Time for a change of pace after last week's challenging Flywrench. Challenging, conversely, is not a word I would use to describe Dominique Grieshofer's Refunct: a first-person platformer presently available on Steam and soon to be showcased in this year's Awesome Games Done Quick annual charity stream. The goal of the game is simple enough: rectangular blocks rise from the sea and the player must make their way up to hit various buttons, which in turn surfaces more of the underwater structure to explore. Whenever the player stands on a discrete block, it gets filled in with color de Blob-style. Most blocks aren't necessary stepping stones to the next button, but filling them in instead accumulates toward a game-wide completion percentage. Hidden around also are these little red boxes, many of which require some fancy jumping or a bit of searching around the base of these rectangular towers to find. That's all there really is to the game, and it's likely to take you somewhere in the region of 30 minutes to an hour to complete fully.

However, that isn't to say Refunct doesn't have some ideas, or lacks merit. One scenario has the player jump into a pit with sheer walls on all sides in order to press a button, trapping them in there until they figure out that the game has a wall jump after fruitlessly leaping around a bit: once they use this newfound knowledge to escape, they discover that the new blocks that have just risen from the ocean also require this new technique to traverse. The player can discover this mechanic earlier of course, but there's few scenarios in which it is useful beyond a collectible or two prior to this part of the game, after which it becomes a common means of progress. There's a crouch too, and the player has to intuit that as well: the game lacks much in the way of tutorial, but it makes its various tricks apparent through context, which is often a design tactic I prefer. There's a means to dive under the water too, which comes into play a couple of times. The game also takes a leaf from Grow Home's book in making its blocky world seem picturesque and serene through a combination of beautiful day/night lighting effects and chill ambient music.

There's no denying that Refunct is on the slight side. I can't see it having much in the way of replay value either, given the way it doles out its techniques over its duration. One could feasibly learn how to speedrun it via this gleaned knowledge and an idea of where to go and when, as evinced by its upcoming AGDQ appearance tomorrow, but that's never been my prerogative with games. Still, with the low price I paid for it and the simple enjoyment derived from leaping up blocks and figuring out its tricks, I'd say this was a worthy purchase. I hope it sees a more substantial follow-up some day.

Rating: 4 out of 5.