The Nerdy Type

How do you add a touch of hilarity to a game? You add ragdoll physics, of course. There’s a reason that Human Fall Flat remains incredibly popular as a chaotic multiplayer experience. But, if you’re looking for something a little different (and in my humble opinion, better), then I’d highly recommend Just A Guy. 

Just A Guy is a new indie game in development by MonkyGamesDavid, and it is a highly colorful, at times frustrating, but always hilarious misadventure in which ragdoll physics make up the bones (or lack thereof) of your character. And the best part is, you don’t have to embarrass yourself alone; you can drag a friend along for this chaotic adventure with you.

I am metal, but I flop

The basic premise of Just A Guy is that you are a tiny little metal robot with a distinct inability to keep yourself upright or hard-boned. You explore locations filled with oversized objects, with the main level in the demo being a child’s bedroom that feels like a whole new world, thanks to the scale at which you get to view things. 

Whether you’re alone or with friends, there’s plenty to do in each level, with defined objectives and hidden secrets around every corner. You need to figure out how to use your floppy robot body to navigate around the world, drag yourself up to raised areas (which is far more difficult than it first appears), and keep yourself upright in the process. 

I can’t help but think of Woody from Toy Story while running around the child’s bedroom in Just A Guy, and it’s not just because of the setting, although I suppose that does help a lot in this instance. It’s mainly because of the running style once you don your speed shoes; it’s all floppy hands that swing as you run, and it never fails to make me chuckle. 

Frustration, but not too much

With any game that implements ragdoll physics as a core mechanic, there comes a certain amount of frustration during moments in which those physics make you unable to act in the way that you otherwise would like to. This enraging phenomenon is present in Just A Guy, too, but the ragdoll physics themselves make it difficult to get too upset over your own mistakes or mistimed jumps. 

At times, it’s like watching a toddler learn to walk. You get a few successful steps under your belt, start celebrating, and then trip over the gap in a floorboard and spend a few seconds face down on the floor, wondering what the hell went wrong.

At other times, it’s like babysitting your drunk best friend and waiting for an accident to happen, being unable to turn away. You see those mistakes coming from a mile away, but you can do nothing except flinch as they run headfirst into a wall and fall in a weak-limbed puddle on the floor.

But, as frustrating as those moments could be, they’re also utterly hilarious. It’s funny to see yourself (or a friend) flop onto the floor like a popped balloon because their bones cease to function. It’s even more amusing to hear them rage as the crash happens, so I’d recommend playing on voice or video call to really maximize the laughter. 

Outside the box problem-solving

At one point during my first playthrough of the demo with my fiancé, we discovered a number 2 under a glass dome. That number 2 is one of our objectives, so we need it, but how do we get out of its enclosure? We tried to work together to lift or smash the glass, but that didn’t work. Instead, we found ourselves jointly pressing two buttons, and that’s how we found ourselves throwing hoops.

Let me make it clear that we tried to do this the ‘right’ way. We grabbed the balls, we took aim, and we threw them, but none of them went through the hoop, and the time ran out. We tried this approach again, and we still did not succeed. We almost gave up and moved on to the next objective, but then we discovered that jumping on the green floor under the hoop sends you high up into the air, and an idea took root. 

We reset the timer and, instead of aiming and throwing the balls toward the hoop, we threw ourselves (while holding the balls, obviously). This sums up the off-the-wall experience that Just A Guy has to offer, forcing you to think outside the box to find creative solutions to tasks that should be easy, but are made difficult thanks to floppy limbs and clumsy feet.

Just A Guy is still in development at the moment, but there is a demo available to download and play through Steam right now. While online multiplayer is limited to two players at the moment – with four to eight players coming in the full game – it’s a fun and hilarious experience to bond over.