Dillo's Dilemma

"Dillo's Dilemma" is an unusual entry here in Steam Direct because it's a game that doesn't completely suck at first glance (so I'm guessing this is a student project). "Free" games on Steam are usually either not free (MTX, DLC, beggarware) or they're not made for gamers (game jam crap, student projects, whatever). Here, we have something that doesn't look like an asset flip, has real, genuine gameplay, and yet is also no-strings-attached free. What do you do in the game? This is a simple consoley 3D platformer, Sonic-esque, where you control an armadillo character. The gimmick is you can turn into a rolling ball and go through "pinball" like platformer sections. And I guess that's where the first of the problems spring up... similar to student projects, this is janky and unpolished, and almost certainly the polish will never arrive. The graphics in this game are passable, but could be better. And while it's vital for any game to have impressive visuals (gaming is a visual medium, after all), there's more to a game than just the graphics. To be worth a gamers time, the game must match top tier visuals with top tier gameplay, and that's not happening here. Insultingly,…

It was an enjoyable game but very glitchy. The autosave is no where near frequent enough and I lost 3 save files to glitches before calling it a day. Once with the second level not updating my progress, once with me phasing though a wall and not being able to get back through, and the last, right before the mines where I fell straight through the ground. There were also many places where I was able to skip through areas with clever platforming which felt nice until the game glitched me into losing that progress. All that aside, it was actually quite enjoyable moving the little character around and the bouncers make for interesting puzzles and movements making it well worth the (free) price and the couple hours.

Good effort, looks charming. But - runs like ass - has fall through the world - soft-lock bugs Pass this one, even if its free.

Hi! This is my first time doing a game review, so here's my piece on it. Dillo's Dilemma is a pretty decent shot at bringing pinball elements to a 3D platformer. As an avid Sonic the Hedgehog fan, I was impressed by how decent Dillo rolled around and went faster downhill than uphill. I'd love to see a future sequel iterate upon this and the pinball mechanics. The levels were also a decent time, particularly the first and last levels. The game was a fair time, to where I might let one of my kid siblings play it. Now, for the improvements: -There are a few moments where it felt like Dillo could overlap and clip through things, even other characters. -Dillo feels rather slow without curling up into a ball, meaning I was more likely to use the ball form than actually walk. It's not bad, but for precision platforming you might want to consider upping his walk speed. Consider more moveset potential, as other games like Sonic Mania has great new moves like the Drop Dash. -The final boss felt a little on the easy side, as the lasers were dodgeable besides the lower ones tripping me up and the last few hits. Alas, I'd have liked for at least a miniboss or two to indicate the Rat King's loo…

Armadillos are my favourite animals, so I jumped on getting this. Had it installed for months but hadn't had time to play it until now. It's not great. It's a janky platforming collect-a-thon kind of game, but it's so poorly optimized for what should be a relatively simple game, that I had to really bring down the graphics settings to get it to run smoothly at all. Maybe future patches will improve it, but right now, I can't say it's worth playing.

Very interesting idea. It was fun. It definitely deserves a sequel.