Wow, that's great to know! I hadn't tested this one on the Deck yet but Proton constantly amazes me at what it can run. Thanks for sharing that for others that might be interested.
Super moody experience. Very artsy cinematography (Lynch comes to mind) and fleshy, visceral map design. Big kudos to the ambient soundtrack, as well. I still find myself intrigued by the prototype—that early version of the game that was, at the time, in full color and stuck in a perpetual cycle. Something about the process of looping through familiar maps feels particularly oppressive to me. It feels inescapable, no matter what you do. A different type of prison.
Beksinski is my favourite painter so it's really great to see someone pick up on that. Eraserhead by David Lynch was the other big influence on this project. Glad you enjoyed it!
So this was interesting. I played it because it gave me Carrion vibes, but was intrigued by the game's goth-like horror atmosphere which looked pretty good. The music on the other hand was really great and was used well, I thought at leas! There was no such story that I could discern, so everything seemed random and meant to 'shock' the player or make them think about it. I could stretch out some metaphors about the tunnel and the cage and the 'graveyard' area but other than that, I didn't feel like there was any coherent story being told with the game. Also thought the cinematics were a tad bit too long and there were way too many fade to blacks, but that's just me.
Other than that, it was an interesting and intriguing game which was a neat to play at the end.
Hi thanks for playing and taking the time to record and post your gameplay. The game has nothing really in common with Carrion, I'm not sure why you kept saying that. It was supposed to be more of a dark inversion of Katamari, a completely non-violent roll through a surreal dream. It's based on a painting of a weird deformed heart that I did several years ago and images from some dreams I had.
For the people saying they have trouble running it, I have found a fix! Make sure to run the game as admin! I had the prerequisites installed but still getting crashes, but running as admin has fixed it.
For me, I adore dark and disturbing visuals like this. And I like them even more when they seemingly have no reasoning behind them. Like, the image of a heart, or other mass blob of movable flesh, maneuvering through a world filled with calcified human parts and rusty metal. There's something really fascinating about that.
So kudos for being able to put this all together in 6 weeks.
Should you ever plan to develop it further, here are a few thoughts I had about my experience.
First, I do think I like that each stage of the game doesn't really tell you what you're supposed to do, but it was easy enough to know where I was supposed to get to.
However, I do think that rather than just fading out after the player character gets to where they approximately need to be, there ought to be something more that indicates players have reached their destination. I get that the experience is meant to be dream-like, so the scenes will fade seemingly to random new locales, but I think a bit of extra art direction could lend itself to making each stage feel like it has a definitive start and end, while still maintaining the aesthetic.
Second, the in-game cut-scenes are a bit too much. I feel they keep me out of the game more than draw me in. I specifically had an issue with the skull socket part, as that cut-scene really dragged on. If you were to adjust that level so that the player character started more at mid level to the skeletal structure, and then had the lighting make it even clearer that the player has to reach a particular spot, that would achieve the same goal as the lengthy cut-scene does.
Third, and this is just my very personal preference; I think I'd enjoy the game a bit more if you only used the tendrils half the time rather than all the time. Like, if I could move about with WASD like a slug, or if you had a some kind of secondary movement more like a worm where you stretch forward the whole mass and pulled the rest up from behind, I think that could contribute to the atmosphere a bit more so that the player isn't constantly clicking around with all the rapid sticky slapping sounds, and getting tendrils caught into the camera.
All in all, it's a fantastic achievement in the time you dedicated to it. I'd love to see more games that use these kinds of visuals. And thanks so much for the experience.
Thanks very much for taking the time to play and leave such detailed feedback!
I don't plan to revisit this project to develop it further but I wholeheatedly agree with all of your points here and the feedback is very useful for future projects. A few people brought up the fade length in my project after this one too so it's definitely something I need to find a better way of transitioning. And the cutscenes were way too long, but I was watching a lot of Tarkovsky at the time and was really into long lingering shots. I don't know how he makes his so gripping!
Thanks for sticking with it and playing through to the end.
Oh that's hilarious, and makes so much sense. I've been meaning to watch Tartakovsky's work, but my best friend has told me that Stalker and Andre Rublev were the most engaging. I was fascinated by the imagery being discussed at the beginning of Solaris, but I couldn't make it past the half way point.
Solaris is a tough watch, I enjoy it but it's definitely not his best. Your friend is absolutely right they are the two most engaging and I'd add Mirror to that list as well if you enjoy them!
Ah I see what you mean, but the game restarts in a loop right after the bit they are talking about and it tells you just before you drop down that's it's going to do this.
I wish I discovered this game earlier. I am absolutely, positively IN LOVE! Such a quirky mechanic being a literal heart attaching yourself to wall and objects to get around, but it works so well with the entire aesthetic. The mood, the sounds, the mechanics, everything worked so well to draw discomfort yet curiosity from the player. I HIGHLY recommend anyone stumbling onto this page to check it out yourself. Definitely so if you are an indie dev looking to see what an original, well executed, surreal horror experience can work!
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I wonder what was your inspiration for creating this game?
It was based on a painting I did a few months before of a strange sentient heart:
DOES work on Steam Deck, ONLY if you edit the launch options to "Force the use of a specific Compatability tool" and set it to "Proton: Experimental."
Wow, that's great to know! I hadn't tested this one on the Deck yet but Proton constantly amazes me at what it can run. Thanks for sharing that for others that might be interested.
Wow, what a great atmosphere. Really fantastic work, looking forward to your future projects!
Wow. Looked amazing and mixed with the atmosphere and those sounds it was an awesome experience.
Great game, loved the eerie vibe & the body horror was spot on
Ha! Thanks so much for playing and glad you enjoyed it. Right on the money with the Beksinski and Giger influences :)
was this a ue4 game or you made, wow amazing visuals
Thank you! The engine is UE4, all the models made in Blender and Medium (VR sculpting), textures in Substance and music/SFX in Reaper. :)
Wow, this is amazing art
Super moody experience. Very artsy cinematography (Lynch comes to mind) and fleshy, visceral map design. Big kudos to the ambient soundtrack, as well. I still find myself intrigued by the prototype—that early version of the game that was, at the time, in full color and stuck in a perpetual cycle. Something about the process of looping through familiar maps feels particularly oppressive to me. It feels inescapable, no matter what you do. A different type of prison.
Gives of Zdzislaw Beksinski atmosphere, really enjoyed it, captivating, stunning.
Beksinski is my favourite painter so it's really great to see someone pick up on that. Eraserhead by David Lynch was the other big influence on this project. Glad you enjoyed it!
If not already familiar you might enjoy S.V. Mitchell's and Chet Zar's art. That was an experience.
I have seen some of Chet Zar's work before and love it, but I hadn't heard of S.V. Mitchell, thanks for the tip!
So this was interesting. I played it because it gave me Carrion vibes, but was intrigued by the game's goth-like horror atmosphere which looked pretty good. The music on the other hand was really great and was used well, I thought at leas! There was no such story that I could discern, so everything seemed random and meant to 'shock' the player or make them think about it. I could stretch out some metaphors about the tunnel and the cage and the 'graveyard' area but other than that, I didn't feel like there was any coherent story being told with the game. Also thought the cinematics were a tad bit too long and there were way too many fade to blacks, but that's just me.
Other than that, it was an interesting and intriguing game which was a neat to play at the end.
Hi thanks for playing and taking the time to record and post your gameplay. The game has nothing really in common with Carrion, I'm not sure why you kept saying that. It was supposed to be more of a dark inversion of Katamari, a completely non-violent roll through a surreal dream. It's based on a painting of a weird deformed heart that I did several years ago and images from some dreams I had.
Интересная задумка. Странно,но мало ))))
Thanks for playing, but this is just the demo, not the full game. The full game is much longer. :)
For the people saying they have trouble running it, I have found a fix! Make sure to run the game as admin! I had the prerequisites installed but still getting crashes, but running as admin has fixed it.
So glad you managed to fix it! No idea why it required admin to run, but well done finding that out.
Wow. So that was a thing. Lol
For me, I adore dark and disturbing visuals like this. And I like them even more when they seemingly have no reasoning behind them. Like, the image of a heart, or other mass blob of movable flesh, maneuvering through a world filled with calcified human parts and rusty metal. There's something really fascinating about that.
So kudos for being able to put this all together in 6 weeks.
Should you ever plan to develop it further, here are a few thoughts I had about my experience.
First, I do think I like that each stage of the game doesn't really tell you what you're supposed to do, but it was easy enough to know where I was supposed to get to.
However, I do think that rather than just fading out after the player character gets to where they approximately need to be, there ought to be something more that indicates players have reached their destination. I get that the experience is meant to be dream-like, so the scenes will fade seemingly to random new locales, but I think a bit of extra art direction could lend itself to making each stage feel like it has a definitive start and end, while still maintaining the aesthetic.
Second, the in-game cut-scenes are a bit too much. I feel they keep me out of the game more than draw me in. I specifically had an issue with the skull socket part, as that cut-scene really dragged on. If you were to adjust that level so that the player character started more at mid level to the skeletal structure, and then had the lighting make it even clearer that the player has to reach a particular spot, that would achieve the same goal as the lengthy cut-scene does.
Third, and this is just my very personal preference; I think I'd enjoy the game a bit more if you only used the tendrils half the time rather than all the time. Like, if I could move about with WASD like a slug, or if you had a some kind of secondary movement more like a worm where you stretch forward the whole mass and pulled the rest up from behind, I think that could contribute to the atmosphere a bit more so that the player isn't constantly clicking around with all the rapid sticky slapping sounds, and getting tendrils caught into the camera.
All in all, it's a fantastic achievement in the time you dedicated to it. I'd love to see more games that use these kinds of visuals. And thanks so much for the experience.
Thanks very much for taking the time to play and leave such detailed feedback!
I don't plan to revisit this project to develop it further but I wholeheatedly agree with all of your points here and the feedback is very useful for future projects. A few people brought up the fade length in my project after this one too so it's definitely something I need to find a better way of transitioning. And the cutscenes were way too long, but I was watching a lot of Tarkovsky at the time and was really into long lingering shots. I don't know how he makes his so gripping!
Thanks for sticking with it and playing through to the end.
Oh that's hilarious, and makes so much sense. I've been meaning to watch Tartakovsky's work, but my best friend has told me that Stalker and Andre Rublev were the most engaging. I was fascinated by the imagery being discussed at the beginning of Solaris, but I couldn't make it past the half way point.
Solaris is a tough watch, I enjoy it but it's definitely not his best. Your friend is absolutely right they are the two most engaging and I'd add Mirror to that list as well if you enjoy them!
Fell out of the large nest full of finger creatures and was sent back to the start.
100/10 best game design.
My aim was to address the severe lack of finger creatures in games (probably since Abe's Exoddus!) so I'm glad someone appreciates them :)
Ah I see what you mean, but the game restarts in a loop right after the bit they are talking about and it tells you just before you drop down that's it's going to do this.
I wish I discovered this game earlier. I am absolutely, positively IN LOVE! Such a quirky mechanic being a literal heart attaching yourself to wall and objects to get around, but it works so well with the entire aesthetic. The mood, the sounds, the mechanics, everything worked so well to draw discomfort yet curiosity from the player. I HIGHLY recommend anyone stumbling onto this page to check it out yourself. Definitely so if you are an indie dev looking to see what an original, well executed, surreal horror experience can work!