PETAL HELL
It’s untitled ( the flower game).
Half curious kaleidoscope, half confusing bullet hell, untitled (the flower game) is somewhere between a drawing machine and an arcade game. In fact, it caters to that split by letting you choose between a game mode where you collect red markers and one where you play around with sliders to generate images. For the more traditional game mode you’re essentially playing Snake, except the snake you control has been put through a kaleidoscope. That means that as you keep an eye on one head, there are many others, all originating from the central point and all mimicking your moves.
When you’re collecting red markers you can thus just switch your attention to whichever snakehead is nearer the next marker. That’s a cool twist, but means you’re also keeping track of a multitude of vulnerable points as bullets start moving (also synchronized) around you. Everything leaves a trail and the effect is reminiscent of a flower head.
The visuals can be overwhelming—it took me a while to work out the difference between losing a life and triggering the end of a level, for example. But the challenge is interesting, and hard to master. I can reliably get to level five of 20 but only reached double digits once.
The image generation mode is a nice contrast. It strips out the objectives and risk of death so you can experiment with making patterns and marks in the circular space. You also now have a bunch of sliders at your disposal for altering the look of the arena even more. The only thing missing from this mode is a screenshot key for saving favorite permutations instead of using thirdparty options.