This is the two hundred twenty-ninth 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. This particular entry is also part of the Keeping Score series about games and their soundtracks. Lastly, as always, you may click on images to view larger versions.

Our two hundred twenty-ninth random selection from the itch.io Bundle for Racial Justice and Equality is asking us to look through the eyes of a shoe. It’s TICKET, by magicdweedoo, and its tagline in the bundle reads:

shoe game

It is, indeed, a game about a shoe.

The developer, magicdweedoo, rang a bell. A quick search through my old posts revealed that they also made Kevin Rudd Farming Generations, which I wrote about way back in 2012. Good to see they’re still at it. A quick perusal of their itch.io page (which sadly does not include Kevin Rudd Farming Generations) shows updates as recent as 2023. I quite liked Kevin Rudd Farming Generations, so I was excited to give Ticket a try.

I immediately recognized the art style, a kind of intentionally amateurish look with jagged black outlines and solid colors that calls to mind Microsoft Paint. Sometimes this is mixed with processed photographic images or collages as backgrounds, which tend to be far more visually busy than most games. Loading screens are full of pixellated rainbow psychedelics, or displays of (fake?) merchandise like mugs and t-shirts, with telltale signs of sloppy coloration by hand with a painting tool in an image processor. These reminded me of some cursed GeoCities webpage from the 1990s. It’s the type of art that would grace a poorly programmed joke game intended to annoy players. But this is magicdweedoo. Their work may lean into a DIY aesthetic, but it has thoughtful design and artistic vision behind it.

That said, Ticket will not win any awards for perfectly-tuned controls. It is, nominally, a platformer, with players guiding a shoe through a series of 2D levels, jumping between platforms and hopping on enemies heads. The action moves at a low framerate that feels jerky, and the shoe has little sense of momentum. Hitboxes are unclear, and the shoe’s bouncing gait makes it hard to tell when it’s airborne or simply walking along a platform. It’s very basic, but — critically — it remains functional. Jump around, collect some gems, land on some enemies’ heads, maybe even bounce off them for some extra height sometimes. It’s no Celeste, but it works, with simple enemy behaviors that are easy to understand.

There’s also a surprising amount of imagination on display in the level design. The shoe can collect power-ups that transform it into different types of shoes: the spring shoe can do bouncy high jumps, while the spike shoe can break through certain types of terrain, but can no longer bounce off of enemies or balloons, falling straight through them instead. Add in some points that reverse gravity when passed through, and I found myself criss-crossing through levels, the same spaces recontextualized as I brought different abilities to bear. Or simply walked on the ceiling instead of the floor. Many levels have optional sections where players can seek out collectibles, so there are different paths to pursue. One of the final levels was so intricate I was stuck for a while, wandering in multiple directions looking for the way to the big “F” that marks the end of the level. I did eventually find it, and was impressed with that level overall, but it will probably be a friction point for many players.

But I was hooked long before I reached that level. Ticket is full of surprises. Lose a level (the shoe can only take two hits from enemies, or a single plunge into a pit or spikes) and a menu appears with a few options: return to the map, take a break, or cry. Taking a break sends the shoe to a peaceful beach, able to wander around for a bit until players decide to leave. Crying yields the image at the top of this post, where mashing the jump button produces tears that slowly fill the screen. Die enough times, and enter a sort of netherworld full of ghostly enemies, before emerging on the map once more.

Levels start out as recognizable video game platforming areas, with grassy floating platforms or blocks to jump between, but soon they get much stranger. One took me into the brain of an old man, jumping between tiny brains and picking up pills that opened new passages, all while the man himself lurked in the corner of the screen and periodically produced thought bubbles that partially obscured the screen. The art style changes multiple times across the game, including a level that re-imagined everything as clay models, or another that featured grayscale art that spilled over beyond the handheld console it’s ostensibly being played on.

Even the map screens change drastically. Starting as an imitation of the maps in Super Mario Bros. 3, with paths between different levels, I soon found side areas where I could use the gems I’d collected to buy groceries, or check out a campfire, or do other weird things. Then, I moved to new maps, each with different art and different behavior. One map was a level in itself. Interludes appear, offering conversation scenes or brief playable sections that span different genres. I chatted with a skeletal shopkeeper, found someone to wear my shoe for a bit, bought a horse. There’s always something new or weird around the corner. I never knew what to expect next from Ticket.

I wasn’t sure about Ticket at first, but those constant shifts convinced me. The early levels establish the basics, but only so Ticket can deviate from them in all sorts of weird ways. The downside is that the best parts of the game come later, but stick with it for a few levels and you’ll see how strange things can get. This shoe goes on a surreal and wonderful journey that’s well worth experiencing, even if its platforming feels a bit clumsy. If that sounds interesting, and you missed it in the bundle, Ticket is sold for a minimum price of $6, including Windows and Mac versions. Pay at least $10, however, and you’ll also get the original soundtrack, which is already included for bundle owners. Which brings me to…

The Score:

The Ticket soundtrack, credited to magicdweedoo, consists of 35 tracks, clocking in at just over 37 minutes total. Math fans will have worked out that the tracks should average to about a minute each, but actually a few are longer and most are shorter. The longest is the title track “Ticket”, which is mostly some high-pitched electric piano noodling over a tinny programmed beat, but starts to glitch out and introduce some low-fi synthesizers in the second half of its four-minute runtime.

After that, however, the tracks come thick and fast, and are sonically all over the place. “A World of Minor Difference” and “Caneen”, which accompany the first two playable level in the game, are each about a minute of acoustic guitar strumming. There are panned and phased timpani anchoring “Blue Map”, while a simple synth approximation of a koto and bells play a simple melody. “Goes Down the Slip” has an almost chiptune quality to it, but the reversed drums underneath it all and the reverb at the end turn it into something else. The music that accompanies the level in the old man’s brain (simply titled “Old Man’s Brain”) is nothing but an incrementally accelerating kick drum beat.

Many tracks evoke different eras of video game music. “The Snacke’s Stomach” sounds like something from the FM synthesis days of game soundtracks, while “Level 1” evokes the simple chiptune sounds of early handheld consoles. “Nanchi” sounds like the early days of CD game music, heavily compressed and with digital synthesizers approximating real instruments. Its impossibly fast slap bass is exactly the kind of thing one might hear in an exciting scene from a Playstation game.

The list goes on. I particularly liked “Sunflower”, which is 37 seconds of lo-fi synth arpeggios and drones, plus a rapid-fire dog bark sample, over what sounds like a rubber band twang. Another favorite is “Rainbow Weather”, which plays during that one particularly tricky level I got stuck on, and is a reworking of the acoustic guitar strums from “A World of Minor Difference”. This time it’s stretched out over nearly three minutes — the second-longest on the whole soundtrack — and features some heavily processed acoustic guitar solos, full of reverb and delay effects. The result almost sounds like a mandolin tremolo. And how could I resist the epic electric organ on “Cast 1”, which plays at the end of the game?

This is a soundtrack that matches the madcap range of ideas on display in Ticket itself, switching up styles and arrangements constantly. And while it could be generally classified as low fidelity, it’s constantly changing how it’s low fidelity. Some tracks are heavily compressed, sounding like they’re coming out of cheap portable speakers, while others have far more breadth but lean into reverb or distortion. I’m as impressed by the range of production techniques on display as I am in the compositions themselves. A truly eclectic soundtrack to match an eclectic game, and one that’s surprisingly interesting to listen to on its own. Not least because it changes up every minute or less.

If you like what you hear when playing Ticket, I can recommend nabbing the soundtrack too. Either way, Ticket is worth trying out. Sometimes you need some of that magicdweedoo flavor in your life.

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