Paisley Princess takes all of the excitement and charm of a grand adventure game and shrinks it down to a snug 5x5 scale box for a pint sized bit of hacking and dungeon delving. It’s this week’s Indie Pick.
Designed by Will Blanton (aka 01010111) Paisley Princess is a cute, Zelda-esque adventure that you can play right inside your browser. Taking control of a tiny adventurer, you are order by the king and queen to do what many adventurers have done across games: save the princess. Venturing into nearby forests, you pick up a “crap sword” and “crap shield” before descending into a dungeon to complete your quest.
The gameplay itself is pretty basic. You scurry about and slam into bats and snakes and other baddies to slay them. Along the way, you can collect coins to spend back in town for better weapons and shields. It’s a very tight, well managed core loop that makes progression feel meaningful without straying from the simple design philosophy of moment to moment play.
In a lot of ways, combat reminds me of Crypt of the Necrodancer. Enemies move tiles as you do and dungeon crawl turn into half coin hunts, half dance sessions as you twirl about to fight goops and wolves. It can lead to some Benny Hill style chases but it works well and makes good use of the small play space.
Overall, I’ve been taken in by Paisley Princess’ quirky humor and digestible dungeoneering. It fits well into my catalog of titles to pick up and play for a quick unwind session after work. It’s cute. It’s fun. I just hope that princess is okay. I still haven’t managed to rescue her yet. Stupid wolves...
Each week, I show off a new, affordable indie game using the tag “Heather’s Indie Pick.”
If you’ve found a cool game or made something you’re proud of, reach out to me at heather.alexandra@kotaku.com or on Twitter @transgamerthink.