This is the two hundred second entry in the Scratching That Itch series, wherein I randomly select and write about one of the 1741 games and game-related things included in the itch.io Bundle for Racial Justice and Equality. The Bundle raised $8,149,829.66 split evenly between the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund and Community Bail Fund, but don’t worry if you missed it. There are plenty of ways you can help support the vital cause of racial justice; try here for a start. Lastly, as always, you may click on images to view larger versions.

Our two hundred second random selection from the itch.io Bundle for Racial Justice and Equality is changing its shape before our eyes. It’s Flat Kingdom, by Game Starter, and its tagline in the bundle reads:

Change into a circle, triangle or square in order to solve puzzles, overcome o…

Fun fact: triangles have three vertices, squares have four vertices, and circles have an infinite number of vertices!

Flat Kingdom is a platformer, using the “2.5D” style. That is, its world is presented with 3D graphics, but players can only move in a 2D plane. Actually, it’s not quite that simple in this case. You see, Flat Kingdom is about 2D and 3D worlds. The kingdom of Flat has been at peace for years, after a sorcerer created six magical jewels that sealed away the chaotic third dimension. Until now, that is. The 2D peace is shattered when a thief kidnaps princess Tri and steals one of the jewels, allowing the third dimension to break into the world and cause havoc.

This is presented in a lovely art style that takes inspiration from pop-up books. In fact, the opening cinematic tells players this backstory through a literal pop-up book, before dropping players into a remarkably similar game world. Characters and creatures appear to be papercraft models, backgrounds built from layered construction paper. Occasionally, parts of the background burst into 3D, springing forward to become usable platforms or tricky obstacles. The 3D elements are rendered as simple, blocky, low-poly objects with simple textures using swaths of single colors, keeping the overall look consistent between 2D and 3D pieces. Altogether it looks really slick.

Players control a strange creature — confusingly also named Flat — who has the unique ability to change its shape. That makes Flat the only one who can stop the mayhem. At the press of a button, players can swap between circle, triangle, and square forms, which each have different abilities. Circle form can perform a double jump, while triangle form can run really fast, and square form is heavy and sturdy but moves slowly. These abilities, naturally, are needed to surmount all manner of platforming challenges. What’s more, shape is critical for battling the enemies that roam Flat Kingdom. You see, every person and creature in flat kingdom has a characteristic shape, like King Square, or Princess Tri. But these have a rock-paper-scissors relationship to each other. Pointy triangles can pierce circles, circles can overwhelm squares, and the solid bulk of a square can shatter a triangle’s spines. To defeat an enemy, Flat must change into the appropriate shape, and then bump into them.

I was worried that sounded too simple, and early on it is. See a triangular rat charging at Flat? Change into a square and watch it expire after impact. But later on I was impressed with the imagination on display for the enemies. Some only have a specific weak spot that must be struck with the correct shape, while avoiding attacks. Others require multiple shapes, in the correct sequence, to defeat. Still others can only be defeated by parrying their attacks with careful shape-changing. It’s still a little weird to simply bump into enemies rather than properly attack them, and it means taking damage when experimenting with different shapes that turn out not to be correct, but overall I like the system.

I’m less happy with the way Flat handles. Flat’s circle form moves slowly, making me constantly wish for the triangular sprint instead. And don’t get me started on the square form, which moves at an achingly slow pace and can barely jump. I never spent any more time in square form than I needed to (it’s mostly useful underwater, since it’s the only form that will sink), and I spent more time in triangle form than was wise. Circle form is clearly the default since the double jump is so useful, but I felt impatient whenever I had to use it. The worst moments came when riding a moving platform and attempting aerial maneuvering, only to find that the circle form wasn’t fast enough to catch up with the platform again. It doesn’t help that, despite recommending a gamepad on launch, Flat Kingdom did not recognize mine. Playing with the keyboard works fine, but the keys cannot be rebound and are a bit uncomfortable.

Flat Kingdom is a slow-paced game in general, never asking for fast reflexes. Aside from its shape-changing conceit, it plays things very safe in its design. Any player who has tried a platformer in the last few decades will recognize the pieces here. There are coins to collect, as well as journal pages which each offer a bit of lore. A few friendly faces offer fetch quests, and reward players with more maximum health. Levels are grouped into larger zones with familiar themes: a forest, a waterlogged area, an icy locale, a fiery zone full of lava. Each stage has a boss battle with formulaic design: dodge the boss’ attacks for a while until it leaves an opening, then strike with the appropriate shape. Repeat twice more, with the final round adding some new attacks or some other complication. After each boss battle, Flat gains a new ability, and players are encouraged to return to earlier stages to use their new moves to get coins or journal pages they couldn’t reach before.

This meant I wasn’t that impressed with Flat Kingdom for much of its run time. It’s pleasant enough, but can feel a little simple and sometimes frustrating. But it made up for this somewhat with a surprisingly interesting ending. The story, too, seemed cliched at first, with an antagonist who always reaches the McGuffin just before the player does. But a few twists — one of which I predicted, others I did not — make the overall story pretty cool in the end. The finale does suffer from an emphasis on boss battles, which got boring since there’s so much waiting for the one moment that Flat can strike. But narratively it fares much better. I was intrigued enough to go back and hunt down the few remaining secrets I hadn’t nabbed already so I could access the secret ending, even though it meant battling the final boss again.

The ending made me warm up to Flat Kingdom, then, but I still must temper a recommendation with the caveat that it is formulaic and less interesting for most of the time leading up to the finale. Then again, sometimes a game that follows all the conventions and isn’t too challenging is exactly what one wants. The lovely papercraft art style adds a lot of charm, too. If you fancy a visit to Flat Kingdom yourself, but missed it in the bundle, it’s sold for a minimum price of $7.99.

That’s 202 down, and only 1539 to go!