Lilly Looking Through

Lilly Looking Through
by Geeta Games - November 1, 2013

Available at :
Geeta Games
GOG 
Steam



What Lilly sees is about to change her life forever…

On a particularly cool and misty summer night, Lilly is visited by an enchanted red scarf that sends her on an incredible adventure as she seeks to rescue her little brother Row. Soon into her quest, Lilly discovers a special pair of goggles that allow her to solve many navigational challenges by rewriting the past and changing the present. Step into a world filled with magic, puzzles, and marvelous machines that celebrate a sense of wonder as you help Lilly save her brother and discover the ultimate mystery.

The indie studio Geeta Games presents Lilly Looking Through, an animated point-and-click adventure game that is appropriate for all ages. Lilly’s story is set in a fictional fantasy world and told almost completely by the universal language of pantomime, and can be enjoyed at many levels by the whole family. Guide our heroine Lilly through a land filled with enchanting environments brimming with wonder. The world Lilly lives in is lovingly hand painted, and filled with awe inspiring visuals. The cinematic multi-plane camera system, fluid character animation, and compelling original musical soundtrack make the whole experience come to life and feel like you are playing inside an animated movie. Lilly Looking Through’s charming animated story can be just as fun to watch as it is to play.

Immerse, engage, and explore together as you assist Lilly on this captivating journey. Lilly Looking Through contains a whole variety of unique puzzles. Quite a few of the puzzles will require keen observation and challenge even the most experienced adventure veterans. Many of the challenges in Lilly Looking Through will often build on each other, and the skills you learn earlier will help you and Lilly solve puzzles later found in the game. If you are ever in need of help and would like a hint, a built in help system will also give clues as to what to do next to continue the journey. With an easy to learn interface, players of all ages will easily immerse themselves into Lilly’s world, and start playing with the click of a button.

• Enchanting hand-painted environments.
  
• Delightful and charming animation.
  
• Cinematic 2.5 D multi-plane experience.
  
• A puzzling adventure for all ages.
  
• Walkthrough (by MaGtRo at GameBoomers)
  

SO looking forward to this! Not sure how long the complete game will be but I found the demo absolutely enchanting.
AND original!!!

Originally posted at the Diving Bell Blog last week!  Here's my take on Lilly Looking Through (if you don't want to read the whole thing, here's the short version - - I loved it)! 



Who could resist those intelligent eyes, that cute face and . . . are those goggles on her head? Hmmm. Swimming goggles? Lab goggles? Flight goggles? What could a little girl possibly do with goggles? Turns out, more than you might think! And how threatening can a scrap of red fabric really be? (If you’ve watched the trailer, you’ll know what I’m talking about.) Ah! For that answer and many others, you’ll need to play Lilly Looking Through.

Lilly opens up the game named for her, not only charming her way into my heart with her adorable curiosity but, also, quickly showing dogged determination in the face of adversity. The first few minutes left me grinning, as I watched Lilly behave as any inquisitive child might on any given day. Geeta Games has done an amazing job of capturing and communicating the child-like qualities in Lilly that make her what she is – a bright, brave protagonist – always learning, always moving forward. In a way that few manage to preserve as they grow to adulthood, a child has the capacity to see the limits and expand them, know their surroundings and still imagine a better world, find a barrier and work to overcome it. The character of Lilly embodies this.



Immersing myself in Lilly’s world wasn’t hard.  Each phase of the game is brought to life with amazing artistry. Evocative scenery, color palettes suited to each location, and effective use of light and shadow only add to the game’s wonder. The musical score is unobtrusive yet supremely suitable to the atmosphere. (Being a player who does enjoy game music, I’d love to see the soundtrack available as part of a Lilly Looking Through game package – hint, hint, Geeta Games! )

What really won me over (if all that I raved about wasn’t enough already!) was the fact that, as I played, my kids crowded around me and watched, enraptured. They giggled at Lilly’s antics and scratched their little heads at different points in the story, puzzling over how to help her bridge the gap from where she was to where she needed to be.

And speaking of puzzling – those things that blocked Lilly’s path (otherwise known as “puzzles”) were not what I’d call intense but were, rather, very imaginative, actually serving to pave the way for Lilly’s progression through the story. Puzzles at the beginning were fairly straightforward but quickly progressed to brain teasers of greater detail. Some even demanded a little abstract thinking. Toward the end, there were a couple of similarly themed head-scratchers, the solutions of which required a good bit of experimentation; but then . . . that’s what all adventure game lovers sign on for when they start a game, right? And if you get too stuck in the game, there’s a built-in hint system to nudge you along!



I’ve got to quit talking about it, because you need to play this game (available for pre-purchase now at Geeta Games and GOG, and on Nov. 1, on Steam!) and enjoy each detail and nuance for yourself! My words simply can’t do it justice. And if I don’t stop, I’ll end up spilling my guts and spoiling the story – how great it is, what’s accomplished in the end, and what questions may be left unanswered. (Please, say this isn’t the end!)

Steve and Jessica Hoogendyk, the founders of Geeta Games, have led an impressive team to this, their first indie gaming offering; and I’m hoping it’s not their last! It’s not without its faults; but honestly, at this point, I couldn’t tell you what they are. The characters, the quality, the atmosphere – the game, in general, is so special in so many ways that the things that might be considered faults are rendered inconsequential by the immersive experience that is “Lilly Looking Through.”

Glad you loved it!!
I was all set to buy it a while ago but it's gotten disappointing reviews at GOG. The demo was so special and intriguing I guess fans were expecting much more (plus a longer game of course). I read the goggles were underutilized among other factors.

I'll definitely pick it up now.

I hope you enjoy it, RenaissanceMom! 

I can understand some people being upset about the length of it, although it wasn't a big deal to me.  However, I noticed very early on (from the load game screen) that it wasn't going to be real, real long.  Probably since I had prepared myself for it, it didn't bother me that much; whereas, if it had slapped me with the ending and I'd been expecting more, I think it would have felt abrupt.

For me, it was a sweet, bright game that took me away from "real life" for a while.  Yet, even as it took me away, it was familiar enough to remind me of my own kids and how they might react in certain situations.  As I mentioned in the review, the icing on the cake was how much they enjoyed the game itself.  I played with them watching some of it, before I did the review; but now they're asking to play it on their own and I hear them talking (when not on the computer) about how "Lilly did this . . ." or "Oh!  I just figured out how to get Lilly across . . .!"  It's fun to know that my kids can get as much enjoyment from a game as I did, although maybe on a completely different level.