Created using Processing, Photoshop, Inkscape and Audacity
-------------------------------------- Escape. Most people have had dreams, or nightmares, where one is being chased, usually by someone who has no name nor face. In my dreams, I also cannot get anywhere, my feet just aren't moving regardless of how I try. It's like I'm in quicksand, the more I try, the more I cannot move. I cannot even breath. The only way to get out of the suffocating horror is by waking up. And if I do wake up in the middle of the night, chase will continue if I manage to get sleep again. After this nightmare my head is heavy and my thoughts are cloudy the whole day. When it comes next evening, I go to sleep and nightmare will start all over again. There is no escape.
Despite this being so simple I played it over and over until I got to the "next morning." It was frustrating to find the hotspots yet at the same time it felt accurate for the "dream world" idea.
Oof, 47 meg download :( I would recommend splitting the .zip up into three separate ones, one for each platform. 15 megs is a lot more manageable!
As for the game itself, I like the art, and wanted to keep playing to see all of it, but it became too frustrating to continue on. Excellent feeling of tension, it was quite nightmare-ish, so you nailed that aspect of it!
The heavy breathing really had me scrambling to find the hot spots, which was a neat effect. =] But it was really tedious to find all of the hot spots especially when they got really small.
Yikes! Made me realize how crappy zip can be. The large size is due to three identical 15 MB files that get compressed and stored independently inside the archive.
Anyway, game is a bit simplistic maybe, but also very easy to play and relatively rewarding due to that fact. No introduction or learning curve needed. Could have been fun with some other dream-like effects like illusions and distractions while trying to find the clickies.
Tense! It looks like the hotspots are pre-set not randomized (thank goodness!), so I can quickly get back to the bit where I just start to see what I guess is some body of water, but after like six attempts with over ten seconds on that screen each and STILL not finding the hotspot, it gets too tedious to continue. Until that killed it, it was a very cool experience!
M
matthias_zarzecki30 Aug 2011, 14:45
Nice concept! The sound-effects really elevate this.
The graphics are quite dreamy, and the panic of not finding a hotspot within the time with the increasing breathing is a neat gag. Unfortunately the hotspot-scanning doesn't work quite as a agood game-mechanic.
I really liked the atmosphere. The gameplay was a bit boring but I was motivated to finish the game because I liked watching the progression of the different backgrounds. Nice graphics style and audio.
Comments8
As for the game itself, I like the art, and wanted to keep playing to see all of it, but it became too frustrating to continue on. Excellent feeling of tension, it was quite nightmare-ish, so you nailed that aspect of it!
Anyway, game is a bit simplistic maybe, but also very easy to play and relatively rewarding due to that fact. No introduction or learning curve needed. Could have been fun with some other dream-like effects like illusions and distractions while trying to find the clickies.
The graphics are quite dreamy, and the panic of not finding a hotspot within the time with the increasing breathing is a neat gag. Unfortunately the hotspot-scanning doesn't work quite as a agood game-mechanic.