Just beat the game (both endings) and I enjoyed the atmosphere and puzzles. It was definitely spooky, and a standout on Playdate.. I'm just not quite sure what exactly happened... ***Spoilers ahead*** Was it all just an allegory? Was it some kind of fungus taking over the city? Was Elly hallucinating the construction and the tree? What came out of the CT? Was it a form of Elly? Was it "her depression" and she had to kill it or leave it? I just don't know if I'm looking too much into it
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Thank you for the kind words!
You are absolutely not reading too much into it: it's intentionally incredibly dense. However, I'm a big post modernist, so whatever you want to take away from it is valid.
*spoiler warning*
The one question I will answer definitively is that the thing that comes out of the CT machine is just... also Elly. It's allegorical, but it's an allegory specifically for autoimmune illness, which is my particular flavor of chronic health problems. The exact diagnosis is never made clear (intentionally) but the doctor notes underwater point to autoimmune if you know the medical terminology.
Because something went terribly wrong, something that you *know* to be your own body is being perceived as alien and awful and needing to be destroyed. Elly isn't sick because she has something foreign inside of her, she's sick because she is unable to recognize that thing as just her. To try to destroy the other without acknowledging it as a part of yourself is tantamount to death, and the "correct" choice is to simply... coexist with it.