They Bleed Pixels

They Bleed Pixels

Developer(s) Spooky Squid Games Inc.
Publisher(s) Spooky Squid Games Inc.
Designer(s) Miguel Sternberg, Andrij Pilkiw
Composer(s) Shaun Hatton [1]
Platform(s) Microsoft Windows
Release date(s) Steam
August 29, 2012[2]
Genre(s) Platformer
Mode(s) Single player
Distribution Online distribution

They Bleed Pixels is a beat'em up platformer video game by Spooky Squid Games Inc. The game was released in August 2012 for Microsoft Windows via Steam. The art style is dark with strong gothic Lovecraftian themes.

Plot

The plot follows the events of an unnamed young girl's arrival at the Lafcadio Academy for Troubled Young Ladies. She is affected by her subsequent nightmares, where she transforms into a clawed creature and traverses hostile dreamscapes full of monsters, always waking with a grimoire on her bedside table. As the game progresses, she wakes from these nightmares sporting more and more aspects of her dream-self's monstrous form in reality, and repeatedly attempts to rid herself of the book, only for it to reappear next to her the following morning.[1]

Gameplay

In They Bleed Pixels, the player controls a young girl that must fight her way through violent nightmares.

Gameplay in They Bleed Pixels focuses on platforming and combat of a notably high difficulty, comparable to games such as N+ and Super Meat Boy, in which death is common and overcoming obstacles is mostly accomplished through trial and error. Respawn points are created when the player accumulates enough blood collected from slain enemies or in-level blood pickups, and idles a certain distance away from immediate level hazards. [1]

History

They Bleed Pixels is the second game to be developed by the two-man team of Spooky Squid Games Inc. Originally slated to be released on XBLA, the team decided to release on the Steam platform, hoping to reach a wider audience.[3] It was released on August 29, 2012 on the Steam store.[4]

Reception

The game has been generally well-received; it has been given a 74/100 Metascore as well as a 7.7/10 User Score from the site Metacritic.[5] Tony Ponce of Destructoid concluded that it was "a solid game that definitely has an audience."[6] The game has been criticized for difficulty and awkward controls.[7]

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 "They Bleed Pixels". Spooky Squid Games Inc. October 29, 2012. Archived from the original on October 29, 2012. Retrieved October 29, 2012.
  2. ↑ http://www.ign.com/games/they-bleed-pixels/pc-141012
  3. ↑ Papadopoulos, John (August 8, 2012). "They Bleed Pixels – Abandoning XBLA and releasing exclusively on Steam in order to reach a larger audience". DSOGaming. Archived from the original on October 29, 2012. Retrieved October 29, 2012.
  4. ↑ "They Bleed Pixels on Steam". Valve Corporation. October 29, 2012. Archived from the original on October 29, 2012. Retrieved October 29, 2012.
  5. ↑ "They Bleed Pixels on Metacritic". Metacritic. October 29, 2012. Archived from the original on October 29, 2012. Retrieved October 29, 2012.
  6. ↑ http://www.destructoid.com/review-they-bleed-pixels-234271.phtml
  7. ↑ "They Bleed Pixels review" on Thunderbolt Games