a crouching and standing animation*

[@petersmythe6462]

Perhaps it's parented to another object and that object changes size during the jump to allow her to clear obstacles or squeeze through tight spaces, but then doesn't consistently unshrink?

[@breadbreadington5735]

maybe the true splarry was the friends we made along the way

[@testchannel8151]

"Behold, combat." Classic Josh quote

[@Graeldon]

JSH deserves more love

[@testchannel8151]

@@Graeldon True 👍

[@brendanwhaley5714]

In Razbuten's gaming for a non-gamer video (kzbin.info/www/bejne/l6mal2aAj697idk), he mentions at about 13:30 how his wife misinterpreted the dash introduction in the tutorial for Celeste to mean you could only dash in one direction, so you're not the only one.

[@Graeldon]

Love Razbuten's content, haven't watched one of his vids in a while though.

[@hunterruckriegel78]

Interesting(?) fact: The second area for "." (Zinuru the Great) was ripped almost completely wholesale from Infinity Blade 3, which likely explains their strange geometry, as Infinity Blade 3 was completely on-rails (the player moved to different areas by tapping objects of interest, highlighted with a circle, on the screen), so the map geometry was only designed to be seen from certain angles. I only recognized it because the area is one that I returned to very often over the time I played the game as each of the four side rooms and the big dig site required returning to the area with specific gear in order to access the secret bosses/items hidden within them. Despite "." (Zinuru the Great) being a complete trash fire, I'll have to thank it for reminding me of my times playing a much better game.

[@hunterruckriegel78]

Oh, and I absolutely love this series- it's definitely a highlight of the day whenever a new episode comes out.

[@ronansorgdrager]

I was about to comment on this too, it brought back some nice memories, maybe they thought they could get away with it because the game isn't on the app store anymore?

[@Graeldon]

There's likely a lot of very new devs that don't understand copyright laws... and of course if the game goes unnoticed they get away with it

[@robinthefool8960]

OMG, SO WAS THE TUTORIAL ROOM, ITS THE RESURRECTION TABLE

[@crazyluigi6664]

@@robinthefool8960 Any guesses that even the ending room was stolen also? Or the character models?

[@Tony_Man]

How a game like dot gets to remain on the Steam page in such low quality amazes me.

[@JohnDiGrizUkraine]

I mean being terrible is not against Steam rules, and neither is being unfinished. Steam doesn't allow games with illegal content (child porn/copyright infringement/malware etc.) and blockchain games, but it also barely enforces rules it does have

[@GretgorPooper]

If this series has taught me anything, it's that the number of good games that get no attention is higher than the number of bad games that get too much attention.

[@Graeldon]

A sad truth. Hopefully we can start to change that. The Sprout dev has said the video prompted new sales, so I'm super happy for them!

[@GretgorPooper]

@@Graeldon Also, I recently played (square), and I haven't had this much fun since I beat Dark Souls 3 for the first time. Thanks for featuring it!

[@evillecaston]

I like how these games shared an episode, as they show an example of the right and wrong way to approach your first game project. I'm happy for the -SPROUT- team, and I hope we'll get more stories like theirs in the future. Sadly, the latter game is all too common on Steam, because nobody's stopping them. Thanks, Steam!

[@finnaboing]

for those whose interest was piqued by the music of SPROUT (see also: "good music"), I highly recommend checking out Failpositive's other works as well. they have an album from late 2020 called "Wanderer" that's a loose concept record about a bear trying to survive in the wilderness, really loved that one when I checked it out a few weeks ago

[@annawanna5995]

I love how her sword got super big for some reason at the beginning of the main level.

[@crazyluigi6664]

It's a feature, one might say!

[@killerawesomexx]

"." looks like some kind of high school/college project imo Enough effort to get a passing grade but not enough to make it truly stand out amongst the 70k games on the Steam platform.

[@BoisegangGaming]

i'm pretty sure everything in it is premade assets. I think the PC is a character model from Epic's attempt at a third-person MOBA.

[@Zanador]

Enough to get a C- in an "intro to Unreal" class or something, I guess

[@joeycohen7533]

Still amazed we hit 10 good games already. Remember the string of bad at the start

[@testchannel8151]

A bit unreleated but the player character on -SPROUT- is adorable A goober some might say

[@ForTheJerusalem]

Don't worry you will play celeste when you get to C. So like 20 years? 30?

[@richmcgee434]

The assumption that he's even keeping up with new releases seems optimistic. I'm 57. I'll count myself lucky to see the letter B before I die of old. :)

[@repli2991]

Predicting what the rating is going to be is my new favorite thing of this series, I actually got the one for . right!

[@jamzee_]

Its actually intriguing that this game flew under my radar as a guy who enjoys these little pixelated platformers just to kill time to. Neat. Thanks for covering it mate. Been liking the review series so far.

[@Graeldon]

Thanks for the support!

[@richmcgee434]

"Requires no memory or storage" So it will run on your literal toaster, then? :)

[@bicepsupreme]

Recently subscribed and I went back to watch all of your videos. I’m fascinated by this series. I’d love more info about how many weird symbols we need to get through before the letter A. Also it could be cool if you talked about your experience finishing all of these games back to back if you get another game where there’s not much to talk about.

[@Graeldon]

The start of the numbered games is coming up soon, and there will be a retrospective video every 100 games or so to look at the top 5/bottom 5 =)

[@GeorgeDCowley]

@@Graeldon 6 by 6 soon.

[@BoisegangGaming]

10:45 that character model seems to have been taken from paragon, Epic Games' attempt at creating a MOBA from a while ago (and that has also been shuttered and resurrected so many times its insane)

[@Graeldon]

Considering it's made in unreal 3, I'm not too surprised

[@jinxhijinx1768]

This series is super interesting and you're a good reviewer but that dash mishap makes me wonder if you've got the goopy goblin gamer brain it takes to survive this gargantuan task. Maybe throughout the trial we'll see you develop one.

[@Graeldon]

Streaming makes my brain melt and I forget really basic things haha

[@tisajokt7676]

7:57 this piece of music gives off heavy Crypt of the Necrodancer vibes, I like

[@tehuselessguig3138]

don't worry, apparently not knowing the dash is omnidirectional is also an issue many people had in Celeste !

[@Theo_the_cat_guy]

Heck yeah -sprout-

[@Klabbity_Kloots]

The fact that you made it through eighteen levels without dashing vertically or diagonally should be an achievement in of itself.

[@Graeldon]

It should be a badge of shame.

[@Klabbity_Kloots]

@@Graeldon Nah, I'm serious. That kind of skill is what makes game achievements and challenges. There might even be a Graeldon% glitchless speedrun.

[@SomeGuy712x]

Once again, you could put a simple period after "-SPROUT-" in the description, so that KZbin doesn't put that strikethrough effect on it. So, like this: -SPROUT-. (1:55) That's pretty nice, especially since I find the X-box buttons confusing, having grown up with Nintendo games, but the PlayStation symbols don't confuse me, since they're different from the usual ABXY letters, so I'd certainly prefer the PS symbols. (4:22) LOL, nice. Makes me wonder just how far a player can get into the game using horizontal dashes only. Maybe that could be a self-imposed challenge if the game is actually entirely beatable that way. (8:41) "-SPROUT-" is definitely a hidden gem alright. I might decide to try it for myself in the future. (9:39) Heh, it's almost like Zinuru couldn't wait several eons for you to get to it in your Steam Sequence, so it "cheated" to the front of the line with its "." name. (9:55) Actually, looks like the minimum requirements are 8 GB RAM and 4 GB storage. It's the recommended column that's mostly blank, but whenever I see that, I just assume the empty areas are just identical to the minimum. (11:48) Oof, I hate that kind of camera awkwardness. In the most recent Pokémon games on the Nintendo Switch, the camera seems to like to zoom in to the extreme in certain places for no good reason, and I think it's treating some invisible barriers (meant to prevent player movement past them) as solid for the camera too. (12:31) LOL, your sword Dynamaxed! :P (14:00) Suddenly... "WIN!" ...Yeah, it's rather obvious why Zinuru the (not) Great would want to hide itself as just a dot on the Steam store now.

[@XenonPyromaniac13]

A lot of these worse games tend to remind me of little random arcade games I've made that are in progress on a website for doing just that. It's a little funny, to be honest, lol.

[@TheDoomBlueShell]

Sprout looks quite nice this was the reason I started following this series is so refreshing seeing hidden good games getting a bit of attention. For me is so weird that people make a game where nothing interesting happens and it lacks any sense of creativity and is bad not only for incompetence but because the creator couldn't care less for their project and still have the guts to ask for money, not saying it didn't in the past AVGN and his multiple copycats exists for a reason, but at least in the past they had multiple limitations that don't exist anymore.

[@Richardiii2]

I can't believe . cost money. I mean, I should expect these by now, but it still surprises me every time.

[@SylvesterAshcroft88]

This channel has better content than most AAA games.

[@CyrusKA]

Wow this game looks awesome! And that soundtrack! I hope your growing channel gets some eyes on it.

[@thismakesnosense]

Yes, the soundtrack of Zinuru the great is very underappreciated

[@Graeldon]

Sprout and FailPositive definitely need more love ❤️

[@ninjab33z]

Sprout's soundtrack is very nice. Particularly the abyss, which feels very crypt of the necrodancer

[@klank9409]

definitely gonna give the sprout ost a listen

[@akudate]

-sprout- looks interesting enough, I definitely going to try it out

[@abundantworms]

I find it funny that the only negative steam review for sprout complained that it was that it's too easy, but also adding on that they've played ori and meatboy... maybeee some people aren't as good at platformers as you are and this is aimed at them, not you? A game not being difficult for experienced platformer players doesn't mean it's bad lmao. Very presumptuous.

[@Chronoplague]

12:34 I love that the sword glitch happened after the vo was recorded, so theres this comically big sword while he talks about pretty standard bad game stuff!

[@Namadu7]

Failpositive!? Wow, that's a name I wasn't expecting to see here. :o

[@-Shinoray-]

Grealdon literally expanding my steam wishlist with each good game... Damm you grealdon but i cant stop watching your channel.

[@Graeldon]

At least there is a Steam sale at the moment! Glad you're enjoying the content ❤️

[@erikrounds]

I'm a big fan of Celeste, so I'd probably enjoy -SPROUT-

[@mochaRL72]

I used to have the #1 spot on the overall leaderboard for the game and always loved it. so glad this game has gotten this exposure, so awesome.

[@Graeldon]

It definitely deserves more love!

[@annawanna5995]

It's now my headcanon that you're a Zinuru competetive gold collector

[@iilikecereal]

Happy to see your channel growing :)

[@Berny23]

Sprout looks fantastic! 12:50 Are you the son of Josh Strife Hayes? xD

[@Graeldon]

Just a fan 😉

[@VVen0m]

Niiiiice, looks like we're finally getting to the good stuff

[@Graeldon]

Make sure to check out my Top 5/Bottom 5 recap video if you haven't already!

[@kukukachu]

Oh Failpositive, the same person that made the music for Rogue Glitch. NICE!

[@bitrex9828]

"It's fast and fun, but might feel like it's over a little too soon," sounds like me 😭

[@Cow-Moth-With-A-CRT-Head]

Don't feel bad about the dash thing: when I first played Celeste it took me a whole level before I realized that you could dash in directions other than diagonally up and left or up and right.

[@Banana0_0Manly]

Saying "behold Combat" reminded me of josh trifehays

[@axelprino]

I've seen a few devs that change the names of their games only on the Steam store to something hard to search for, like "." in this example, when they're kinda ashamed by it after receiving some negative reviews but not enough to just remove it from sale. It's always very incomplete stuff that barely works as far as I'm aware, I've never bothered to actually buy any of those to check cos why would I when there's thousands of other things to play. -Sprout- looks nice, but yeah that name isn't great for searching either, there's another game called Sprout without the dashes that pops up first. A subtitle might help with discoverability.

[@hidennarror3952]

I know Im a bit late and sorry if someone else brought this up but Zinuru The Great playable character model is Countess from Paragon, old EPIC Games moba now remade as Paragon OVERPRIME and Predecessor. The running animation gave it away for me. Way to many hours in Paragon lol Edit- I also think the enemies welding two swords are the super minions from Paragon as well.

[@plasmaguardian21]

Congrats on getting to an actual letter in that list! Excited for the (hopefully) eventual L section!🎉

[@Klabbity_Kloots]

My brother, your _grandchildren_ are gonna die of old age before he gets to the L's.

[@Treekyboi]

as someone who was addicted to super meat boy, this game defs appeals to me LOL i still need to play celeste as well 👀

[@Russian_engineer_bmstu]

This is the video I will now send to people who confuse art direction and art fidelity

[@4dragons632]

Nice, finally a game I'm 100% confident that my 2% complete game I've been working on over the last few months is better than in every conceivable way! I'm not talking about Sprout, Sprout is very good.

[@Graeldon]

2% is probably more game than . I'll take a functional menu screen over the entire game of .

[@Kfoo-dj4md]

YOOOO I SEE MY BOY VES 8:33

[@sparkeesoftware2475]

Soves is a Sprout god

[@gigi12gigi12]

The narrative style was always suspicious for me but this video's "Behold, combat" was the final nail in the coffin: you are clearly inspired by Josh Strife Hayes. Now all the pieces of clues fall into their places!

[@Graeldon]

I definitely am, but that line was maybe starting to tread on his toes a little bit. But I was a fan of Cynical Brit years ago, and his style definitely influenced me too

[@minerman60101]

Edit: Celeste's tutorial ends by giving you the ability to dash and telling you to dash diagonally up and to the right. This kind of design would probably have prevented your trouble, as from there it's far easier to infer that you can dash in eight directions. I was looking at my library, at "TUNIC" and "Hades" listed among my favorites and wondered if there were any games with shorter names. I search up "." and I come here! Sadly for this story, I have been subscribed to this channel for several weeks now, so this is merely an excuse to watch a video I more or less already knew existed rather than the shocking discovery of someone on a great quest.

[@CanYouDontirl]

Nice video! Since I've been playing lots of Celeste recently, I might end up picking up Sprout. Also, unfortunately, that is an "L" in my name and not a capital i lol.

[@Graeldon]

Ah dang, I'm sorry! I'll make sure I get it right next time!

[@JarlFrank]

Zinuru the Great having no description and screenshots on the store page, and its name changed to simply . probably means the developer gave up on the game but didn't know how to remove it from Steam entirely, so instead she just made it undiscoverable (by changing the name to a .) and unappealing for potential buyers (by removing all screenshots and descriptions).

[@Graeldon]

That's my suspicion as well, I'm pretty sure it was done to make the game difficult to find, and as you said, unappealing to purchase. I'm the outlier they couldn't account for haha. But what they also could have done, is make the game free.

[@aerofur]

15:50 I mean, the opaque PNG has 4 points right there, in each corner...

[@AkorBestoff]

Dad im in a Graeldon Video, are you proud will you finally come home?

[@Graeldon]

Just picking up milk, I'll be home soon.

[@AkorBestoff]

@@Graeldon yeah my Dad is comming home

[@jadewedge6082]

Ziniru the Great out there with that "We don't wanna miss out on the next dota" clause I'd bet ya. The game's a real sleeper hit, just waiting for the modding scene to pop off 'ya know?

[@Ganmue]

Ah, excellent, I've been wanting another precision platformer. Great job once again :)

[@Graeldon]

Cheers! This one is short and sweet, but excellently done

[@yeetlordentertainment3937]

"we have warframe at home" I started warframe 3 days ago. That timing...

[@danielgrezda3339]

This video is the perfect way to prove good graphics don't make a good game.

[@dagonofthedepths]

Kind of impressive really. Like playing megaman x2 and getting half way through before realizing there is a dash move. Hold up isn't that Countess from Paragon on the second game, uh "."? Explains why that model is so broken.

[@jademonass2954]

please review RITE !!! its my favorite precision plataformer alongside celeste

[@andrewshanks7053]

Steam seems to be outperforming surgeon's law so far. I'm impressed.

[@andreworders7305]

The dev follows your channel? That’s so cool. I guess he knew he was coming up.

[@sparkeesoftware2475]

Some friends let me know that Graeldon was streaming Sprout a few weeks ago, and I enjoyed watching so much I'm still hanging around ❤

[@SanMaster17]

2 games in one video? Jackpot!

[@Nalehw]

. is part of a class of games that's probably going to be pretty common as you proceed (the Watch+Play boys have seen tons like this). It would be a perfectly acceptable game to produce while first learning the engine. If you were in a classroom and you handed in . for an assignment, you'd probably get a passing grade. You've got all the basic mechanics of a game working: it starts up, it has levels, it has controls, it has a menu, it has objectives (the door out), it has obstacles (combat), it finishes. Good job! But you shouldn't SELL it. There's... there's nothing THERE, there's no gameplay or design, it's clearly just engine practice.

[@nanardeurlambda]

12:00 maybe she is trying to fly

[@ActuallyYoda69]

"Unless you've been living under a rock for the past 5 years, you've probably heard of Celeste" Me, having never heard of Celeste before: :,)

[@Graeldon]

Considering it has 71,000 reviews on Steam, it is kind of surprising, but not impossible. It's definitely considered an indie gem

[@Highretrogamelord]

This could've been called "From Treasure to Trash". 😅

[@beanofknowledge2125]

Honestly Impressive how far you got without knowing how to Dash properly

[@Zift_Ylrhavic_Resfear]

Thanks for the video :)

[@maxwuup2152]

Holy moly, how is . even allowed on steam? also loved the giant sword (and ignoring it)

[@skylordguy6861]

I think .’s maps are from Infinity Blade 3

[@utabukai_nas]

WIN!

[@andreworders7305]

2:42 wait, I didn’t know you worked for IGN!

[@Graeldon]

Oof.

[@wafffls]

love these vids

[@yoannmarchesse988]

I'm dying laughing. Ziniru the great was worse every penny you payed for it, thank you so much. For me this game is "so bad it's good", unlike the office simulator one...

[@Dabestbro.]

YOU MISPRONOUNCED HUNTERLS SMHSMH

[@Graeldon]

I did, and I feel awful about it!

[@Dabestbro.]

​@Graeldon in all seriousness though, great video & reviews o7

[@andreworders7305]

Lots of good recently

[@Graeldon]

25% is pretty decent, but I doubt it will stay that way

[@notlawful]

the internet is a wild place

[@Michigan-4632hoggan]

FOR THE ALGORITHM!

[@dimethylhexane]

It does sound like Sprout is very similar to Celeste but I guess that's not really a bad thing. I mean we've definitely seen just on this channel a number of examples of developers copying good games and just not understanding at all what makes them good, while these people seem to really get what works in Celeste (eg quick restarts making the frequent deaths less frustrating) and built on it

[@Graeldon]

It was definitely a game inspired by Celeste rather than trying to copy it

[@l4ur489]

epic graeldon upload

[@danielchick1]

I think i recognise those environments from ".", Pretty sure they're stolen assets from infinity blade 3

[@insertfunnynamehere8984]

Is it just me or does the model's stance in the second game remind you of Bayonetta?

[@ThatChronomancer]

They managed to get a Z letter game into the symbol section. Sneaky.

[@Graeldon]

Given the quality of the game, my theory is that the dev simply failed to title the game correctly in steam store and now can't change it

[@ziemniaczek2835]

splarry

[@exotic8398]

i found the game of . on steam when i press the button . and enter because i was bored and i found your review and video link

[@Graeldon]

That's one way to stumble upon some weird games! Welcome to the channel!

[@KindaJustSnow]

Unfortunately I couldn't see the entire stream, but I remember seeing you realize you could dash directionally in "-Sprout-" and it was honestly so funny. It was even funnier because the dev was saying it in chat several times I think. Don't beat yourself up over it though. It's honestly impressive you made it as far as you did so take that for what it is XD "." or "Zinuru the Great" was honestly such a mess. I wonder how the game was even allowed to have two different names on Steam. I've never uploaded something to Steam so I'm not really sure how it all works, but I guess the searchable name and the name of the actual game are added in separately? Why give the game two different names in the first place? Was the "." a mistake? Also I'm surprised the devs have a YT channel. I wonder what they upload lol

[@Zelcev]

Graeldon i saw ur review and wached the video i will sub and like

[@kacperdom9252]

J hope you like puzzle beacuse steam has MANY games(?) Like 100 puzzle animals.

[@annawanna5995]

'sadly, while the artist is on a bad music platform, the game's soundtrack isn't, because it's on a good music platform instead'. Yes, truly sad, it is.

[@Graeldon]

Fair play! I just want the music to be available on both platforms =(

[@petersmythe6462]

I think she's Laurie because that's what ChatGPT told me the female of Larry is.

[@andreworders7305]

KZbin description is dumb and decides it’s a strikethrough

[@nodthenbow]

Man you are screwed when I put my new game ".......AAAAAAAAA" on steam for a billion dollars

[@Graeldon]

Better hope you get it out before I've passed where it would be!