This was such a tranquil experience. Great sound design and atmosphere. The hiss as the elevator reaches the top, the gentle gusts of wind, the pulsing tones as you walk which punctuate the meditative ambient music - it all adds so much to heighten the atmosphere. I looked out at the clouds for a good amount of time.

I created my own little lore while playing. I imagined I was a cloud scientist working in a tower high above a smog filled city. So many different buttons and contraptions to capture endless amounts of cloud data. Only I was lucky enough to watch and study the endless sea of clouds.

Great work!

It's not everyday that I get to play as a pregnant women that gets to punch aliens in the face. I was full of smiles playing this :)

Love this. It's a tiny little experience that captures that night feeling "thoughtful nostalgic emotions you feel when you drive alone at night or see a city skyline at dusk with the wind in your face". Excellent use of colors, it feels like a painting.

I'm curious what your plans are with this game. There's a lot of potential to really expand on the already great atmosphere with more sounds, a tiny warm narrative, and a bit of exploration.

I just want to be able to explore this beautiful world you built more. Awesome job, looking forward to more of these experiences.

Excellent interview. I've been thinking a lot about the way many smaller games are consumed for content. My latest game received the same sort of commentary mentioned in this article ("weird", "this person was on drugs", "this isn't a game"). I see this with lots of games and while I don't find the comments negative, the reaction always signals to me a lack of language to describe games with more of a focus on an ethereal, evocative, and surreal atmospheres. Likely from a lack of exposure to smaller games and the discussions and community around alt/art-games.

I agree with The Last of Us (and many other AAA games) doing an average job at best at any type of emotionally complexity. I can also never get over the massive ludonarrative dissonance. Games like this are fun, but I rarely get emotionally invested in the stories. I guess this is why I gravitate towards smaller intimate games such as Nathalie's. There's no need to force a fun quota down your throat. They can take their time to create an intentional space where every piece organically connects. There's more room left open to explore within you how the experience elicited an emotional reaction that feels unique to you.

I appreciate the transparency with your development. Thank you for sharing such an insightful interview. It helps clear away the more negative discussion around alt-games I often see online.

The exact number input would be amazing. The sliders are pretty finicky.

𝔗𝔥𝔢 𝔠𝔬𝔰𝔪𝔦𝔠 𝔞𝔪𝔲𝔩𝔢𝔱 𝔥𝔞𝔰 𝔯𝔦𝔰𝔢𝔫

ℭ𝔩𝔦𝔪𝔟 𝔱𝔥𝔢 𝔰𝔞𝔠𝔯𝔢𝔡 𝔰𝔱𝔢𝔭𝔰

𝔒𝔲𝔯 𝔪𝔬𝔫𝔬𝔩𝔦𝔱𝔥𝔦𝔠 𝔯𝔦𝔱𝔲𝔞𝔩 𝔞𝔴𝔞𝔦𝔱𝔰

Download for Windows : https://farfama.itch.io/the-golden-tower

Would love to see impressions / letsplays. Enjoy!

These are so much fun. Imaginative little games that create a lot of joy and laughter. Definitely cozy good times.

Well done! Evocative atmosphere really highlight the readings. 

A wonderfully original execution of machine learning art. You feel like you're exploring a world half built in the mind. Like something that's both there and not there. Simultaneously constructed and falling apart. A hazy dream that you try to recall when you're awake.

https://www.polygon.com/e3/22533363/2d-metroid-dread-trailer-reveal-release-date...

A great combination of abstract imagery and text. I never really knew what I was exploring and why. It's light in design which leaves the mind racing for answers as you explore cursed worlds aimlessly entranced. Would make for a good twitter bot archiving differing worlds.

Thank you so much!

Thank you for playing and making a video! Sorry for the music issue, I didn't expect others to record it. Definitely will make sure future titles are Youtube friendly.

Thank you for playing!

Thanks for playing! Yeah, just a tiny experience. I'm making a larger game with a similar atmosphere. This game was a sort of prototype and me getting my feet wet with Unity3D

Luckily there is a Planet B...

That's interesting. I had a similar dream that inspired parts of this. Thank you for playing!

Apologies for being so late on a reply. Thank you so much for the kind words and for recording a video! 

I have a lot of respect for video creators such as yourself that play tiny unknown indie games. I'm currently in the early process of making a much larger experience with a similar mood. Stay tuned! Thank you again :)

Thank you for responding. I can't wait to see what gets added to this application in future. I'm so happy that my comment brought motivation, it truly is a special tool and will be part of my next game audio workflow. 

The strangest ideas bring the most creativity, it's inspiring to see you put a lot of your Arduino work into an accessible format for all to play around with. 

Looking forward to future updates and will be keeping an eye on this and your future projects/games. You have some truly unique games that bring tons of personality to itch.io :)

I love this! Was playing around with it for such a long time and definitely plan on creating some soundscapes with this. Highly recommend.

There are few things I think would really improve the experience.

-Being able to save a slider so I can reopen a soundscape at any time (currently I have a bunch of screenshots)

- Sliders can be a bit frustrating to get an exact number. Maybe an option to input a number into sliders (especially for the instruments)

-A clearer way of seeing that what note sequence the soundscape is on. 

It's still really fun to play with. Hopefully the dev plans on adding some extra features (saving instruments would be amazing). 

This is an interesting review. I've been thinking a lot about interactivity in games and the players need for constant interactions to keep them engaged. Your review comes at this game being bad in some parts due to your expectations and perceptions of what makes a game enjoyable to you. 

You came in wanting NaissanceE and judged the game through the lens of another game. I don't think any of your criticism makes the game bad for me. In fact, the things you found bad actually brought me enjoyment. "Suffers from a lack of gameplay" is a bit harsh. Have you considered that this was possibly an intentional design choice? The whole game is gameplay to me. It just didn't have the layers of gameplay you may have wanted.  The long intro you disliked was a meditative experience that put me in a much needed trance. I loved every second of it. 

I'm very wary of reviews like this. Art isn't bad. It's all so subjective. I've started reframing my thoughts on art that doesn't move me as not bad, but instead "not for me". Because what I don't enjoy is something others would love. This game is exactly what I was looking for. 

Loved it! Eerie atmosphere and incredibly well paced. Felt so much unease exploring the compound. 

Put a smile on my face. Nice job

I wonder what happens when you get to 100? :O