The “lost” demo review of 2024.

2025/6/27

I was browsing the Steam sale as usual around this time of year and seeing what super cheap stuff and niche things I could add to my absurdly sized library on there that I might actually get to at some point. One of the games I spotted was A Webbing Journey, some kind of early access physics sandbox thing involving spiders with their webs doing things around a house. I remembered playing a demo of it once, and wondered where that writeup was to see if there was any reason I wouldn’t want to pick up that game, only to not find it at all on my review blog pages.

I knew for sure I’d played that demo, but after some digging I managed to find a notes file in a folder, like how I’ve done while doing all my other demo writeups including the most recent one for this month’s Next Fest thing. It was apparently written up for some “wholesome” festival in August of 2024 going by the filename, and I’m not sure why I abandoned publishing this one, as maybe I got too busy during that time or I took too long to get back to it or maybe I didn’t feel that there were a lot of demos so I just didn’t bother, yet I’ve published some shorter demo review entries before.

As it turns out, there were two other demos I’d played in that set, and the weird thing about this is I decided to buy one of those games later on, and the other has been on my radar before and I’d even played a previous demo of it years back, and it’s apparently coming out soon. So of all the sets of demos I’d played for potential writeups that eventually led to me getting the games themselves, this one could have the highest “hit rate”. Of course only being three entries instead of twelve or so skews that a bit, but still.

For the sake of a “behind the scenes” kind of thing, I’ll just paste the contents of those notes here for the hell of it. I just write these right after I finish the demo while it’s still fresh and sometimes go back a bit later if I remember something worth noting, before converting it into my usual format.

Misc. A Tiny Tale
- settings menu is limited and controls can't be rebound but claims options will have more settings on release
- initially messing with graphics settings broke the game but managed to fix it by picking the largest resolution in windowed mode
- demo has been updated since last playing years back and has a second part
- first part seemed a little familiar but it has been some time
- second part has brief bit of combat that's mainly hitting a couple things a few times without much threat
- presents itself similar to Chibi-Robo with character designs and costumes and cleaning up the level but is more of a typical collection platformer with sidequests rewarding progress to finish level
- momentum is incredibly floaty meaning if any precision platforming comes up it can be difficult to control exactly where to land in exchange of the jump hangtime being very generous
- optional platform challenges not made any easier by high-momentum physics

A Webbing Journey
- spider sandbox type game with tasks on checklist to attempt with physics and connecting with webs
- spider has multiple emotes including dabbing and a long one involving a short nap and then drinking coffee
- has arachnophobia mode to make spiders orbs if somehow someone afraid of spiders wanted to play a game specifically about spiders
- spiders are still presented non-realistically as cubes with large cartoon eyes and with ball joint rectangular legs and optionally fluffy with hats
- swinging is limited due to limited web attach range meaning race sidequests require a lot of planning ahead and accurate aiming and generally mastering physics
- doing tasks unlocks more cosmetic options with mainly hats and web colors

Tiny Life
- game currently in early access
- pretty much The Sims, presented like pixel version of 1 but with full map simulation of 3
- fair range of character customization given the limited designs, mainly colors and clothing as well as pronouns and family planning
- generally plays like The Sims as well, down to the loop of work and maintenance and interactions with other people

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