Thank you so, so much! I'm so glad you liked the narrative! That, along with the design of the areas, is what I put the most effort in and what I cared about the most...
I would love to make a living from my art, but I am afraid that it would be quite difficult. One can dream...!
I am genuinely struggling to find the words to properly convey how I feel. When I started creating (writing, short stories and such) I did not know what it feels like to have someone that genuinely understands and is invested in what I make. Even today, when I give someone one of my books, in 99% of cases I never again hear from them about it - nobody ever has the time, apparently.
I would be lying if I said your comments didn't move me. With the extremely troubled history behind it (I failed to mention I considered quitting it altogether several times because of how much I was trying to perfect it) and the relentless self-criticism and perfectionism I unfortunately suffer from throughout all my productions, having someone call my work a "masterpiece" is earth-shattering to me.
I think it's pretty obvious that I make this games because I genuinely think games can be works of art - and that I want to make some too, something personal. When I started, I must admit, I was terrified of having to learn to draw. But editing (photoshopping, distorting, mashing, whatever you prefer) I think makes for something quite unique I have not seen a lot around, and it very much still is a way to convey personality and emotion, in my opinion.
I have loved the medium throughout all my life, and during my studies (I'm going for the master's degree now!!) I'm trying to understand more and more on why they can be so intriguing, and where do those emotions come from, how to evoke them and what consequences they have. (I've been reading Mark Fisher's The Weird and the Eerie and honestly it's a treasure trove of inspiration)
Thank you, from the bottom of my heart.
For exploring, understanding, and taking the time to flavor the sickly-sweet emotions in my work, with way too much sugar inside, just the way I like my tea.
I am genuinely speechless. Especially with the amount of overthinking and failed attempts it took to make this (if you obtain the two raindrop halves you will see what I mean ) your words mean the world to me.
I had to struggle a lot to make this game. And so I wanted to make it into something special. I poured everything I could inside the game. All the love that the other games I tried to make deserved, and I am glad you are appreciating all the little details. All the games that I loved growing up, if nothing else, taught me the feelings a good game should give you. From your words, I believe I was able to replicate those feelings. And that is the most I could ever ask for.
To make the game fullscreen you can press F4.
There is actually a little bit of history behind the F4 key being the "fullscreen key", if you can believe it.
That is the key used to fullscreen RPG Maker games (I believe from RPGM2003 onwards but I may be wrong). Specifically in OFF, the game that changed my life when I first played it, seven years or so ago.
When you first boot up any of those games, before the title screen there used to be a big phoenix with "KADOKAWA" below it (the makers of RPG Maker) and a "Press F4 to Fullscreen" in the top right. That screen has been burned into my mind ever since I played those games. To me, that was the "this game is going to be awesome" screen, similar to what for some people the PS1 boot chime is.
The games that brought me to gamedev, OFF by Mortis Ghost, (original in French), Yume Nikki (original in Japanese) and Bag Of Milk Inside a Bag Of Milk (original in Russian) struck a note with me because of how they build a world of their own, instead of grounding themselves in reality. It does not matter which country you are from or what language you speak: if you like the genre, and what these games communicate, you will feel connected with them, in a way. That is one of the many reasons I love them so much.
What I learned in my (still little) experience in Philosophy is that it does not matter at all to learn what X philosopher thinks or what Y philosopher has written. Sure, that is what you study, but that is not what you (should) learn.
You learn to think. You get the tools to build thoughts and realize how little sense much of the world makes. It is much more of a "scheme" or "attitude" than it is a subject in itself. In fact, there as probably as many "philosophy of..." as you can think of (literature, art, mathematics, language, music, history, grammar, mind, nothingness...)
It is the first time I felt at home in my mind.
You are free to translate the RPGmaker games if you want to! I'll add you on Discord :)
Wow! I never thought my work would be seen from what is for me the other side of the globe!
I might think about a translation in the future, but right now is not the right time for me, unfortunately. I have lots of university exams coming up in September. Also, the translation process will be quite difficult, because of the way dialogue is handled inside the game itself (poor coding (╥﹏╥) ).
Regardless, I am so happy that you liked my game!! It warms my heart so very much!
Thank you so very much for giving my game a chance, and I am so sorry you had the game close on you! This "first" game was the first I ever published using Godot (the other two I made are in RPG Maker).
I am absolutely guilty of being a storywriter first and foremost - it's what I've been doing for most of my life now, and I tend to let myself be a bit carried away by the dialogues. Programming was entirely self-taught, that is the reason it tends to be a bit hit-or-miss.
I think you will be quite happy to hear that this game, C:\OVER\MIND and C:\FOR\EVER take place in the same universe - still without a proper conclusion to the overarching story... that is yet to come in a project I've been working on quite a while now (a proper conclusion to my first game, still technically a demo).
To be quite frank, the idea of making a second ending crossed my mind, but - as you can imagine - time was quite the constraint, so I decided against it, and scrapped it as tidbits of lore.
You are right about the images - they are photos (cc0 found on the internet or taken by me) that have been posterized, painted on, and generally "mangled" to be what they ought to.
And one last thing, about the voice acting - I am especially glad you liked it, since I am not a native English speaker (as you might have guessed by my name).
Truly, I am so very happy I was able to make something interesting and worth its time.
I am so glad you enjoyed the experience! I can't overstate how much it means to me that you understood the enigmatic nature of the game.
Sometimes, when answers don't come naturally to the questions you are faced with, experiencing the labyrinth of paths as a wonder and not as a prison to escape from can be the best option. That's how I ended up making the games I make.
I hope you will be around when the next projects will see the light of day!
I'm sorry that it was a bit confusing to navigate - if you ever feel like reaching the end there is always the walkthrough I posted along with the game (I do this for all my games. Since they are story-based, I don't want them to be frustrating)
Again, thank you for taking the time to check my game out!
A point-and-click/Visual novel hybrid with surreal and philosophical themes: rebuild your body and your mind while abandoning the person you were to be born anew.
All work is done by me in Godot 4, images done with Affinity photo.
The game is not aiming at horror, however it feature some topics that may be disturbing: surreal images, themes regarding death and loss, transhumanism.
I am so glad you understood the subtle paradoxed and details about the story! I did not have much time to polish it or spellcheck it, since the more "technical" part of this game took far more than it should have (the save system acting up, inventory bugs, etc...).
If there is one thing that Godot really shines when compared with the other engine I have used (RPG Maker) is how you can freely mix elements of UI and the world, and I am glad you liked the mixture of the two.
Now that the jam is over, I'll spellcheck it one last time and try to fix anything I can find.
Thank you so much for your feedback. I am so glad you enjoyed this. <3
Well, that's not a bug; just simply bad game design XD.
That was supposed to be a hint on the fact that you need to wake up, and I reckon I haven't made it clear enough.
Maybe a better way to do this would be to let you freely explore the pianist area (albeit you would be stuck there) and have the pianist's dialogue be something along the lines of "It's time to wake up".
After interacting with the pianist you are forced to wake up, and if you try to enter flow again, it should tell you that you need to execute a mindscan before entering flow again, which is important because it gives you the code to insert in the Hell door and reach the ending.
I will write a walkthrough and post it on the game's page as soon as the jam is over (or am I allowed to add it even before?) Edit: I added it just now, I hope it's ok ^^
Let me know if this helps or if it is a bug I need to look further into!
