Post by divVerent in Non-Surreal Game comments

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I got to the “end?” but for the other endings I just am extremely sure how to reach them (found the hint in the starting room and in the big clock room it’s visible when one looks for it), but I am absolutely not a fan of the activation condition for these. Trying to be somewhat vague here to avoid spoilers for anyone else.

The game itself had a vibe similar to both Antichamber and The Stanley Parable. Like, the weirdness is the game, how things change when not looking, but there are no choices to make whatsoever, not even about the order of events, which is a big difference. Like, your game as is isn’t really a game but just a little story. But it shows you could totally expand the concept into something big.

I especially loved the door that gets smaller when you move close to it. Greetings from Lewis Carroll, I think :)

MAWO2 years ago (1 edit)

I know what you mean. The activation condition to reach the "end?" are rather abnormal. This has to do with the fact that it is an easter egg ending. I'm a huge fan of easter eggs, especially those which are really complex. It's for everyone who loves to solve riddles/hunt easter eggs.

I was very inspired by The Stanley Parable and also Antichamber.
You are absolutely right, the gameplay is linear. Especially if you compare it to The Stanley Parable (a fundamentality of The Stanley Parable is to have choices!) In future projects I'll try to pay more attention to giving the player more choices. Overall I want to focus more on gameplay.

There is a desire to further develop this project. I have a lot of ideas and a basic concept in my mind, but don't feel ready to start yet.

Thanks for your comment and feedback, I really appreciate it!

If I ever start developing, I'll let you know ;)

divVerent2 years ago

I BTW should add that “nonlinear” has two meanings - nonlinear in the Antichamber sense means “the ending is always the same, but the path to it has many variations”. Metroidvania style, basicaly. BTW, Antichamber actually has a “second ending” which is most likely actually a glitch, but conveys a quite different story: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wGY2nXjXuTE :)

Stanley OTOH has a quite different kind of nonlinearity. With few exceptions, the path to each ending is always the same, but there are a LOT of branch points. However this is just true on the surface - given that some actions change the game permanently, Stanley also has Metroidvania-style nonlinearity on a level above the gameplay itself.

So, I can’t quite tell which kind of nonlinearity fits your game better. An interesting hybrid is a form of nonlinearity where only some actions decide later outcomes, however most of the game proceeds the same no matter which choices you made. A wellknown game of that kind is Undertale, although this concept has been in use way earlier.

Also, as I was lucky, I now made it to the minutes ending - that one actually was quite good looking.

One issue I BTW had - for me mouse capture did not work correctly. Might be a problem of my system. I thus ended up playing with using the touchscreen to look around, which worked rather well actually.

I also don’t quite understand the point of the many-doors room, given it appears to only have one exit. Also, instead of highlighting the correct exit, a fun solution might be making whichever door the player opens after a few attempts the correct door (maybe 7 attempts is good?).

MAWO2 years ago

If I "rebuild" the game I would consider such this like replayability (probably more in a subliminal way)

The room with a lot of doors was an an idea which arose during development. Originally I had in mind to create a room with infinity doors. I wanted to completely overwhelm the player. Either after some time or after a few tries, the correct door would appear.

itch.io

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