I have a quiet interest in the inner workings of computers, so I was intrigued to hear about Rogue Bit. The game has an interesting premise: you control a single, sentient bit and must try to escape the computer. It seemed to be exactly my type of game, and it seemed unlike anything else on the eShop. Well, at least the latter part was true.

Developer: Bigosaur

Publisher: Bigosaur

4 Hours Played // Review Copy Provided // $4.99

If you know anything at all about binary, the game gets off to a pretty simple start. Your ability to move is explained via the XOR (“exclusive or”) operation, which leads to some interesting details down the line. You encounter various puzzles over the course of the game. These require you to manipulate data and code in order to make your way past.

Despite the simple start, however, I was finding the game almost impossible within an hour. How to make forward progress was often very unclear, and occasionally I’d blunder my way into a solution without understanding exactly how I got there. The game was doing an excellent job of making me feel stupid, which, for someone who isn’t that new to concepts like logical operators, binary, hex, and so on, was incredibly alienating. After a single puzzle stumped me for about an hour, I restarted my progress. I figured I’d just skipped or misunderstood some key instructions along the way.

Instructions are part of the map.

On reflection, this should have been a massive red flag, and it turns out that I hadn’t missed instructions after all. Indeed, the biggest problem in Rogue Bit is that core mechanics are just not explained all that well, if indeed they are explained at all. For example, the game never explains important concepts like what exactly will trigger a new program to execute, or exactly how the data register works. The few explanations that exist are very text-heavy, and these all form part of the map. While this was a pretty cool way of constructing the game world, the linear nature of the game means you can’t actually return to explanations you’ve already passed. If you can’t remember exactly how something works, tough luck. You’ll need to start over from the beginning.

I have a lot I could say about the design of Rogue Bit, but in the end it might just be more effective to say that the game violates a number of established principles of good game design in its attempts to be clever. If you aren’t already deeply familiar with the concepts on offer, there is no attempt to create a balance between the player’s lack of skill upon starting the game and the game’s difficulty. It starts out bafflingly (and obscurely) hard and only gets worse from there. This leads to significant frustration early on and makes it pretty much impossible to have fun with the game.

Some explanations were alright, and some were not.

Unfortunately, these issues are compounded by the sheer information overload that you experience upon playing the game. New concepts are introduced at a breakneck pace, and often there is a lot of information to process at a single time. Combined with the less-than-stellar explanations that accompany these concepts, the game turns out to be a pretty overwhelming experience.

I should note, however, that the information on offer is pretty damn accurate. Indeed, it’s quite clear that the game’s complexity reflects the developer’s clear passion for the inner workings of computers. As far as this real-world complexity translates to gameplay, however, Rogue Bit would have benefited from a liberal dose of ‘kill your darlings’. It might have been less accurate to simplify some of the puzzles and perhaps provide fewer than 256 ASCII symbols for players to work with. However, doing so would likely have made the game a whole lot more accessible to players.

This was not fun to read in handheld mode.

And the reason that I say this is that beneath the information overload, poorly explained mechanics, and questionable design choices lies a game with potential. Before I got stuck so badly that I could not make further progress, the game did offer some interesting ideas. The concept of navigating a program based on binary limitations is incredibly cool. The game is also full of delightful details that make it fun to explore. For example, the symbol of the active bit changes when you move around, accurately corresponding to the correct ASCII symbol that that binary operation would result in. Additionally, while I found the UI lacking in some respects, I did enjoy the graphical style. The soundtrack is admittedly delightful as well.

It’s quite clear that Rogue Bit is targeted at a very niche audience. However, I question whether that might have been taken a step too far here. The game’s difficulty, poor explanations, and odd design choices made for a gameplay experience that was incredibly alienating. With how little fun I had with the game, I can’t in good conscience recommend it at all.

As always, thanks for reading! If Rogue Bit isn’t your cup of tea, we’ve got you. Check out my review of Reverie – it’s bound to put a smile on your face! Otherwise, come on over to our Discord to talk all things Nindie. And, as always, don’t forget to follow us on Twitter – you can find me here.