Explaining every string

Explaining every string

chelovekbeznika · October 23, 2023 · Arena Shooter, Shoot 'Em Up, Twin Stick Shooter, Action, Arcade

Explaining every string is free to play — no purchase needed. We track it so you know if that ever changes.

PC
Mostly Positive70% · 10
This game is free to play. Get it on Steam →

Screenshots

Explaining every string price

Explaining every string is free to play — there is no purchase price, on Steam or anywhere else we track. We keep watching it, so if it ever stops being free the price history on this page will show when that happened and what it changed to.

About Explaining every string

This is a game I wanted to create when I was eight. This is a game many of you wanted to create when you was eight. No online, no services, no DLCs, no open-world, no rogulike, no roguelite, no depression metaphors, no metroidvania, no backtracking. Can't say "no god" cause god participate in one of boss fights. Not on your side. It's just straight line from start to finish. And skill required to get through it. And timer if this is not enough. Party like 1989.

This is fully functional and completed game created live, during streams. Viewers of youtube channel "Explaining Every String" seen creation of this game from very first line. You can see it too (in Russian, unfortunately). Or read on github. First is was educational project but at some point it turned into something close to Andy Warhol movies. Alone man creating videogame while time passes. But I did it (almost, soft is never complete). 400+ streams and here we are.

We're dealing with twin-stick shooter. These game features 15 levels in 5 "bioms" + 6 boss fights (god I love boss fights). There are 15 mini-bosses in 15 ordinary levels. You have some arsenal with golden classic like shotgun or rocket launcher and dash to correct your mistake or turn around your luck. Unfortunately, I'm not an artist at all so I gone full retro. Recreated vibes of overcoming 1983 crisis. Colors of NES, sounds of some ancient machine, music a-la "Mozart meets NintendoCore" and simplistic graphic. Also it includes some simple cut-scenes with story. You can even try to figure out what it means. Special entertainment for whose who loves soulsbourne games.

If you think you can do better do it. Code licensed under MIT. Assets under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International. Fork it and perfect it if you dare.

Explaining every string — game info

Platforms
Windows
Steam Deck
Verified
Player modes
Single-player
Controller
Full controller support
PC Game Pass
Not included

What Steam players say

Recent verbatim reviews from Steam — separate from playze.io community reviews below.

Not recommended Jan 5, 2025
"Explaining every string" is described by the developer as the kind of game they wanted to make when they were 8 years old. Presumably when they turned 9, they published it, because this looks and plays like garbage. Not to disparage kids from wanting to learn game development, but it's a serious endeavour. You can't just get the thing to build and run and then immediately grab dad's credit card and dump it on Steam Direct. This 2D pixel/minimalist train wreck comes in the form of a very lame 2D top down shooter, although at least the developer put in some effort and make bespoke levels and boss fights instead of relying on procgen as a substitute for content. Kudos for that. Unfortunately being a genuinely, sincerely made game is not enough alone to create an excellent gaming experience. This game features very lacklustre minimalist/pixel "art" for graphics instead of anything remotely contemporary. I'm sure the "developer" thought this would come across as "artistic", but it doesn't, it comes across as "really lazy" and looks bad as a result of their lack of interest in doing their job properly. Developers must try to understand that gaming is a visual medium, and gamers…
4 found this helpful
Not recommended Nov 14, 2023
i played for 6 minutes and got a headache, its not a good game.
3 found this helpful
Recommended Oct 23, 2023
Good game :)
2 found this helpful

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