Talk:Animal Well/GA1

GA review

Article (edit | visual edit | history) · Article talk (edit | history) · Watch

Nominator: PresN (talk · contribs) 22:19, 16 March 2025 (UTC) [reply ]

Reviewer: Tarlby (talk · contribs) 19:13, 19 March 2025 (UTC) [reply ]

Spotchecks are done now. I'll pass after the tweaks are finished.— Preceding unsigned comment added by Tarlby (talk • contribs) 00:30, 01 April 2025 (UTC)

GA review (see here for what the criteria are, and here for what they are not)

1. It is reasonably well written.

   a (prose, spelling, and grammar): b (MoS for lead, layout, word choice, fiction, and lists):

2. It is factually accurate and verifiable , as shown by a source spot-check.

   a (reference section): b (inline citations to reliable sources): c (OR): d (copyvio and plagiarism):

3. It is broad in its coverage.

   a (major aspects): b (focused):

4. It follows the neutral point of view policy.

   Fair representation without bias:

5. It is stable.

   No edit wars, etc.:

6. It is illustrated by images and other media, where possible and appropriate.

   a (images are tagged and non-free content have non-free use rationales): b (appropriate use with suitable captions):

7. Overall:

   Pass/Fail:

• "Animal Well is a 2024 Metroidvania video game..." ---> "Animal Well is a 2024 Metroidvania video game..."
• "...and the game world is filled with multiple layers of secrets to find..." I don't know what this means.
• "Designer Billy Basso developed..." Remove "Designer" for conciseness.
• "He designed the game as he developed it by inventing mechanics and deriving puzzles from their interactions, and created the game world to support those mechanics." This part confuses me. From my understanding, maybe this would work: "He planned the game as he developed it by inventing mechanics and deriving puzzles from their interactions." (Removed the last part too)
• Linking Chicago might be beneficial.

• Unlink video game.
• Player character is spelt without a hyphen while its next use does.
• Player character isn't linked the first time, but the second.
• "...a slinky, frisbee, and bubble wand, and often have multiple uses, not all of which are immediately obvious." ---> "...a slinky, frisbee, and bubble wand; these often have multiple uses, not all of which are immediately obvious."
• "...can only be accessed using specific items or have hidden elements." Typo I assume.
• "...which can be restored if lost by finding..." ---> "...which can be restored by finding..."
• "The player starts with four hearts, which can be restored if lost by finding and eating a pink fruit, and up to four additional blue hearts can be gained by eating blue fruits." Feels like a run-on sentence.
• "...they reappear at the last save location they interacted with, telephones which are scattered throughout the game world." Something about this feels weird to read, but I struggle to think of why. Maybe this would be better: "...they reappear at the last telephone they interacted with, acting as save points throughout the game."
• "In four locations in the game world are colored flames kept behind large animals, which..." ---> "In four locations, colored flames are kept behind large animals, which..."
• "...a new passageway is opened to a previously inaccessible area of the game world." ---> "...a new passageway is opened to a previously inaccessible area."
• Link wraith and manticore.
• "...and the player is then free to continue to explore the world." ---> "...and the player is then free to continue to explore."
• I assume each "layer" is a meta concept by the dev for different levels of trying to complete the game. Is it possible to make this clearer?
• If important, can we know what the secret credit sequences are?
• "...which requires at least fifty players in collaboration to solve." Since this is a single player game, I want some clarification on what you mean here.

• "Billy Basso began working on Animal Well in 2017." ---> "Billy Basso began development in 2017."
• "Basso had previously worked at mobile developers..." I believe he worked for mobile developers.
• "...which he has described as teaching him technical skills as well as that he would rather create single player experiences that "respected the player's time." ---> "...which he described as teaching him technical skills. He also mentioned that he would rather create single player experiences that "respected the player's time."
• The mention of Super Mario Bros. 2 should probably have its release date too.
• Unlink platformer.
• "...and no cutscenes forcing the environment to convey all information to the player." ---> "...and no cutscenes, forcing the environment to convey all information to the player."
• "Basso moved to working on Animal Well full time, and in February 2022 the game received previews from IGN and the PlayStation blog." ---> "Basso moved to working on Animal Well full time; in February 2022, the game received previews from IGN and the PlayStation blog."

• Looks good

I plan to check these refs (I will update if you add or remove any):

(削除) 1 (削除ここまで)

• I don't see where IGN explicitly mentions the second layer.
  • "It only took me five hours to reach the credits. [...] But after the credits rolled, it became clear to me that some of the optional distractions held deeper secrets than I’d previously realized[...] It took me another 20 hours of exhaustive searching[...] to be more satisfyingly rewarded for my thorough efforts. Was I finally done? Had I finally seen everything? No. Not even close. Layers and layers and layers of secrets lurk within Animal Well."

(削除) 2 (削除ここまで)

• I could be an asshole and point out that this ref never mentions flip screens, but I'll just pull an WP:IAR.

(削除) 3 (削除ここまで)

(削除) 4 (削除ここまで) All good

(削除) 5 (削除ここまで)

• Kotaku includes AI content past 2022, though this particular article is written by a PC Gamer author and spotchecks found no AI, so it looks good.
• I don't see where matches can banish ghosts permanently; I don't see where the bosses must be defeated "using the local environment"; I don't see where the final boss is described as a wraith-manticore thing.
  • Supplemented with gameguide refs that are more explicit about how matches work/bosses work/that it's called a manticore

(削除) 7 (削除ここまで)

• I don't see where "Animals and ghosts may ignore the player or harm them, either passively or actively, depending on the type of creature." The source says there are "plenty" coming to attack you. I don't see where hazards are mentioned either.
  • Slid up the EG review that was originally meant to cover the whole paragraph ("Birds hang back and watch for an opening. Some of the larger beasts just eye you from a distance, amused."), and added the GS review as it's a bit more explicit about animals/ghosts attacking you ("Being chased by the ghostly apparition of a demonic cat is thrilling, just as being forced to cower underground as the long neck of an ostrich undulates towards you--its beak chomping at the bit"). I'll drop the hazards bit.

(削除) 8 (削除ここまで) Good

(削除) 11 (削除ここまで)

(削除) 12 (削除ここまで)

(削除) 13 (削除ここまで) All good

(削除) 14 (削除ここまで)

• During the first year of development, Basso was inspired by things he saw on walks around Chicago, such as lawn ornaments or animal statues, as well as overgrown spaces. Should be cited to ref 12, not 14, per the citation's timestamp of 7:00-12:00.
  • Ah, yeah, that starts at ~10:50, and the animal well sentence starts just at 12:00, fixed

(削除) 16 (削除ここまで)

(削除) 17 (削除ここまで) All good

(削除) 18 (削除ここまで)

• I don't see where the game received positive attention or where the showcase was its first public appearance.
  • Gah, that's in the next (video) ref a couple sentences later (now added to this one too): "In 2019 I took it to this IGDA holiday party [...] that was the first time I needed to really, like, view the game through the eyes of, like, a real player, someone that's not just in my life already. [...] it went pretty well [...] and people started asking me what my plans were."

(削除) 19 (削除ここまで)

(削除) 20 (削除ここまで)

(削除) 21 (削除ここまで) All good

(削除) 23 (削除ここまで)

• Can't find where Basso didn't intend on getting a publisher specifically due to losing creative control. Maybe I just missed it.
  • 25:48 - "We didn't have any intentions of getting a publisher, we were going to just self-publish at the time, but it just seemed like too good of an opportunity to pass up, so we scheduled a few meetings with them." [...longish bit from Leah Gastrow...] "I was worried about giving up creative control or them being overly opinionated, and that just didn't end up being the case at all [...] then we ended up working with them."

(削除) 25 (削除ここまで)

(削除) 26 (削除ここまで)

(削除) 27 (削除ここまで)

(削除) 30 (削除ここまで)

(削除) 31 (削除ここまで)

(削除) 35 (削除ここまで) Paywall; AGF

(削除) 36 (削除ここまで) All good

Tarlby ^{(t) (c)} 01:56, 20 March 2025 (UTC) [reply ]

@Tarlby: Okay, done all of the above. The "50 players in collaboration" thing is that there's a puzzle where you can find in your game one part of the solution. It's specifically a mural of squares, where you can adjust the colors of each square. In each game you get a clue to the colors of a 3-by-3 block of squares, but that block is just one of 50 such blocks in the mural. Every game has the clue to one of the blocks at random. So the only way to solve the whole mural is to put together 50 partial solutions by different players in the right arrangement. That's... way too detailed for the article; hopefully my adjusted sentence makes more sense? --Pres N 20:20, 24 March 2025 (UTC) [reply ]

Hey @PresN. Your explanation clarifies to me, though perhaps readers can benefit from an explanatory note if the RS explains all of that.Apologies that this is taking so astronomically long by the way. I'll just be honest, I completely forgot I had this review open and never went to check or finish it. Expect progress in the spotchecks soon, and thank you for your great patience. Tarlby ^{(t) (c)} 18:22, 26 March 2025 (UTC) [reply ]

@Tarlby: Alright, replied to the ref comments! --Pres N 01:01, 1 April 2025 (UTC) [reply ]