There are so many roguelike deck games out there, but which ones are actually fun for anyone, including kids? Springfox Games’ Nif Nif wants to offer something in this space that the whole family can enjoy, and now it’s on Kickstarter.
The game is already up and running on Steam (there’s also a public demo), and was developed by a team led by Masha Mallet, who says she was “an entrepreneurial mom who didn’t have many options for strategy games for her kids.” According to its website, the studio’s pillars are “accessibility and non-violence, strategy for everyone, and diversity.” We can support all of that, but what about the actual game? I played the demo before the game was released, and have some thoughts.
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As its latest trailer suggests, Nif Nif has all the basic systems and mechanics we expect from the genre it’s trying to break into. You have to assemble a deck full of action cards and tools, make your way through a procedurally generated map full of encounters and events, and become as powerful as possible until you reach the final boss. At least that’s what the demo showed.
A major turnoff for younger gamers, or those who just want video games to be simpler, is overly complex user interfaces; they are often filled with too much information and numbers, or are too visually cluttered. Nif Nif’s clean art style goes beyond the cartoony, comforting visuals to shape the menus and interfaces. Large fonts and bright colors make everything stand out, and there’s never too much information on display.
This “cleanliness” also applies to the actual cards you play, the tools you encounter, and the dishes you can cook with the right ingredients. At this stage, full information display for each element might need a little extra work, but it’s easy to quickly discern what each card does, whether it’s offensive or defensive. Coupled with the straightforward tutorial, which consciously avoids being too lengthy, I think anyone with control of a PC or Switch can fully understand the game in 10 minutes.
More surprisingly, the demo wasn’t exactly a breeze. Nif Nif does a good job of communicating what enemies are going to do next so you can plan out your limited actions per turn, but a bad hand of cards can ruin your adventure more easily than you’d think. Enemies (actually animals that need to be cleaned up and other cute critters covered in slime) are aggressive, and blindly throwing cards at them doesn’t accomplish much. In fact, I encountered the demo’s final boss without many upgrades and was defeated so quickly that it prompted me to start over with a different, more defensive setup (you can equip permanent items at the start of each run), and I healed after each combat encounter.
Nif Nif is popular, but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t have friction. I underestimated it and had to go back to square one. While I may not be its primary target, I can understand its goal and how it might become popular with children and casual adult players if it continues to grow. Even if we put aside the (real) problem of too much violence in video games, certain types of games do have “restrictions” for more mature gamers, so I have to agree with Springfox Games’ guidance.
If you like the demo as much as I did and want to (and can) back this indie game, be sure to check out Nif Nif’s Kickstarter page, which will be open until September 13. Most of the development seems to be done, but Springfox hasn’t had much luck with publishers and might need some help. Anyone at Gamescom will be able to check out the game in person and talk to the team.