In contemporary society, urban residents often find themselves in a prolonged state of loneliness and isolation, where interpersonal communication feels like it's separated by a shell.
The game's protagonist is referred to as "them," and their sole attribute is being human, without any specific identity or label. "Them" enjoys disconnecting from the outside world by immersing themselves in their favorite music, attempting to escape from reality. However, when faced with various real-life challenges, "them" must reluctantly return to reality.
After confronting the inevitable, "them" stands in front of a door—is it an entrance or an exit? The scene within the door is abstract, with a vaguely recognizable figure sitting alone, monologuing. This represents "them's" inner world, and the shell is like a layer of flames.
“What Matters Most is How Well You Walk Through the Fire.”
Control: Press WSAD to move. Press Space to interact.
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Addition: We didn't have enough time left to polish up the instructions. You can read below now or after you failed to understand the gameplay. We decided to add these notes below after receiving feedback.
1.You can press the gear button to call up the other buttons. 2.The other buttons can be interacted in the late game, like the earphone and the levers.
Please comment to let us know if you encounter any problems! We'd appreciate it if you can finish playing our game! ---------------------------------------------- Pacing forward, you will obtain surprising 'gifts'. Use them wisely to solve the problems you encounter along the way.
拼贴风格好赞！The graphic and the collage is just sooo cool, together with the idea of picking of a earphone to eliminate all the surrounding noises, and the audio, and the vibe... The earphone is sticking to the theme, it creates a zone for the player and supporting the mechanic and puzzle sovling at the same time. I give you all five out of five ratings. Congratulations on completing the jam with this marvelous work.
i like the concept! took me a while to understand how everything works but after that, i started seeing some of the cleverness in level design. the idea of using the limited space like a tool is really interesting
I didn't understand pause / retry icons, but till then I like what you did with graphics and also with puzzle mechanics. People's noices actually started to annoy me and the socially awkward inner me, so great work with bringing Them's life to reality. I really missed my headphones
@minjutin Character can interact with the icon by pressing space. Pause stops the time (holding the door in place after interacting with the lever) and restart changes the icons' position. We spent too much time designing the levels and did not have enough time to polish up the instructions. Sorry!
Wow! 2D-Platforming ist not my favourite genre at all, but this had definitely the most innovativ gameplay at this gamejam so far. Also great artwork, it works really well
Wow! 2D-Platforming ist not my favourite genre at all, but this had definitely the most innovativ gameplay at this gamejam so far. Also great artwork, it works really well
@dkertai@minjutin@wheelsx Hello! I added some notes in the description page here. Hope you can try the game again and tell me how you feel if you see this comment. Please let me know if you have any questions about the mechanics!
@crotonyl-alcohol I figured it out now, thanks. I didn't realize I had to get the character to touch *those* buttons to interact with them in a new way. It's pretty cool, it was just confusing without help.
Interesting graphics and mechanics. Keeping the character in the limited space was a good idea. I will try to see if I can finish it, so it is actually fun to play :)
The first time I experienced dying in the game, I was riding an elevator and got squished by the ceiling. When this happened, I thought it created an interesting feeling by having everything in the game continue -- the elevator, the crowd noises. I died and the world went on without me!
It took me a while to figure out the second level where you had to walk on the frame. I had noticed that when you took the headphones off, the frame stopped and you couldn't walk through it. But it took me a long time to realize I could use this as a platform to solve the level.
There's a bug that I hit a couple of times that forced me to relaunch the game. Each time I accidentally dropped my headphones off a ledge in the exit level, they seemed to fall forever and the game's menu became unresponsive.
Comments31
I love the concept, I wish I was able to finish the game.
The first time I experienced dying in the game, I was riding an elevator and got squished by the ceiling. When this happened, I thought it created an interesting feeling by having everything in the game continue -- the elevator, the crowd noises. I died and the world went on without me!
It took me a while to figure out the second level where you had to walk on the frame. I had noticed that when you took the headphones off, the frame stopped and you couldn't walk through it. But it took me a long time to realize I could use this as a platform to solve the level.
There's a bug that I hit a couple of times that forced me to relaunch the game. Each time I accidentally dropped my headphones off a ledge in the exit level, they seemed to fall forever and the game's menu became unresponsive.
It was a very interesting game!