itch.io

hi shilag, thanks for your comments, it's been a while since i made this game, so it was nice to revisit the game.  and i really appreciate the feedback and depth that you went into the game.  i feel like there are definitely some flaws to this game and it could use a revision if i ever have time to get back into it.

anyway, since you expressed frustration over the meaning of the game and it's relationship to the symbols, i wanted to give you a little insight into what it is, although it may not be the most satisfying answer.  i'm reading through code and notes actually to try to remember exactly what i was thinking at the time.  

basically, in the fictional universe of the game, the orange and green characters are part of different sort of cult/religious sects, one for each moon in the game. they interpret the symbols differently, so all the green characters will read a text one way, orange characters another way.  you have to compare the symbols across readings, which probably takes more time than its worth.  there are 26 symbols and if you read them in order they form the sort of mantra of each sect.  the main thing is that the green characters interpret the first symbol to mean "god" and the last symbol to mean "end",  while the orange character interpret those same symbols as "ghost" and "beginning".  it's... a little over wrought.  watching your play through i'm realizing there's a lot of ways i could have made that connection more obvious.

when i was testing the game i think only one other person actually thought to try to figure out the meaning of individual symbols, so as i worked on it i kind of abandoned the idea that the symbols needed to be translated in order to progress, as it was in early versions.  in the current version, you basically just get to interact with the two different groups and then when you die you choose the afterlife that you want, by clicking the green moon or the orange moon.  that's the "payoff" i guess of the game?  those two scenes at the end.  i thought they were kind of fun but i realize they don't read as like a dramatic ending.  i mean, i thought the talking toilet would be a satisfying ending on it's own!  

the other thing that may not be obvious is that you have to die to "win" the game.  if you want to you can stay alive for a long time, but then everyone else will be dead and there's no reason to be there.  everything is randomized to a certain extent, but there are basically three levels and each progressively has a bigger world but the ghost/god is better at catching the player.

i definitely think those ideas/game mechanics are not like super obvious.  i think i was okay with the game just being a weird experience because i felt it was visually interesting enough, but its for sure not my goal for it to feel frustrating.  i thought about ways of allowing the user to kind of accumulate the poem to make it a bit more obvious (one version of the game included a notebook that the player avatar would take out and write down the symbols as they learned them) but in testing it felt like those mechanics made it feel to much like a scavenger hunt, the experience i was going for was more one where you were like genuinely freaked out by the god/ghost which i felt like was more effective when there was less going on.  also i feel bad about the death animation, that definitely could have been smoother lol.

playing it again now i realize i really prioritized minimalism to an extreme degree, like there could definitely be more furniture in those rooms.  it would be fun to update this with some of these thoughts in mind.   and as far as the overall meaning for the game, its basically just about conflicting concepts of god/the afterlife, and how there isn't really an answer!

thanks again for your feedback!