Siimi

Forgotten indie game of the week (29/03/21)

Every week hundreds of new games get released, hoping to get a place in the spotlight. But unfortunately it doesn’t always lead to the appreciation that some of these games deserve.

As a game developer myself, I know how it feels to put your time and passion into your project. And when you are finally ready to show your game to the world, nobody seems to notice it.

I have always liked going over all the newly released games on Steam, and seeing which games get some attention and which games are left to be forgotten. But this week I noticed something strange. Amongst the bottom of the list there was this cute looking puzzle game called ‘Siimi’.

Even though at first glance it looked pretty well made, nobody seemed to play it.

Seeing the work the developers had put into it, I felt bad for it. So especially at the low price point of 0,79 euro, I couldn’t resist giving it a shot and seeing what this game is about.

-About the game-

Siimi is made by Goindol, a Korean developer with only 4 team members and has been released for both mobile (Android and iOS) and Steam (PC) on March 29th 2021. As the time of writing the price on Steam and mobile is only 0,79 euro.

Official website: https://siimiofficial.imweb.me/
Steam link: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1467830/SIIMI/

-Story-

The story of Siimi is about a desert tribe called Mi, who live near and worship the sacred tree Yggdrami. In the village all inhabitants are judged on their appearances and how much they look like Yggdrami, so everyone tries to hide their true appearance under a thick cover of leaves.

In the game the player controls a girl called Siimi, who is tired of trying to match up to the unrealistic beauty standards. So she sets out on an adventure to discover her true ‘me’.

Even though the story is wrapped in a light-hearted and child friendly tone, it tries to tackle a realistic problem that everyone encounters in their daily lives, which makes it a very relatable story.

The story is a bit on the simple side of things. But it does succeed in making you think about your own life choices and what impact they not only have on yourself, but also your friends and the environment around you.

-Gameplay-

The goal of the game is to get rid of all the leaves covering Siimi’s body. This is done with a simple point and click puzzle mechanic, where you have to interact with the environment and inhabitants of the world in order to complete your goal.

The game is split up into 5 chapters, each with their own distinctive environment and challenges. Which gives you a nice flow throughout the game.

The gameplay itself isn’t particularly deep, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t challenging. There were several puzzles that had me scratching my head a few times, wondering what I was missing. Like for example in chapter 2, where you had to find the password for a safe by looking around the environment for vague clues.

Eventually when you do figure out what you are missing, you kind of have a “Of course, how could I miss that!’ -feeling. So be warned about that. The game’s simple graphics can be a bit deceiving of the true difficulty.

In total I finished the game in under two hours, so it’s not particularly long. Though that isn’t necessarily a bad thing. I personally hate it when games don’t respect the player’s time, and stretch out the gameplay in order to make the game longer for no reason. Siimi is short and sweet, and it really doesn’t need to be more than that.

-Graphics-

In this case the screenshots speak for themselves. The game has a really cute and simplistic style, reminiscent of illustrated children’s books. Which works great together with the simpler gameplay.

It’s definitely not for everyone’s tastes, but I personally really liked the art style. It isn’t something I have seen many games do and gives the game a lot of personality.

Another thing I really liked about the game were the characters. Each character was not only visually different from each other, but also had unique character traits and had more depth to them than you would originally give them credit for.

-Bugs-

I must say I was pleasantly surprised by the level of polish that this game had. In general you can find at least some bugs in most games, no matter if they are indie or big triple A games.

There were some very smaller issues I noticed, such as some bad audio filtering in the opening sequence, and the scrolling in the record page being a bit funky. But all things considered, the game offered a very smooth experience without any major issues.

-Conclusion-

Would I recommend everyone to go and play this game? Not really, actually.

Don’t get me wrong, I really enjoyed my time playing this game. It’s just that this type of game has a very specific audience.

Do you like the art style or did the story appeal to you? Sure, go ahead and play it.

Though I think the gameplay is a bit too simplistic for most people to enjoy. Both the art style and story are quite refreshing, so it’s a bit of a shame that the gameplay didn’t really manage to innovate. I would also have loved to see some extras or hidden features for the people who did enjoy it and would like to explore a bit more on their second playthrough.

All things considered I think the developers did a really good job, and they should be really proud of themselves for creating a unique game which clearly shows their passion and wish to improve the world.

I really hope that in time this game will be able to find a community that likes and treasures it, like it deserves to be.

-My opinion as a game developer-

So what’s my professional opinion about what this game did wrong, as a game developer myself?

Well… mostly marketing I would say. Something a lot of indie dev’s do wrong.

When I try to look for more information about this game, it’s very hard to find just about anything. There is the website, which is really well made by the way, but except for that and the shopping page itself, there isn’t much to be found. Even the twitter account is made less then a month before release, has 0 followers and 0 following, and only posted the trailer.

For a game with such cute graphics, it shouldn’t be too hard to get at least a couple of hundred followers on social media by posting some Work-in-Progress screenshots or interacting with various communities.

The golden rule here is: ‘If nobody knows of the game, nobody will play the game.’ Don’t be afraid of posting screenshots or short video fragments everywhere you can find. Contact reviewers and youtubers who play these kinds of games. And don’t expect the game to sell itself.

I understand that the language barrier might have caused some problems here, as a non-native English speaker myself, I know it’s not always as easy to interact with people if you don’t have the same main language. But you managed to translate the game fully into English, so I know you can manage this as well.

Just remember… it’s never too late to start marketing your game.

-So what can you do as a gamer?-

Well if you liked Siimi, and if you haven’t already, go and buy it. Support the developers by writing a review and talk about it with friends or other people who you think might be interested.

This of course doesn’t only apply to Siimi, but every game you have enjoyed and want to support and encourage the developers of. The harsh reality is that there are thousands of forgotten indie games out there, waiting to be discovered by the right people.

And even though it’s not easy, it is very rewarding finding unique and cool games that didn’t get a chance to shine yet.

Siimi is just one out of 216 new games that were released on Steam last week.

Thank you for reading, and good luck!
~Vincent