Summertime Madness

This is not a good puzze game, it is a mediocre one. The areas are made so you want to explore a bit, bu you're on a timer, so you run looking for puzzles and their solutions, while on the run. To make it worse, you have to travel a long way from one puzzle to another, like up a very tall spiral staircase, or a detour along a circular maze bridge. Not to mention that unless you have an ear for music and know how to read notes, the only way to solve the piano boat puzzle is if you do it correctly by chance. This game is badly designed, and poorly executed.

Summertime Madness has some good things going for it, with some nice visuals and soundtrack which can help relax in the game's early-mid stages. However, while some puzzles have good ideas behind them, most do not seem fully fledged. At no point did I ever feel a true sense of accomplishment for solving a puzzle, and one of the puzzles in particular is absolutely awful in concept. Furthermore, I spent the majority of the game walking, which is pretty slow relative to the size of game's areas even when running. I expect to spend the majority of a puzzle game trying to solve puzzles. Finally, the time limit mechanic seems to directly contradict the theme of the game. Sure, it fits in the narrative, but the narrative is essentially just a cap of cutscenes at the start and end of the game. But thematically, the game seems to be begging you to relax and enjoy the scenery and to take your time with it. But then they whack a 6 hour time limit on to it, which is plenty generous for a game that took me around 2 hours but I always had that sinking feeling that if I didn't rush, I might end up frustrated and have to restart the whole game. And re-doing puzzles that are primarily walking already, isn't my idea of fun.

This game is beautiful but not a good puzzle game. Maybe i'm just too acclimated to these kinds of game but i often found them to be either really easy to do or really confusing because this is a game full of really simple puzzles wrapped in winding level design that seems designed to waste time in the worst way. Also you have 6 hours to work with in a game that would take around 2-3 so using hints doesn't really impact much, not like you'd need them for most puzzles.

I watched some streamers test the game and I decided to give it a try. There are several quotes to some of my favorite painters and the music really helps you to relax and to focus on the game. The puzzles are quite challenging and they are never trivial: it is a pleasure to explore this surreal world in all his corners. Totally worth its price.

i wanted to enjoy this game. played it during a indie fest iirc and only got around to playing it 2 years later. but the puzzles arent really puzzles, more of a test of endurance. nothings intellectually stimulating and just feels like a bore. not to mention, the controls for some of these are really jank making the puzzles much more infuriating than they otherwise should be (looking at the flower scales specifically here). yeah i could look up answers just to get through it quickly to see what the end is but the story isnt interesting enough for me to care to do so. game does look really nice though, especially with the paint effect ill give it that

Difficulty : 2/5 (Normal) Global : 0.5/5 (Bad) Summertime Madness is a 3D puzzle game, you're a painter trapped in his painting and you solve puzzles to escape. The game has a timer, or rather you're supposed to play with a timer (the lowest "difficulty" disables it fortunately). I don't understand the timer thing when you have a world to explore and collectibles to find but whatever. Even with the worst timer (3h) you should be good. The island you see in the screenshots can be explored but the game is not an open world, it's linear with puzzles appearing one by one. Now what are those puzzles about? What's the special mechanic? Well, there is none. The majority of them consists of slowly exploring a big maze and pulling levers that activate things. And that's why I can't recommend this game. Maybe if the running speed was 2 or 3 times faster, the game would've been decent. That's a shame because it's not VERY bad, the mazes are not totally braindead but the gigantic amount of time you waste walking is just not acceptable. Summertime Madness is a collection of tedious and not very interesting puzzles, and games that blatantly try to waste your time are a big no.

The puzzles in this game is... well... mostly flipping switches... not that it's not fun... just.. a little simple. The "hard" part of the game are the illogical part where it's impossible to solve without the hint from the pocket watch... so i wouldn't call those a puzzle imo... The art work is pretty but some part of it could be an eye sore... The music just isn't my type most of the time and pretty depressing than relaxing. So it turned out to be a "meh" experience for me in overall... kinda hard to rate the review on this one really.. more like a 50/50.

Summertime Madness appeared to be a game that is just up my alley. It has all of the elements - art, music, and puzzles. It also has an optional timer for achievements. It started out great... figuring out how to get off a boat, turning platforms to build a path. And, then it took a downhill turn for me. The game evolves into a series of mazes and switches in an Escher-like house, a time-warped train station, a series of doors, and (seemingly) endless stairs/paths. To add insult to injury, I was well on my way to making a successful 6 hour run when I selected the wrong door and my clock advanced to a quick 'game over.' Evidently, I was not the only frustrated player because the development team listened and released their 1.2 patch which made these areas less punishing. In view of this responsiveness on their part and the improvements made to these areas, I am changing my opinion from 'do not recommend' to a 'recommend with caveats.' Summertime Madness has some nice features. It can be played without a time limit and there are some very creative moments and interesting mechanics along the way. The artwork is enjoyable and there is a diversity of puzzles and scenery. For completionists, it is apt to be frustrating as there are mazes that must be executed quickly to meet the more challenging achievements (completing the game in 3 hours and then in 1 hour). Despite the game update, I continued to find the final stairway/maze section very confusing and I ran out of game time more than once. The good news is that there is no penalty for starting a chapter over. I did finally resort to a walk through (thank you, Sigmar's Sausage!) to see what a successful maze journey looked like. With this in mind, I was able to complete the game to earn the 'done in 6 hours' achievement. Turns out, there is a new feature that I could have used to avoid this time squeeze, but I did not fully understand the mechanics. I am now planning to circle back through, without time limits, and pick up a number of missed achievements. Perhaps I will do some maze mapping and try for a 3 hour run...

Excellent music with both elegant story and narration, but tragically falls short in classic indie fashion. An art style that's too obsessed with appearing simple and charming. It instead comes off as lifeless, and at it's worst, such as the levels "Memories from the Future," and "The Castle," this and the chosen color palette become downright hideous. I should clarify that this isn't damning on it's own and I don't think it comes from a place of incompetence, but for a game that insists you run around and double back as much as this one, the problem becomes glaring. The loudest issue however is the puzzles, too many of which gain their difficulty from tricking the player rather than displaying a real challenge, one of which is laughably gimmicky, and nearly all of which feel incredibly drawn-out. Most levels consist of much, much more walking and time wasting than actual puzzle solving, which might provide thematic tension to an ever-ticking clock, but is a terrible detriment to a long-term puzzle game. This culminates in a final level that feels like a personal insult, which includes jarringly confusing graphics that are purposely meant to waste time, terribly bored "puzzle" design, with very little time needed to think about the solution but a whole hell of a lot of time needed to complete, not to mention [spoiler] a timer that speeds to 15 minutes remaining, nullifying your performance in the rest of the game up to this point [/spoiler] . A portion of this critique might sounds similar to popular sentiments about The Witness, and I want to make it clear this is a different beast. While The Witness is often griped for having a lot of relative time spend walking and time wasting, it's typically spent exploring the largely open-world play area. Summertime Madness is extremely linear with no exploration, and entirely level-based save a couple brief visits to the 'hub' area. I couldn't fit this sentence anywhere else and it doesn't worsen the experience, but this game also includes the absolute worst fucking easter eggs I've ever seen in a video game. Just bizarrely bad. Overall I'm disappointed by the puzzle design and artificial difficulty by length, but if you're more disposed toward the low-poly graphics or are even properly charmed by them, I imagine the length I complained about might just be a positive. However, I still can't recommend the 13 dollar (11 dollar at time of purchase) price tag.

Lovely visuals, a great first hour before sadly descending into a level-pulling misadventure that hops between worlds but gives you so little clue as to what does what that you easily get lost. Spent an hour walking in circles before giving up.

What would have been a beautiful walking simulator if it wasn't full of time-wasting and pace-killing trial and error "puzzles". I knew the reviews weren't great going in, but for $0.95 on sale I figured it was worth a shot and installed it a few weeks later. My first urge to refund came after starting the game and learning that WASD was mandatory. I found that I could muddle through on a PS controller, and pressed on. An hour in, after being presented with the genuinely impressive revelation of Neo Prague, I fell asleep while trying to navigate the labyrinthine switch puzzle contained within. After waking up and removing my character's face from the wall he had been treadmilling against for the last minute, I gave up. This wasn't fun, nor did the artwork outweigh the chore. I considered refunding for the second time, only to remember the pittance I paid for it and was too embarrassed to ask. [h1]The Good[/h1] +Visually appealing +Devs responded to a number of player gripes since release, mostly revolving around time limits [h1]YMMV[/h1] ~Game only saves when puzzles are complete ~Only about 3 hours long if you're dedicated enough ~A number of collectibles, but they don't seem to do much and you'll probably only accidentally find some obscure ones half-way through - and this definitely isn't a game you'll replay to complete the set. ~Personally, the premise of story seemed counter-intuitive to me. Wouldn't the solitary tortured artist want to stay in his paintings? ~Hints are available, but they must be exchanged for time. I only used one right before quitting and it wasn't helpful. [h1]The Bad[/h1] -Forced WASD controls -Unskippable opening splash screens! Aaaargh -Most "puzzles" are largely trial and error walking and clicking

A very terrific game under artistic and design aspects. My first run took me almost 3h and I did it all in one shot. A couple of levels are really challenging but overall it's a nice way to spend time and relax.

Good art style, doesn't have any great ideas of its own though gameplay wise, its pretty short and gameplay is mostly meaningless. Enjoyed some bits and hated other bits, too much unnecessary walking and a very annoying puzzle might turn some people off... 5.5/10 for me.

The puzzles are really not that great. I feel like it's hard to design a good puzzle, and the game is stunning, but the puzzles are more visual / trial-by-error than anything else. Bummer, cause it looks so good!

This is one of those games that you shouldn't let the reviews dissuade you. If you like puzzles and out of the ordinary games then try it. I enjoyed this. It was weird at times but creative and had a lot of 'aha!' moments.

Excellent game. Absolutely gorgeous visuals. If you like Myst, The Witness, The Talos Principe, or any mysterious or clever first person puzzle game, then buy this game. All day.

A welcome surprise! It's quite a gorgeous game in many ways and really evoked some strong feelings in places just with very effective atmosphere setting! One puzzle can get in the sea, I still don't understand how you're meant to find the solution other than by horrific trial and error, but everything else was challenging in a fun way, solutions felt really satisfying! It is a bit fond of confusing mazes, and sometimes I felt like I was expected to be able to mentally juggle pieces in my head way over what I'm capable of doing, but I did get through it

Visually It's really nice looking game and the colors are even my vibe. Story wise It's good either but since this game is based in Prague and I do live in The Czech Republic I know that The Bombing of Prague didn't happen in July 1945 but in February 1945 cause in July the Prague was already under the Soviet flag saved from Nazi Germany. Over these good points the game isn't good in gameplay. The puzzles are nothing but tedious. Collecting 30 fireflies to build stairs? WTH?

Whatever this game's 'genre' is, is not important. What is important is that this game is trying to do something different and that the experience is audio visually stunning. The developer has listened to the community to add improvements here and there.

I couldn't play on high quality as the painting filter plus the motion of the trees made me nauseous. The game itself is very easy and short, took me less than 2 hours for my first playthrough. While I didn't find most of the secrets, I don't see much replay value either. I cant recommend it for the $13 normal price. But it is interesting enough to be worth a play if it is on sale. Just don't expect it to take very long.

Well made, and time well spent. That is, only ~3 hours of time well spent... The game does not hold your hand when it comes to presenting you with puzzles/problems. I liked that about it, others may find it obnoxious, and it would be a valid opinion. It's far more intuitive than, say, Antechamber, but isn't some glorified walking simulator labeled as a puzzle game. You WILL have to use your brain, and there were some clever/satisfying solutions. The last "level" of the game was distinctly weaker than the rest. And if the most damning thing I can say is that the game had one bad level, and I wanted it to be longer, then it must be pretty good. Basically, if this game had a stronger final act and was wayyyyy longer, then it very well could have achieved excellence. That said, I'm still comfortable calling it a pleasant and worthwhile endeavor.

Summertime Madness is such a beautiful game, it's an heartwarming experience for both your mind and your soul. Everything has been masterfully built to let you truly feel inside the painted world while experiencing the painter's feelings. If you liked titles like Journey and The Witness you are also gonna like this for sure. Recomended.

i only found out about this game one day before its release, but the story and the visuals pulled me in immediately. visually, it does look a little derivative of games like The Witness, but i think given the concept it's justifiable. the puzzles are mostly pretty challenging, and perhaps the difficulty ramps up too steeply early on. but it's challenging enough to keep you hooked in and entertained. it helped keep the tense and urgent mood, but i would have liked to see more of the devil to keep up that tension! there are some flaws about the game that have understandably come up in reviews/community discussions so far, such as the harsh time limit. however the devs seem SO impressively responsive and have listened to these complaints and added explorer mode, which is great for people like me who are perhaps a little slow at puzzles. there is one level in particular that is so tediously difficult that it reaches a point of frustration, and throughout the game the hints are either too easy or too complex. but the game is saved by the beautiful artwork. it is a little confusing to me how the main character is trapped in his own paintings, but the levels seem to exist in paintings by other artists such as Escher or Magritte, but that might be my own confusion! it's still lovely to see how well different artists were incorporated into the game without the game abruptly changing styles. overall i'd recommend, but with caution. the developers clearly put a LOT of passion into this, but the gameplay isn't quite up to scratch at times. however i'm excited to replay and continue exploring the world!

a nice short puzzle game to play if ya got a few bucks to spare, for anyone really worried about playing any of the time limit modes I was able to beat it first try withing 2.4 hours with only moderate skill in puzzle games (though I still do highly recommend playing this in one of the modes with a time limit for the added flavor) and that's without getting all of the hidden collectibles as well

A great little game to spend your afternoon on, cool scenery and art style which kind of reminds me of The Witness, I especially like the scenery and atmosphere in [spoiler]Neo Prague[/spoiler] level. The Puzzles are quite easy but still requires some thinking.

I like the train station puzzle :)

UEVR not working with this.