Animal Well is an Absolute 10/10 Masterpiece 

I'm happy that dunkey is doing well with big mode already but I wish more people would say the name Billy Basso out loud in their videos about Animal Well more often. Billy dedicated 7 years of his life to to creating this game and he crafted one of the most thought out and well designed games in recent years and while i'm sure he's very grateful to dunkey and happy with the success of the game he definitely deserves the recognition. No hate to Mr.Plott or even dunkey, I'm a big fan.

>Steps on switch, door partially unlocks "OH MY GOD" Never change.

*turns crank in Animal Well* "Dude it's SOOooo good, 10/10"

I watched this live, but because I want to watch day9 play this whole game I'm commenting, liking, and leaving this playing for the algo

This game is a great example of insanely good "Play Conditioning". Not including any kind of tutorializing forces the player to figure the mechanics out for themselves, BUT every tiny detail of the level design in the first few rooms expertly guides that process. The first door is the perfect example. As Sean points out, the striking yellow buttons and the little lights above the door make it obvious what you need to do, and the design of the room teaches you not only how to solve this single puzzle, but also how you need to approach the game. You can't reach the closest button to you, but it's right next to an offscreen exit. Ok, so I learn that some puzzle solutions will span multiple rooms. The second button is up high. I'll use this crank to raise the platform... Oh, it doesn't go high enough... I guess sometimes, the obvious solution won't be the right one. The third button is across the water and easy to hit! But wait, now I can't get back... And I can't go forward... I'm stuck and there's nowhere to g- Oh! Ok, so I need to examine every tiny nook and cranny because apparently paths can be hidden in VERY small places. Then, the road back around to that first inaccessible button shows you, through the framing that Sean talks about, that paths weave in and out of other screens, that the 'negative space' of one screen might be hiding a path, and that even a tiny corner of a screen could be part of a path. Then, as you investigate how to hit the final button, you have to go back into a previous room and boom, now another hidden path that you probably completely missed the first time you walked through becomes glaringly obvious. It really is amazing design. I can't wait for a couple of decades to pass so that @hbomberguy can release a video essay on this game: "Animal Well Is Genius, And It Shows Play Conditioning, Which Is A Term I Coined, And Here's Why"

When he finally ate a fruit it brought me such relief

Every time I hear your rants about discovery in games, I recall that it is an absolute travesty that you never finished outer wilds 😢.

Billy Basso worked for 7 years on this masterpiece and Donkey gets the credit? Donkey is not a bad person. But he showed up close to the release. This game was already a success since PSN got the game for PSN+ The real genius is the Dev that is so creative

1:45:29 I really hate this recent trend of putting a whole Let's Play before you can get to the Baked Chicken recipe... ;)

The one streamer who gets the real experience in this game instead of being spoiled and told what to do constantly by idiots in chat. Enjoyable.

"...if you're not interested in reading, because you don't know how..." XD

"What's down here?!" Water. It's water every time Sean.

This has been by far the most enjoyable watch from @Day9TV in ages. I love your content all the time but this absolutely excels. That sense of wonder that you are obviously experiencing but convey so well is just perfect. The yoyo part brought the biggest smile to my face. I'm trying to work for god sake but this is just way to entertaining

51:33 Sean "Doors before keys" Plott, ignoring the door in front of him to sprint for the key he already had...

You are one of the few streamers I can watch play this game because how you handle backseating

The Homeworld 3 tutorial clearly broke Sean. The yoyo is cool but that reaction was huge. 😄

"I've discovered the power of FUCKING!! NO!"

this game is day9's wet dream and i am here for it

What an absolute pleasure to experience your experience and commentary. Such a luminary.

32:30 the genius of this game is that I reached the area later on and solved it in a completely different way!

DAY9 loves a game's tutorial, or non-tutorial. I love it! Also, great game. I used a guide to get layer 2 and layer 3 secrets, but still had an amazing time. So many things hidden!

This game was amazing, everyone should play it. It’s not just for indie game fans or metroidvania fans, it’s just awesome

I knew from the moment I played this game that Sean would LOVE it. Glad to see him enjoying it and I cannot wait to see him unravel this amazing puzzle box of a game.

Kevin j anderson was the author who got me into reading. I hated reading going into Jr high. Got grounded and had nothing to do so i started reading Jedi Search and was hooked. Without him i may never have read dune, the star wars expanded universe, or Sanderson.

“We have a yo yo” “Why would I have a yo yo”? Lolololol

This was a JOY to watch, Day9! Hours flew by haha. Can't wait to play it ❤🎉

Dunkey simply refuses to lose.

16:09 the brilliance , give exactly 4 firecrackers , one to see what it does and 3 to fill inventory

When I found out you can chain bubble by casting and jumping at the same time it opened up sooo much of the map. Also didn't find out you could ride the frisby until very late, and completely on accident. Hope he figures these out in later videos.

Wouldn't be a day9 stream if he didn't review every room 😉

this is a great year for games! Balatro, Hades 2, Animal Well, so many more im forgetting right now but the year is off to a tremendous start!!

I could listen to day9 rant about games all day and night. The passion he has for game design and whatnot is clearly better than sex

Great game, great commentary, great video! Edit: The video is going into spoiler territory for me now, but I'll definitely be back!

If I remember the portal playthrough "scaffolding" is the terminology on teaching without stating and building the skills

I love how absolutely terrifying the chameleon is while the game is still generally cutesy. Reminds me of games I used to play as a kid that had scary elements. Remember Another World?

Had to stop about 10 minutes in, will resume after playing this myself. Looks just incredible... and the sound of the platform lowering reminded me of the of the portcullis lowering in the NES/SNES Prince of Persia games. Big mood.

This game's size is smaller than a single object in cod ^^ (and so much better)

Great game, I had the same reaction less than 10 min in. Gamers can just tell by the design. By the feel, the look.

so stoked ive already started this

Yes!!! I'm so glad you picked this up!

Really hope Sean wants to play the whole thing

As a Pawn main I can't believe you call Chess a good game, there hasn't even been a balance let alone content update in centuries and Queen is still OP af.

This game scratched the same itch that Tunic did for me. I'm actually shocked that Sean didn't love Tunic, given that it is exactly alike in that way - no handholding, constant wonder and surprise of mechanics and their hidden uses, secrets and questions abound, exploration-heavy, figuring out everything by yourself, etcetc.

There are going to be some good highlights from this game

@49:00 I guess day9 hasn't seen Columbo lol

Not gonna watch so I can enjoy it on my own first, but glad this game got so much good reception.

I feel like day9 would REALLY enjoy Rain World, that game is the king of not telling you shit and letting you discover everything. The difficulty is pretty high tho

50:38 I don't think I ever had that happen to me while playing the game. From the start it's pretty obvious that you have four ways to go, each of them lead you back to the middle, and once you go those ways, there are flames on your map showing you where to go. I've heard people getting confused about the path in the top-left area and can understand that if you're not playing in one sitting. Well, the final phase of the game is pretty impossible, but before that your goal is rather clear the entire time. Collect this, collect that, collect those, and then good luck.

Wow. I thought I had played enough that Sean would not get to something I had not seen, I got the disk first, and this whole dang video was new stuff for me lol, oh well.

1:17:54 As you're a trained mathematician, I'm taking up/down, and thickness/bendiness as technical terms

I love love LOVE these summation videos. More more MORE!

I prefer something a bit more balanced towards having some direction. I can see myself getting stuck somewhere and just going "meh, what am I doing in this game anyway?"

Might have to replace "hell yeah" in my vocabulary with "Billy Basso"

I can relate to the cat door woes, they can't ever make up their mind!

graphics and sounds really remind me of "you have to win the game"

Finish this one day9 please. We love it

If BIGMODE backs this up with another banger I'll be forced to buy everything else they ever publish.

The music reminds me of Twin Peaks.

Billy Basso!

benatar bastodon, the fig who de eloped this game, is pretty cool.

I love how were a couple minutes in and he's already gushing over the game design and he hasn't even gotten to the really good parts.

*one guy spends years to make a great game* "Wow, thank god dunkey made this by publishing it!!, he sure is a great guy!"

I never knew Sean would be my interesting talkative best friend that I've never even met.

Funny how ur started calling the bubble the egg

1:10:39 The silence is deafening

A rare beast of a game....play it people!

Let's go!

Day9 is fruit-blind lmao

He did it

Children of Men was 1 movie that was great and I do not remember a sequel

Day9 district 9 single movie

Wait a minute... What's down here!?

I wonder, did Day9 play Super Metroid? Would be fun 9 hours

You’re great bro

Game's good but half of day9's amazement is just at the concept of a sidescrolling game lol

Billy Basso

It's a mastahpiece

I have seen 3 seconds of gameplay. I assume this is a metroidvania, probably with roguelike elements. I will check back with an edit if i am wrong. *edit - strong I wanna be the guy/boshi influence aswell, how random.

Kind of reminds me of an Atari 2600 sort of style.

The game looks MUCH better with scanlines, I can't believe some people play it without.

Egg soylent

YASSSS I said msg in my head when you got to the last ingredient

What is the random cuckoo noise hoot hoot that u hear at 1.04.00 ?

Da witness

I am a little sad, I wanted to see Day9 play more Hearthstone but I understand. was Hoping we would get some Hearthstone action then skip WoW for more Animal Well. oh well a guy can dream

this isnt dunkeys first game rioght?

are you ok?

1:52:06 LMAO

Lord I hope he returns to BG3 🥲

LETS GOOOOOO

Love the content but had to stop so I could buy and play the game myself without spoilers

Yay

It took me a rather long time to figure that out at 9:30... Maybe because I was too fast. Maybe because I went right first. I just didn't get stuck on that side so I didn't have a reason to look there... God it's really funny hearing day9 just rant repeatedly on whatever tutorial he got traumatized by that kept going "Commander do this simple thing" He needs to play more good games or something.

1:56:00 what the fuck are these things behind the wall

Roleplaying games are not ludologically competitive they're narratively collaborative, so the idea about "theory crafting" D&D combat, or "white room analysis", hints about an erroneous understanding of the medium of roleplaying (aside from being fun on their own merit outside the medium of roleplaying). That said, Animal Well, what an absolute masterpiece of a game.

One thing though. I think the sounds in this game are infuriatingly annoying. There's a constant engine sound loop on the background and it's ending up not creating atmospehere, but taking from it.

The game looks kinda neat I guess but the hyperbole is strong! Its cool and neat but come on its not a masterpiece.

This game really didn't resonate with me due to what I would consider to be glaring design flaws. Glad it's getting recognition, though

pfft, Treasure Island Dizzy did this in the 80s. With the worst jump arc in history.

sad to see day9 never made it on youtube.