I recently played ‘Drawn HD’ for the IPad with my family. The kids and I would take turns controlling the game and help each other solve the puzzles. Everyone wanted to control it, ‘Ok, but I want to do the ice griffon.’
Drawn has a wonderfully told story and is just an incredibly well done game. Except for a few, minor issues with the touch interface, there is very little not to love about it. It welcomes new players with simple puzzles, but can also be very challenging. And, if you are like me, you’re bound to be stumped more than a few times. It’s fun to play alone, or with family and friends, helping solve the puzzles and noticing little things in the images.
Drawn has a nice, intuitive ability to skip a puzzle if it becomes too hard. It also provides increasingly detailed hints, allowing you to get a little help or a lot. This works seemlessly in this game and gives some credence to Jenova Chen’s theory of user controlled difficulty. The entire experience provides wonderful feedback, has extremely clear tasks, and in almost all ways, exhibits the essential aspects of Czikszentmihalyi’s Flow theory.
All game designers would do well to study Big Fish Games’ success with this little gem, whether they create story adventures or not. Would make a good G.G. video entry one day.