XBLIG Uprising Preview: The power of imagination — Sententia

It’s time for an uprising of the gaming variety!  Indie game fans and developers rejoice, for now is your time to RISE!  Can you hear the chanting?  Can you hear the cries?  Can you hear the Batman?  I’m kidding about that part… or am I?

We here at CBR have set out to provide you with exclusive coverage of the XBLIG uprising.  From previews, to reviews, to fresh made cookies — I’m kidding, I’m terrible at baking — we’ll have everything you want from this year’s event.

First on our list of upcoming titles comes something from MichaelArts.  In 2011, Michael Hicks started publishing indie games on Xbox Live at the age of 18.  Publishing under the studio name “MichaelArts” he created the 3D space shooter series “Honor in Vengeance,” the story of a martian trying to find out what happened to a Martian recon team that disappeared on Earth.  Now stepping away from the space shooter genre, MichaelArts is bring us the charming puzzle game, “Sententia.”

Words hurt. Literally, in this game.

With tranquil music playing in the background, the trailer depicts a young boy and his grandfather.  The art style reminds me of a coloring book, and the letter written on a sheet of notebook paper adds to a sort of childlike great adventure.  The boy tells his grandfather that he’s going to journey through the woods and that the other children around the boy haven’t been as nice as he thought they would be.  This is where the game really gets my interesting.  The children — who look like red goblins — actually use their words as weapons.  A sentence comes flying out of their mouths and hits the boy, destroying him.

Are you creative enough to solve the puzzle? Your grandfather certainly thinks so.

This game relies heavily on the power of imagination.  Small flowers and vines are above the boy’s head when he’s solving a puzzle and his weapon also appears to be his own words that he shouts out against his adversaries.  According to his grandfather, the boy is a special creature who has a purpose.  The question isn’t necessarily what that purpose is, but if he’s capable of going after it.  MichaelArts is presenting a game where imagination and creativity is key to getting through “life’s forest.”  Perhaps it speaks to Michael Hicks himself, a young indie developer out to bring us fun games that we’ll enjoy, but it most definitely speaks to the young child in us all who may have been treated harshly by others.  Don’t let the hard words get to you, you’re special and there’s something out there for you.