itch.io

Yay, another conversation, and a great topic!

Have you ever actually tried this? Asking an AI to make what it wants to make? I haven’t, but this makes me want to… Also I feel like there are fairy tales like this; in fact, I think I read one in elementary school where a fairy gave someone a wish and they wished her a very nice day, and something good happened.

Thank you!!

So cool!! That was really neat to listen to, thank you :)

Yes, that’d be cool! (and if you want to play around with it and make music, absolutely feel free!)

…Sadly, pretty much. The meaning of this on its own is more a mood than a proposition. It’ll later be combined with other things that are clearer, I hope.

Thanks for trying it! The fonts and words are random, but the sounds are definitely based on where you click (or where you hover, with the sun rays when the snowflakes aren’t blocking them).

It’s hard to say. I appreciated the mix a lot.

I liked the C.S. Lewis shoutout, and I didn’t 100% follow the argument after - will have to come back and try again, but I resonate with the idea that our desire for something transcendant suggests that it might exist.

Also thanks for mentioning my game!!

Yes!! I finished it and I liked it a lot! A lot of thought-provoking ideas in a really cool format :) Friendly and low-key and still deep and original. Very glad you shared it.

Honestly, seriously – I hope to keep working on it for the rest of my life! It will surely grow and change (if nothing else, the tech options will change) through that time, but I hope it’ll keep something recognizable.

Eventually, maybe! Especially if I wind up wanting to have the user move around somewhere with real geography, which will likely happen at some point.

Plainest web tech you can get, practically: html, css, vanilla js. What do you use?

Kinda doing that, yeah!

Eh, it’s just that I have really ambitious ideas of what I want it to be like so sometimes it’s overwhelming to work on

Kind of! I mean the work itself is agnostic: it’s about someone who’s sort of a mystic (the fantasy world basically is God in a metaphor) but there are a lot of questions about how real her experiences/intuitions/whatever are (or in what sense they’re real), and what that means either way

Well, here’s hoping it is helpful for you! …oh boy, the Magnum Opus is hard to describe. I’ve called it “an abusive agnostic romance with God,” which covers a lot of the thematic material despite how flippant it sounds; in terms of genre, there’s a lot of writing and will be more, and it roughly splits into poetry, very fictionalized magical realist memoir, and fantasy novel, and I’m turning it all into a gamelike thing.

Doing well, though creative progress on my overambitious Magnum Opus is on-and-off-again, which is a frustrating feeling. Have indeed been thinking I should show up but am intimidated by games that require lots of skillful and well timed clicking, haha, so this seemed like the perfect place to jump in. How about you?

Really sweet, like the music a lot!

This format is really cool, and the content is interesting too; thanks for sharing. Making art does indeed feel like screaming into the void sometimes. Also like the thoughts on pain – sometimes it is saying something needs to be fixed; sometimes it’s just part of our lots in life. Thanks for this, look forward to following along with the rest of the month.

Glad you enjoyed, thanks for the rating too.

<3 Glad to hear :)

Here’s a point-and-click collection of writing and hand-drawn art (oft minimal or ugly as sin or both; if I’ve succeeded, minimal and ugly but in a cool way ;) ) in the form of a room to explore: https://dreamswithopeneyes.itch.io/jennies-room. One of the first people to try it called it “a thinly encrusted mix of wonder and bleakness”

I’m starting small (though there’s still more than you think to read and experience), but Jennie’s Room will grow throughout the year, so stay tuned if you’re interested :)

Here’s the basic room:

Thank you :)

This is really cool – don’t know much about music like this but I really appreciate the surprising rhythms, and it provides a cool atmosphere

Totally fair and I’m glad you enjoyed the format, art, and music :) Thank you!

Sweet brief story! :)

Very cool idea! A little too hard for me but I enjoyed trying :)

Fun and relaxing, nice sound effects :)

I am still having trouble with this, but maybe it doesn’t get along with laptop trackpads – at some point I stop being able to move my insects at all and die quickly. Still, fun idea!

Thank you! I do hope to add music later :)

Thank you :D

Cute, fun, and soothing, cool art! If y’all keep working on this, I kind of want there to be more going on (maybe at some point in the game, or on a harder setting, players could be expected to memorize the recipes? maybe some other thing to take care of at the same time as the customers?) I also had a few problems picking up the herbs (sometimes one would get stuck under the mortar, and as far as I could tell the only way to use it then was to leave and come back – it would put itself on top and be grindable)

Good luck, it’s a really cool game.

Thank you for playing and persevering :) I think I will add musc later on.

thank you!

Thank you! So glad you enjoyed it – later on I think I’ll try underlining the text so it’s more obviously clickable

I don’t think I got very far, but I like the concept. Agreed, nice art, nice simple tasks for the work side, agree with those who’d like more than text for the fantasy side eventually. I have a pretty hi-res screen and somehow that (or something) caused the content to be very small and in the upper lefthand corner of the window. Does indeed feel very true to life, and agree too with the comment that you could play up the irony there a lot.

I adore the art, no exaggeration, and liked the music a lot too. Also cool seeing something in Italian (appreciated and needed the English translations, but wish I didn’t).

I, uh, intensely sympathize with having a complex concept that one doesn’t have time to execute fully (I also descoped quite a bit and wound up with something borderline-incomprehensible), so, in response to your disclaimer – yes, I did find it extremely confusing, but I like the aesthetic a ton, as well as strangeness of the premise, with the gnome trying to find someone’s dog, the abyss, and the idea of a self-perpetuating cycle. I really hope you will create a fuller version after the jam (followed you in case you do!). I also may have missed a lot – pretty new to games like this.

And, yeah, didn’t really see the limitation in there, but the use of the theme was great.

Like the art, love the concept, would have liked even more ambiguity in the choices I had to make. I don’t know if this was on purpose, but I only saw each person’s info for a second or two before it went half-off the screen and I had to make a decision – the speed-reading aspect is kind of interesting but also anxiety provoking; I didn’t see the bars either. I enjoyed the humorous touch of having a lot of the not-game-relevant rules for the player’s job being written in what I’m guessing is an imaginary angelic language. I also got this error at some point:

Love the use of the restriction, and the overall feel. I have to admit, I didn’t do the journaling part – don’t quite have the energy right now – but I love the concept. Also very fond the auguries – the descriptions of the skies are beautiful. The music was eerie and effective – gave the game almost a sense of menace, or at least of strange powers at work :)

I can’t figure out how to start the game :( I was able to see the insights and credits and rules, but not any way way to actually start.