itch.io

aaaaaaaaaaaa

sounds like i'll just have to make more, then :>

Oh! My bad. The keycard unlocks the door, which leads to another ending.

literally had to double check to make sure u were who i thought u were

fuckin

fanning my face rn

Text is such a special medium for hypno content. The written word struggles in a lot of fields -- imagery, action, audio -- but the one thing it's best at is conveying a mindstate.  Removing all barriers between story and audience, opening the floodgates of the mind, and pouring sensations into the reader's stream of consciousness. Words become thoughts. Sentences become sensations. Reality melts, merging with the words, until the reader's stream of consciousness is intricately intertwined with what's occurring on the page.

That's not just about hypnosis. That's about writing. That symmetry, that correspondence, is why I'm so deeply in love with hypno writing. Good writing isn't hypnosis, and good hypnosis isn't writing, but the two are woven of the same cloth, and weaving them together can create truly unique states of being.

Also you called Iana cute and wow gosh that's my boyo and you liked him and uh I um

thankyou >//>

Your sportscar analogy had me giggling in front of my screen the first time I read it, and once again when I reread it just now. If ANYTHING gets patched in -- and I truly hope it will -- being able to enjoy your captivated subs will *definitely* be on the menu. In what form, I'm not entirely sure -- being able to avail yourself of their puppeted bodies while they drool and mindlessly take you in every conceivable way would be fun, but you sound like you've got more specific (and interesting) ideas. If you've any you'd like to share, I am all ears ^w^

also expansions where you get to confront the shepherd would be cool because i'm reading the last sentence of that paragraph over and over again and yep yes please mhm

u do have a way with words >//>

As for bugs: god fuck thank youuuuuuuu. Will fix in short order. Hoping to get a quality of life update out by end of month, and this will certainly be in it.

Visual design... god. Having one of my stories experienced in that way is quite literally a dream of mine, and your descriptions of the Midnight Office as some liminal Mystian vista have only reinforced that.

One day, I'd LOVE to put one of my games in that format. Maybe even this one. Some form of VN-adjacent vtuber-inspired scrapbook is a damn good concept, and would bring that future out of the realm of the impossible and into the realm of "how much do I really want to pay for art of all this?"

That would be a good question for you, actually. Speaking as perhaps the most accomplished mind control-adjacent game dev I know of... at what point did you start integrating visuals into your games? How has your use of visuals evolved over the years, and what advice would you give an aphantasic bat for ways to get started?

Only answer if you care to, of course! No obligation. Your comment made my week all on its own (and intimidated me so much that I disappeared from itch for two weeks ooops), so you've already done more than enough to brighten a bat's day ^w^

Thank you, bitshift. Your words mean a lot. Both in their quality (unsurprising), and the fact that they're coming from someone who's been spoken about in hallowed tones in this industry, and deservedly so :>

(sheeplike sent me btw, thank you for poking him, aaaaa)

deeply flattered that people are STILL finding this, and STILL want more

out of curiosity: anything you might enjoy seeing more of? :>

thamk u gazellefrienddddd

am appreciating gazelles extra hard as a form of gratitude

excellent question (if i update or sequel-ize this, the answers to such questions will be much clearer)

you can get one from defeating iana, or you can get one from the safe in his office

the combination to the safe can be found in his office (if you read everything very carefully), or by reading through the comment section if you're in a hurry

(will start by apologizing for the fact that I only speak English -- i hope since you enjoyed this game, you'll also be able to enjoy my response, but know that i'm deeply flattered to have gotten feedback from such a wide variety of audiences adfjghkdfg)

The fact that you found this realistic means a lot. My goal has always been to write the subjective experience of hypnosis, so the fact that you enjoyed that warms my batto heart. I certainly hope to see more of this sort of content; maybe if people continue to enjoy it we'll even see more of this :>

gah thank youuuuuuuuuuuuuu

So, so glad you enjoy my stories. If you don't mind sharing, any ones you particularly enjoyed? Any themes you'd like to see more of? :>

Doing stuff with the heroes post-zonk will absolutely happen, should the universe allow me time for an update. I'll be honest; the only reason you can't breed that cat is because I wrote his ending 3 days before the deadline. That said, I hadn't considered the possibility of losing yourself in the moment. That could be very fun. Consider it noted -- it's endlessly wonderful how many people are still enjoying the game, and your enduring enjoyment is making me actually consider expansions in the future :>

Finally, I'm so glad you enjoyed being domesticated. That ending was very fun to write, and it's so wonderful to see other people enjoying it too. You're a very good dog, and you should be proud of how quickly you allowed your collar to remind you~

petpetpetpetpet

hearing people simp for iana must be what crack cocaine feels like

i'm so glad you liked my gay lil cat aaaaaaaaaaaaaa

he's VERY self-indulgent, and knowing that he hits all those little spots for others too is a genuine delight ^w^

i'm considering an expansion for much later this year. if one happens -- first off, it'll absolutely have an ending for the mist, and second, it'll be largely due to kind words from people like you. seeing people come across this game so many months later, knowing they're still finding something to enjoy, warms my batto heart.

curious if you have ideas for other ways the NPCs could zonk you -- in my mind, they're brainwashed drones who only really have one thing going for them, but if you have ideas for other stuff they could do i'm more than open 👀

such kind words

thank you, blizeatos. so much time was spent on the writing; hearing that you appreciated it means the world ^w^

scribbles notes tentacle... room...

many thanks. i'd definitely like to patch in more rooms at some point; if i do, i'll see how i can make such things canon within this universe. magic goo that forms tentacles to restrain heroes, perhaps?

also adfhgjdkfg i'm glad you liked the cat

he was VERY self-indulgent

so uh

yeah >//>

also thanks for the bug report, will see what i can do, adfjghdkfg

scribbles notes another scarf enjoyer, goodgoodgood

ahem

i belieeeeve ending #11 is losing to paragon? if you'd like, i could give you a full list 👀

(also sorry for the delay i was at fwa ahfjgkdfhjgkdf)

if you don't mind sharing -- any screens or sequences where the inventory/audio bugs out more frequently?

this MAY be twine being annoying, but it also might be me being a dumbass, so if it's the latter, i'd like to catch it

thank you for the kind words though, aaaaaaaaaaaa

would love to hear any scenes or sequences you particularly enjoyed :>

okay this is REALLY good to hear

tying the real-life experience of hypnosis into my fiction is one of my highest goals, and hearing these sorts of affirmations from such educated sources warms my soul

i'm so glad my silly game gave you a taste of that experience. anything you'd like to see in such an expansion? 👀

ACK DOES THE METRONOME NOT LOOP CORRECTLY

DAMMIT

dfjghdkfgd

thank u for catching this, it's on my list of things to patch when possible, aaaaaaaaaa

truly flattered you enjoy the writing, though. in an internet where it's very hard to feel like your writing means anything, words like yours are part of what sustains me through the drought ^w^

this is a really good idea, actually

shouldn't be that difficult, so if my schedule allows for a patch, consider this on the list ^w^

getting compliments from people who aren't even into the kink makes me so happy you have no idea

makes me feel more like a halfway okay writer than a pure kinkbaiter

i'm so glad you -- especially you, given how good your game's writing was -- liked it ^w^

oh fuck having an easter egg if you finish in less than X turns would be fun

maybe i'll steal that idea sometime

thank you so much for your kind words. after spending so much time in the writing mines for this, comments like yours mean the world ^w^

pfffffffffffffffff

vjgbkcfghc

whatchu sayin about me >.>

(in seriousness this activated my stats brain too, and it WAS consistently annoying (in a good way) that his average outcome was within 1 to 2 points of the line every goddamn time)

If I'm not mistaken, this is the highest score I've given out yet.

Everything about this is a banger. The gameplay is solid, with enough changes in challenges and objectives to keep it interesting. The art is great -- tons of little details like the flash of the dash bar as it charges back up and the progressive dronification of our portrait as we take damage. And god -- the story. Not only is this a great use of Disco Elysium text, but it's constantly changing the environment.

This is unironically a masterpiece of a teaser. The twist at the end was both heart-wrenching and enthralling, and I cannot wait to play the rest of this out if you complete it.

(I started typing this before you won. All I can say is: bravo, sir/madam/other. You absolutely fucking deserved it.)

I don't think this was too dark at all! Not even in the bad ending. You had a theme, you committed to it, and you executed on it pretty fuckin' well.

You executed the gameplay pretty fuckin' well too. Using all those mental stats as health bars, using distance as a form of resource... there's the foundation for a very solid roguelike or simple linear story here, if you choose to progress it. Tube-of-toothpaste brain aside, I half-hope that you do. You've got a very unique vibe, some very good dialogue, and a great unanswered mystery. Excellent stuff, especially for a first jam!

update: the mouse is now a part of my household and if anyone takes her away im killing everyone in the room and then myself

This is so goddamn fucking adorable. Like, if you added a few more ways to interact with her, I could legitimately see people paying money for this. I thought it'd get old to have this mouse girl hanging out on my taskbar, but nope, she's my new best friend and if she ever gets too rowdy i can plop her down on the side of the screen and sway a pretty watch and she turns into a perfect hypnotized statue for me, which is a feature all computer intelligences should have, if you think about it.

The hypno popups are also... good. Like. Very good. A total subby mess for this idea might go so far as to compile a list of opinions and reviews for each of the popups, so here's mine:

• Keep Your Eyes Here: workhorse spiral, very good
• Looking to Experiment: timeless classic. Lore tie-in, callbacks to using my grandmother's computer with all the weird popup ads that eight year-old batto didn't understand, 7/10
• Stay Asleep: VERY good. VERY bright and eye-catching, and the way it makes implications about my current state makes my brain tingle in all the good way, especially when i think about how bright the spirals are and how they really just keep going and going and going and on and it's kind of nice to watch them actually and
• What's your IQ? is uhhhh uhmmmmmmmmmm
• ggood
• it's goood
• could be even better if clicking flashed you with spirals + subliminal but as it is i just like clickign the thing it makes my brain stop braining and thats good i like it when it does
• that
• Jaw Dropped Eyes Open: again, things that tell me how i should already be feeling go very hard. scrolling text also catches my eye, makes me subconsciously read the words instead of just staring, 8/10
• Don't Think Just Sink: another banger implementation of the changing text to assault my mind with words and colors alike, now in purple so im gonna give it another half-point, 8.5/10
• You are a Good Viewer: square spirals are good variance, okay on its own but fully comes into effect when paired with another spiral
• Pendulum: is there a static light on the middle or something? because the light keeps shifting as it sways back and forth, and i think that's a really neat detail, and it's subtle enough that i had to keep staring for a while to notice it, and that was really nice, so i kept staring to appreciate it, and then i appreciated it more, and then i appreciated it more, and
• Hydration Break: unironically made me sip my water whenever it popped up. 10/10 faustech employee health program
• Click NOW/Good Dog: 11/10. Interactions and racing to click before it goes away and being rewarded with a nice bright burst of spirals and nice warm praise about how well I did, and how nice it is to stare, and how i'm going to keep staring now, and keep staring, and being such a good dog and thank you so much for noticing how good i am at staring and clicking woof woof awwrrfff

...anyway >///>

This is a veritable banger. Were it just the desktop pet, were it just the popups, it would've been a highlight of the competition on its own. Getting both, in one place, elevates this from a competition standout to an all-time classic.

Great work. All of you ^w^

this is a damn impressive feat for a month, dude, what the hell

like, no joke, with a few more months of development and some spicy stuff sprinkled in, this could actually be a horny game people pay money for

it's got a perfect balance of gameplay and horny. the gameplay (recruiting people and building your gym) feeds into kink (watching my clients willfully go under for the cock-milker 5000), which makes them more obedient, which rolls back into the gameplay. great stuff. could be a free demo for a real-time horny game, should you choose to pursue it.

THIS IS SO HOT WHAT THE HELL

Dude. Fuckin'... bravo, man. In one fell swoop, you've brought together peerless kink writing, pulse-pounding gambling, and a hypnotic tie-in that makes my stomach all fluttery and my brain release the good chemicals and holy shit dude this is so goddamn fucking good

I'm SO glad you got this in 2 minutes before the deadline. It's the best kink game I've played so far, and my only complaint is that there isn't more of it. More characters, more interactions... hell, dude, this could be a banger hypnokink multiplayer game if you wanted to expand on it. Add a selection of characters, write some custom dialogue when each of them zonks the others, pop up some spirals on the losing players' screens when they're getting zonked...

This could become hypnohorny Liar's Bar, dude. I'm actually excited about this. Any chance I could reach out about expanding on this, on my own or as a joint effort?

(also the writing is so fucking good and i want to know where your writing experience comes from so i can drink from the same well, the way you describe everything subtly from the player's PoV and how being tranquilized feels and the naga's eyes and dfghdjfgdhjf it's SO good)

equally shocked that this is the first true puzzle game i've come across, and that it sucked me in as much as it did

the possession mechanic is a beautiful way to tie the theme into gameplay. and the... changes to the characters as we use them, pushing them around and whatnot, is a great way to tie that back into kink. automatic high score on the harmony rating for that inspired bit of design :>

getting feedback from people without hypnosis kinks is so goddamn cool you have no idea

it's genuinely one of the first times anyone outside the community's looked at my work, and that gives a bat all the warm fuzzies ^w^

thank you for your kind words. i had no idea it was your first game jam too -- now i'm even more proud to have supported a fellow twine enthusiast first-timer ^w^

ok but why does the movement in this feel so goddamn good

This is a very fun little demo. Use of the little-known face-punch induction is a delight, and there's something deeply satisfying about slowly bringing the club under our control. For a month, this is crazy good -- given a couple months for filled-in zonk placeholders, different types of guests, little bits of challenge like stealth, it could be genuinely great.

we love games that canonize hypno through their mechanics in this house

Very fun concept. Surprisingly solid pathfinding on the drones, and the progressively revealing map is a nice touch. My only complaint is that pickups could be a bit more common (my little dudes die quickly, leaving me helpless to their concerningly un-brainwashed friends), but maybe I just need to git gud.

Thank you so much!

I'm deeply grateful for opinions from the non-hypno-susceptible crowd. Hearing that my writing stands up, even when the semi-interactible-hypno-file gimmick doesn't pan out, is a great relief.

Also appreciate the love for the QoL effects. Those were all very last-minute, and very much made in the spirit of "ughhhh, do I really have to do this," so it's always nice to be reminded that the answer is "yes, people will use them, it will be worth it."

Deeply honored that you'd even considered returning. If you have any endings you enjoyed, or any you thought could've used some more work, I'm all ears ^w^

..I swear that wasn't a bat joke.

trust me, if you're critiquing yourself over this, you're an even worse critic of yourself than i am

this is a treat of an entry with a great deal of style. wonderful work ^w^

Okay so this concept fucks hard.

I could absolutely see myself getting lost in this. The concept of zoning out to the music, losing myself in the simple, repetitive task of hitting notes, is maybe the best idea I've seen in this jam. And the pieces are almost there. The spirals are great and the music is bumping. Given a bit of love, this could legitimately be the most hypnotic game I've ever played.

The main thing that stops it, that could be changed, is the position of the dots.

I want so badly to stare into the center of the spiral, hit the notes on beat, and lose myself in the rhythm. But the notes force me to look away, and that takes me out of it.

Luckily, this seems like a simple problem to fix. Maybe instead of riding the rims of the spiral, the dots could grow brighter and brighter in the middle until they flash on beat? You could even add a little skill expression: four places for dots to show up, corresponding to WASD, so that we have to hit the right key to hit the note. That little bit of immersion, the demand for a little bit of brainpower, would do an excellent job at keeping my attention off of absolutely anything else.

The vertical flashes also take me out of it a little. Having them track our timing is great -- doing so by pulling my eyes away from the center is just unfortunate. Maybe instead of a vertical row, the whole screen flashes when you hit a note?

Even more -- maybe the whole screen flashes, and a subliminal pops up in the middle. The closer we are to the beat, the clearer the subliminal. The better you are at keeping beat, the stronger the subliminals become, which zones you out further, trapping you into focusing more, making the subliminals even stronger, which zones you out further, which... 

...anyway >///>

Excellent concept. Excellent, excellent, excellent concept. You're on the brink of greatness here, and with a little more polish, I think you could legitimately make a hypno classic.

My three suggestions, so far as they matter, would be:

• Notes near the center of the spiral
• Whole screen flashes when we hit
• Subliminals get clearer/fainter depending on how far we are off beat

Maybe there could even be some progression throughout the song. Note streaks build up subliminals around the outside, maybe?

...man, this is a fun concept.

So... this is really, really good.

It's the third game so far that shifted me from the "game jam review mindset" to "sit down and enjoy a game" mindset. The service-oriented drone theme and the comfy, cozy, simple service game are a match made in heaven. The characters were a delight, the world was subtly conveyed, and you implemented multiple senses of progress (upgrade chips, more dialogue, more features) to keep the experience fresh. It's also an incredibly polished game -- little sound effects, mantras that shift based on your chip choice, and a veritable buffet of little snippets of praise. The fact that the end screen gives you more praise depending on how you did is the cherry on top. Good gameplay, good polish, and great harmony between themeing and gameplay. Very, very, very good work.

If you continue to develop this -- and I hope you do -- the one thing I'd request is the ability to switch drones in the middle of an action. Currently, I can swap seamlessly during movement, but if I click on a destination (customer, food desk, charger), I'm locked into that action until I complete it. I got around this by moving as close to the destination as possible without clicking on it, but that seemed more metagame-y than intended behavior. Fix that, extend the story of this (really quite interesting) world, and you've a cozy game I could easily see myself losing hours in.

...more than the hour I already lost, anyway.

Drone is happy. Drone is a good drone. Drone is grateful for such a wonderful game ^w^

so i got addicted to this holy shit

I could compliment legitimately a dozen things about this -- the stat building, the short-but-effective character writing -- but I'll just say that your grasp of hypno writing is PHENOMENAL. Little snippets like "made the bat look way too close for way too long" or "trap her in a tunnel of light" hit so hard, and so often, that they became the main draw of the game. I wanted to get all the endings, because I could see all the writing. I wanted to gather all the thralls, so I could see how we entranced them.

This game held me longer than literally any other game in the jam, and it's all thanks to the writing. You absolutely fucking nailed it.

(Also, the mechanic of luring thralls to your lair and draining them for less and less until you get one final boost is vv good and resonant and again reinforced by REALLY GOOD WRITING HOLY SHIT)

This put my mind into "let's play a fun ass game" mode instead of "let's review a game jam game" mode.

For something developed in a month, that is a significant achievement.

The framing is really good. Seeing snippets of the characters between runs, tying progression through the dream to acquiring the sleeping pills, tied the narrative and gameplay halves together nicely. And the gameplay was good as well -- fast, reactive, with plenty of upgrade options. That, plus the amount of effort that went into different map designs, kept me entertained for FAR longer than game jam submissions usually do.

If I had one critique -- damage is really important in roguelikes. The fact that the arrows are so hard to see, and that their damage sticks around for the rest of that floor, was frustrating at first. Eventually, I figured out how to play around it, but that's the thing -- it felt more like playing around it. Clearer contrast between the arrows and the background would make damage a lot more predictable, and probably would've led to me completing the game quite a few runs sooner.

Not that I'm complaining. This was great fun, and an astounding amount of effort for a one-month project. If you choose to develop this further, I will most certainly follow it ^w^

super good writing out of nowhere, wtf

u are doing us former warriors kids PROUD with this one

absolutely love the concept. the one thing i forsee being tricky is writing all (7 choose 3) endings. that's the exact forking problem that led me to simplify my twine; if you could pull it off, it'd be an absolute HELL of a feat.

as it is, this is very good. great aesthetic, and i love how you seamlessly integrated the link text into the description ^w^

installing this before a long night of binging game jam games will report back on how it goes

will definitely be adding a good ending if I ever find the time, aaaaaaaaaaaaa

I'm glad there was some degree of separation. The fantastical nature of the mind control, combined with the very clear step-back and reset buttons, hopefully helped with that. I'll do my best to replicate that in the future.

Thank you, truly, for sharing your experience. Yours is a perspective I've never gotten before, and looking back on it, I definitely should've sought it out sooner. Thank you for your time; thank you for your kind words; for your advice, your assistance, your ability to guide my goals towards the future ^w^

(also jumping in and out of rooms deadass might still be bugged, it's supposed to put you back where you would've been if there was no encounter here, but it's entirely possible that this is broken lmao. will give it a closer look; thanks for the heads-up ^^)

Hypnosis as an actual gameplay mechanic let's fuckin goooooooo

ALSO, I really like the image and status effect on the side. Rewarding me for doing well (or, as these horny games often do, for doing poorly~) with updated visuals and status effects was very enjoyable. Very solid entry ^w^

oh yeah there is ZERO obligation to 100% this game, it's literally 1.5 great gatsby's long, do NOT force yourself through that if you don't want to lmao

Your experience is pretty much what I'd expect most people's to be. I'm so glad you enjoyed the endings you saw; I'm glad you liked my game ^w^

(Also -- I didn't make it super clear, but the rooms and enemies rearrange every time you restart! This can make restarting a better option for exploring the endings, especially if you get an unlucky roll the first time around.)