Guildlings… A Game that Keeps Surprising Me

November 12, 2019

Just last night, I finished Chapter 1 of Guildlings, and let me just say that I am impressed. No wait, scratch that.

*ENTERING PRIVATE CHAT*
(Alan) :: ths game is ✨AMAZING✨ ok??
.

Guildlings is well written, clever and witty, visually stunning and turns all the classic RPG tropes upside-down. It’s a modern game that encourages empathetic play and values honesty in your interactions with its lovable characters. The game awards you for understanding scenarios and reading the subtext of social situations. And at its core, it’s a coming of age story… and I’m an absolute sucker for those.

I want to share a few screenshots from the game, but I also don’t want to spoil too much! So if you don’t want any spoilers AT ALLLLLL, don’t scroll down! I mean it! STOP!

Ok, all of you who have decided to stay — proceed forward. Or downward. Whatever, this is your screen. Do what you want LOL

The title screen is presented probably 30 minutes into the game, if you take your time exploring. Onboarding is really great in Guildlings. It’s a great balance between teaching and just letting you play.

Dialogue between characters is presented in a text-message-esque style that allows for personalities to really shine through. Syb is direct and grammatically correct. Other characters like Chazzaz are spontaneous and sporadic, favoring emojis and misspelled/truncated words.

Visually, Guildlings is stunning and does a fantastic job with the low-poly/flat/tonal color aesthetic. They also do a great job providing lots of detail in scenes, and interactions also use hand drawn 2D art as well! It all works together flawlessly.

A perfect example of the writing in the game.

Guildlings is currently exclusive to Apple Arcade, and if you have an iPhone, it’s definitely worth setting up a free 30 day trial to the service. Heck, this game is worth the $5.99 all on its own! The developers of the game, Sirvo Studios, note that new chapters of the game are coming soon. I’m hoping we get one new chapter per month, but we’ll have to wait and see!

Hello!

My name's Alan. I like thoughtful design, quiet ideas and imaginative experiences.

Guildlings… A Game that Keeps Surprising Me

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