itch.io

Ah, heh! This chapter kind of reminded me a bit once again why I enjoy the meaningful fourth-wall break feature so much in pieces of entertainment.

It is capable of evoking such specific reactions or even relationships with the media piece itself, so much potential, right?

It was, after all, what made me get to initially stay interested in the game.

Congratulations, developer! Honestly! I think you have told a story in a very interesting way until now. It is visible you not only twll it, you enjoy it as well.

I think it is my favorite chapter so far. Possibly surpassed by the soon-to-be-among-us next one? Let’s see…

Anyway, I’m probably missing some interactions, but, overall, very pleased! Found some typos I’ll mention when I get some free time to report!

POSSIBLE SPOILER BELOW

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Tell me, who would win?

Myrddin with preparation/a plan

Or

Batman with preparation/a plan

XD

I managed to finally read your theories (only now on the day of chapter 4 likely release!)

Hahaha, free time can be a rarity sometimes…

I’m glad we came to some same conclusions, like the cube being likely in a lake and the Hat figure being suspicious / probably evil.

But, at the same time, I enjoyed reading your different perspectives as to who the silhouette is, for example.

Regarding the GW file, I didn’t even get to focus on that… One explanation I did in my head regarding the file extension is that, being genetically focused, it is there as a synbol to indentify how the silhouette and Myrddin are related.

Like parent and child. Similar to our human genetics connections.

Perhaps later today, after the new update, I’ll get to open that file with a conpatible app or tool.

And thanks for the shout-out! I really like reading other people’s theories as well, cannot wait to know what you will come up with after next update.

Additionally, your ask on Tumblr was very interesting and funny hahaha, have a good one, LJ!

--------THEORIES ------------
 Faces (or lack of a face) and water are very important things in the story. The world outside the box is related to the five kingdoms and their lakes. A lake is a reflection of its ruler (that will tie into Myrddin's origins and why he was created). Currently, there are only four domains since the fourth one was destroyed. 

Additionally, there are some encrypted messages and easter eggs in the game. However, I wasn't able to go through all the details and secrets in it.

### Entity:

He is the silhouette and the creator of Myrddin. Myrddin was supposed to be a reflection of the Entity/book/silhouette, but the process didn't work completely. The first book Myrddin mentions talks about him, and it is the same book referenced in the encrypted message, where we learn about the Entity/book/silhouette and how it was clear what he was because of "his eyes, his nose and his mouth." Exactly the features that Myrddin does not have, which further confirms that he is a failure.

Note: this information is in "The Song in the Depths" and the encrypted message in the game files.

Ebys seems to be the name of the inhabitants of the depths. The Entity/book/silhouette is not considered an Ebys but rather the "child of both worlds," which matches the fact that Myrddin needs the player's interaction to get power or energy, even though he is not part of the player's world. Myrddin was supposed to be that same child of both worlds, but he is defective. As we can see when we talk to the Entity/book/silhouette, he is way more powerful than Myrddin, yet does not need interactions to get his powers.

- But why would the Entity/book/silhouette create Myrddin at all?

In "The Song in the Depths," each lake was a monument to its domain, something the rulers were proud of. Similarly, the Entity/book/silhouette created Myrddin to be his reflection.

In "A Deal Struck," the Entity/book/silhouette was compelled by curiosity to strike a deal with a mysterious figure, who ended up tricking him. The process of creating a reflection didn't go according to plan. 

- But why doesn't the Entity/book/silhouette simply destroy Myrddin?

As mentioned before, the Entity/book/silhouette is driven by curiosity but doesn't want to endanger reality or a large portion of people, so he keeps Myrddin stuck there and conducts his experiments. Perhaps the Entity/book/silhouette also has some kind of unconscious attachment to his creation, though it's hard to say with certainty for now.

- And why would the Entity/book/silhouette care about humans being destroyed?

Once Myrddin is released, he could end up destroy a whole domain.

In many of our interactions with the book, the Entity/book/silhouette says that he sees himself as an evil that needs to do good. Going off that idea, perhaps  he feels his actions of destroying a domain were necessary to balance the world. Notice that he didn't destroy all domains; he destroyed one, but four remained. He certainly had the ability to eventually destroy them all, but he didn't, although he left the other domains in terror.

However, another possibility is that the mysterious formally dressed figure who appears in "A Deal Struck" is  silhouette... He appears as a very powerful figure, but since the book was first introduced to Myrddin when he first came to the box, the book that talks about the silhouette may actually be talking about the Entity/book/silhouette himself, as mentioned before. Further supporting this is the fact that the mysterious figure's face is concealed with bandages, which goes against what the silhouette is known for: showing "his nose, his mouth and his eyes," the very traits that distinguish him from being an Ebys.

### Myrddin: 

Since Myrddin is a "failure", he is not completely a "child of both worlds,"(from the song in the depths) meaning he does not get energy or power from the second world (the player's world) to be strong enough as an entity. He is different from the Entity/book/silhouette. Therefore, if released, he might be dangerous to the world; not being stable, he might absorb the energy around him to compensate for the fact that he cannot naturally produce or absorb energy by himself, unlike the Entity.

That is why he is so dangerous to the depths (name of the world outside the box) and why it is a risk for Myrddin to go outside. But that also means the player is very powerful, since the we are able to provide that energy for him. That is why it is a real risk for the player to be there, and why the Entity is worried about us being there.

However, it is not completely clear why the Entity tortures Myrddin. Since Myrddin doesn't have energy by himself, perhaps the Entity is testing how much of his own energy can regenerate himself, and how that works in his body, given that Myrddin is fundamentally different from the Entity.

### The box:

It is probably inside a lake in the depths, the world of the game. We were able to see an early version of this magical structure that Myrddin is stuck in when we saw "A Deal Struck." Myrddin's story, The Entity stored Myrddin in the box so he could be isolated from all other beings in the depths, preventing him from absorbing their energy or posing a risk to them.

However, since the player is stronger than that, we are able to free him. Perhaps that is what the formally dressed mysterious figure wanted all along, making that figure potentially the main villain of the story.

### Endings:

Aside from the early endings in which the player can simply give up on interacting with Myrddin, there will likely be at least two main ones: freeing Myrddin or not freeing Myrddin. There might be slight variations depending on whether we were honest and trustworthy with him. I'm assuming that if we trusted him and promised to help him, but then decided against it out of fear of destroying the depths, he will be particularly affected by that.

Perhaps this main moral dillemma: help someone who genuinely just wants to live a life without being tortured, or keep him stuck there because he poses a risk to the depths, not through any fault of his own, but simply because he is, as the book puts it, a "failure."

Perhaps there might also be an ending in which we convince or change the Entity, or perhaps even defeat him, so that the Entity no longer tortures Myrddin and his life inside the box becomes a little more "enjoyable"... Or at least somehow expanded. Which is probably unlikely to be such a better situation for Myrddin, though. However, the game might have a canonical ending, so we will have to wait and see what state of the world is actually referenced in possible future stories, if there are any. 

The game folows Freytag’s Pyramid, so chapter 4 will be the "Climax" of the story. Meaning, our main strong choices regarding both the Entity and Myrddin wil be there.

Anyway, those were just theories... Game theories! Thanks for reading.

Note: Myrddin calling out those who theorize:

XD

Wow!

Great work, developer! You're flying so high you'll hit the clouds, and this update doesn't even touch cloud services.

Plus, this devlog isn't skipping a beat, it is calling out names left and right!

And no more faceless, nameless saves. Myrddin is probably a little jealous...

Finally, this update clears the storm of bugs, leaving the sky completely cloud-free. Aside from the clouds in the room, of course.

Sorry and thank you for reading. XD
(This took me way too long to come up with...)

To everyone who is asking about a linux version: there is already one. You can select a .sh file after installing the Windows version.

[This comment ended up being somewhat random and full of many topics and answers to your questions, sorry for the lack of a clear end goal with this, hah.]

Your thoughts were very interesting... I'll talk about them below. (No need to respond, since it might relate to the future of the game, of course. But I'll write about it mostly for personal documentation as well.)

~~~

I'm happy you liked my suggestions. I didn't want to sound entitled or unappreciative, or like I was speaking out of place. Know that I think the game is in good shape, and it is only going to get better.

Because of that, I wanted to add an appreciation section in this comment:

- Great video as main menu!

I have to admit I liked the previous one, which straightforwardly led us to the beginning. But, since the transition of starting and severing the connection was different from the one shown at the end of Chapter Two, the new changes made complete sense. I really appreciate the movable main menu and the little update to the UI. (The button sounds and the quit popup being a "Wait... You'll come back, right?" also add to the immersion and to the fact that Myrddin wants to control what the player chooses. - That is not new, I'm just mentioning it here, though.) In summary: thank you for the attention to detail, know it is appreciated.

- Voice acting.

The use of voice acting in that specific moment added to the atmosphere, and I was surprised we got another voice acted moment aside from the humming!


- New illustrations.

The character's sprite is very well done and the new moments added were surprising. I didn't think one full CG and a new sprite would be added. I also saw a comment asking about AI, which is understandable since the artistic world is not respected by many AI enthusiasts, honestly. But, personally, I didn't think the sprites were AI and I do think they are of extremely high quality. Especially knowing the project is free. ^^

~~~

Additionally, it is nice to see more people engaging again...

- sharpestcookie's comment... Wow, that person basically predicted correctly that Myrddin gets his power through our interactions! Although, I will quote my past self here to point out that in all my rambling, I, at least, got one thing right:

"... OR he is merely a part of the silhouette ..."

I mean, it is not completely right... Since he is more of a reflection/imitation (like the living mirrors from the five kingdoms), but I almost got it, right? Hahah... Anyway, I got so many things wrong, but I liked having that initial theories moment. I mean, I did say:

"...my immediate thought was: Myrddin is or was that silhouette."

I just didn't make the connection that the Outer would possibly be the silhouette or the book, the creator of Myrddin, who is that reflection. And I do mention the first book in at least one very correct theory:

"...I do think that first book is VERY related to Myrddin's nature and past."

By the way, I was partially right about how long Myrddin was there:

[One of my answers to LJEpher:]

"Myrddin did say he created a clock and he destroyed it when it got to the 1000th day. So he stayed there for AT THE VERY LEAST almost three years. Of course, not counting the fact that he took a long time to actually know how to create objects on his own to finally create the clock."

I at least got the initial part going in my thoughts. Of course, now we know the specifics: at least more than 5,000 days.

[Sorry to mention my previous theories so often, I'm a little proud I got some things right after getting so many things wrong and, well, it might be entertaining to you? Maybe.]

Going back to the community reaction, many people are enamored by Myrddin, which is "interesting" to watch... Not that I don't fancy his funny jokes and witty facts ^^ , but I'm cautious regarding fully trusting him, hahah. Also, I noticed LJEpher posted a theory-focused comment, which is great! I'm happy the theory part of the community is growing and continuing active. I, personally, haven't read it yet since I'm planning a big theory and wouldn't want to affect my impressions so that I can test my abilities against the game's new chapters. But I wonder if we will reach the same conclusions since we were analyzing similar things...

Regarding Tumblr, I'm curious to see what sort of posts will be there. I believe you know about pinned posts, tags and so on, right? Visual novel, interactive fiction and so on. If you have any questions, I can share links with more information.

~~~

I finally researched the Freytag's Pyramid and I was sad to find out we might only have three chapters remaining! Of course, totally my fault (do not worry, ToMyself), because I saw the names of the versions: 0.20, 0.2.5 and 0.3.1 and thought we would trace a path toward v1, which would culminate in 10 chapters. That is also why my theories were focusing a lot on what was being shown, not exactly directed to the future. I thought we were in the beginning. However, knowing we will see the climax next has pushed me to do that big theory post as documentation so that I can check on it before the update.

Now, something I found out is that the pyramid is more often used in tragedies... Hum... The last step is called catastrophe. Whatever the player chooses in their emotional path for their endings, I wonder if in one way or another it will be a bad ending for at least someone or a group of people no matter what we choose.

~~~

Regarding the song analysis, you got very close, honestly! It is about a comedian/singer who can't perform anymore because of his panic attacks, even though he loves performing. So he gets stuck in his room, that way he is not going to suffer from those attacks, even though he really wants to get out. Even though his fans want him to get out, he can't. But when he tried, people judged him for it. So he swore that, this time, he won't come back again. Look who is inside again.

It reminded me of Myrddin because of these sentences:

• "I was a kid stuck in his room" -> Myrddin was also stuck there ever since his early existence.
• "Making jokes" -> Myrddin having a witty personality despite his predicament.
• "Making faces" -> That is kind of ironic, since Myrddin did try to create a face for himself...
• "Making little sounds" -> His music box and ability to imitate sounds.
• "We've got you surrounded" -> If Myrddin gets out, bad things might happen. Myrddin is a danger to the depths (allegedly, so far, until we see more evidence to confirm it).

And the overall emotional setting of the song, as well.

~~~

Now, my answers to your questions:

1. What do you even think his character is after your experience? (I am sure this will be tackled in your theory post, so these are rhetorical questions.)
   
   I'll answer some early thoughts here since my theory comment will try to tackle possible endings and the game's timeline, since we are halfway through the story already.
   
   Currently, I believe he is a reflection (lake) of the silhouette. He is not an Ebys but not a child of the other world either, since he is defective.
2. What is actually real?
   
   Perhaps the incident in which Myrddin says: "It is similar with my face" and "Crawling inside my mouth", etc. was not real at all.
   
   That is the one incident that I think differs from the other ones in relation to what Myrddin says, anyway... (And it turns out that incident is the one that was real, ;D )
   
   Yes, it looks like many previous moments were manufactured by Myrddin to make us empathize with him. I didn't fully believe everything he said before, but I at least thought the incidents were real. Well, I was wrong about that. Although, I did notice he portrayed our question to help him in a very weird way, it was in one of my answers to LJEpher:
   
   "But he was very cautious, and his sentences might imply he actually wanted the help, obviously. However, I cannot deny that there might be a possibility he was expecting us to take pity on him all along."
   
   Immediately, after I say that, i say I don't fully believe the theory he is full-on 100% tricking us. However, I do toy with the idea of him manipulating us... I should have dug deeper into that theory.
   
   And, I might affect my theories by saying so, but I still think that at least some part of Myrddin is salvageable, morally speaking. Yes, he is lying and manipulating, perhaps being good only because he is watched, but I wonder if he can't be redeemed, or if he ended up getting attached to the player while going through his plan to deceive the human in order to free himself...
   
   Call me a silly optimistic, but I'll try to see if it will be possible to save everyone and Myrddin, if he shows himself to want to do good.
   
3. It is just a fact being stated, with the claim that no lies are being told. And then a final threat.
   
   Yes, I understand he didn't want to portray himself as a hero, but what I found ironic is that he asks us to stop, to quit interacting for everyone's sake, counting on our compassion, right?
   
   The ironic part is: before asking that, the Outer shows us that:
   
   
   • He tortures Myrddin.
   • He enjoys doing that.
   After counting on our compassion, I did find it ironic to portray oneself as such. Perhaps it is because he never thought we would accept his suggestions. He never actually wanted us to stop fighting back...
4. How… how did you manage to skip that?
   
   Honestly, developer, I think I'm amazing like that.
   
   I reach levels of charm that make me able to get moments that are not even possible in the code...
   
   Well, I believe it was because I didn't progress with the "Talk" interaction that much. I did not even get the apple crafting scene, so that is also why I didnt get the snow globe one. My "Talk" interaction that would unlock crafting didn't show up because I ended up choosing other interactions and not talking that much in my first playthrough.
   
   
5. Hm. Idk.
   
   I don't know why, this made me laugh ahgaahga, but yeah, I appreciated the challenge with the decoding, it was very fun! (Not that im an expert by any means...)
   
   Took me some time but I was able to get the full song. ^^
   

~~~

I think I'll only be able to play the game in some long time. Due to still recovering and getting very busy, -_-

So my theory will take a while. Hopefully I'll also get to play the new patch version that you mentioned in the upcoming month or so. Either way, have a great week, developer, and I hope we get a nice rest of the journey!

Thank you for the fixes! I started getting sick that day, so I only managed to warn you about the bug, and then I had to log off. I'm still not feeling 100%, but I'm happy the message came across. I was able to play the new chapter twice, not counting loading some save slots to explore some choices... which led to a very interesting/funny experience with the new chapter that I'll mention more below. Do not worry, I'm aware that every piece of software, when it gets publicly released, has a certain amount of bugs. It is to be expected.


Before talking about the chapter itself, I wanted to mention some technical details/suggestions, since you did mention in the update post that we could give feedback so that the game gets better and better, so those are my initial ideas. If they match your vision, of course, I hope they are useful (either way, possible spoilers below, read at your own risk, everyone!):

- I think being able to name save pages would be very useful! Currently, save pages go until page 9, after that we can add more save slots, obviously, but they are not named.

Yes, we can see the pagination in the save files inside the saves folder, but I think it would be more accessible if we could name our save pages. I've seen that enabled in many VNs, so I believe it is not difficult. I say that because sometimes I like organizing my saves by name so that I can pick up from specific moments, since the story is getting longer!

----

- This recommendation might not align with what you want for the story, feel free to skip it if it does not: skipping enabled (only for passages we have already read).

In many VNs, we have a skip setting that offers to skip read text or force skip. I believe force skip is outside your vision, but maybe read text skipping would be useful.

I say this because I had to replay the game, and although I can decrease the auto forward time so that the dialogue rolls quicker, it is still slower than skipping. (Again, it could allow for only skipping the already read text.) If it is something you don't feel matches the idea of the game, it is totally okay, though!

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Finally:

- Tweakable text size for the text box, it would increase accessibility. But if you feel it does not fit well with the text box, it is okay, it is kind of an extra point.

------------

Another point related to a problem I ran into:

Starting from when Myrddin gets his normal form back, every time I save in the middle of a conversation/interaction and load that specific save, I dont go back to that specific conversation: I go to the home interaction section in which I hadn't selected any interaction yet.

I believe someone was mentioning a save/load problem on the main page, but I'm not sure it is the same problem. This one kind of doesn't remember we were in the middle of an interaction (say, tic tac toe) and loads me into the home interaction section when Myrddin and the interaction options show up.

Anohte rpoint: possible typo below? Or maybe it is a normal English sentence, since I'm not an expert, I'll just report it here:

---

(Possible spoilers below, read at your own risk, everyone!)

Regarding chapter 3: what an intriguing chapter!!

This is not going to be my comment related to theories yet, I plan on commenting on the main page about it, but I like the new update! I don't know what you were worried about, this is great work, developer.

Silly series of reactions of mine to some of the situations:

- We finally got the answer to the enigmatic sentence in the game description: "...and with every moment you spend together, he only gets— " And it was so obvious; I cant believe I didn't think of it... Great reveal! I thought, at that time, right before the reveal, he was going to say the game itself, the structure of it, but I digress. Myrddin's actions are looking very intriguing, to say the least, what with our interaction with him giving him power. But I'll leave my theories to another comment.


- While I was playing this update i got reminded of a song by Bo Burnham called:  Look Who’s Inside Again. Although the song has a whole very interesting context inside the album and the movie/songs special, hah... the lyrics and the game situation got me, hah. In case you are curious, this is the song: 

It reminded me of Myrddin and his situation. If you listened to it, I'm very curious to know what you thought of it in relation to Myrddin\the game.


- Oh, I really liked the dynamic season change! [Even though it is not my real season, I liked the coded detail you added there. ;) ]

- The silhouette was mentioned by Myrddin! That was very interesting, to say the least. I like the beginnings of possible endings/branches with being straightforward with Myrddin or not.

- When the "book"\Outer(?) says day 5475, I thought: wait, what if it was the exact same number of books Myrddin said he read? Then all the numbers mentioned in the game would be related and--

I was spiraling, hahaga. Anyway, that scene was tense. The warnings are especially important now, just like you said in the previous update (so I was already aware this chapter woul have someting similar), so I hope everyone pays attention to the warnings before playing the game. And, well, I cannot deny that I felt for the guy.

The "book"/Outer did raise some interesting concerns. However, I raise a question to him: right at that moment, in front of us (the player), which entity is the torturer and which one is the torturee? Not denying any past sins committed by the torturee, nor some logical arguments from the torturer, though. Logically speaking, we are witnessing torture, no matter how it is spun. And, also logically speaking: Myrddin has omitted the truth multiple times. What I mean to say is: I like the concepts you are playing with in this chapter.

- Now, developer, I'm shocked, no, devastated, by how you treated your playerbase...

How can you call us out that way?!

Conspiracy theories? But whatever are you talking about?

Oh, I almost forgot to talk about my funny experience with the chapter: I played from the beginning after that bug situation in the new 0.3.1 version. Chapter three went by very quickly (I felt it was shorter than previous chapters), then I noticed I didn't get to the snow globe section at all, not even a new one about the deal story that I later found out. I think what happened was that I wasted too many interactions playing tic tac toe? Hahah, that was funny. Anyway, playing for a second time, I got the new story with Myrddin's beautiful handcrafted art pieces and was able to craft items with him.


Edit: extra comment here. I dont know if it was intentional (it probably was not, haha), but right after Myrddin screams (that was a very sad scene :\ ) there was a sound that reminded me of Deltarune/Undertale game sounds. That was very interesting! Anyway, the use of sound in this game is very good even with the limitations of free-to-use sound assets.

--

Anyway, jokes aside, congratulations! It was a funny and intense chapter, which I theorize was what you wanted it to be. Additionally, I did find a very interesting song that needed some translating... Ebys... ?

Jumping in before I go: it was a save loaded from the previous version!

(Ill have to log off, so im typing this on quick mode, i believe i found a quite severe bug? Ill put under the read more section, but it prevents the player form proceeding in the beginning of the new chapter!
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Chibi Myrddin is stuck in a cycle and i cant proceed even after asking the questions and reading the advise sections. Sometimes Normal Myrddin shows up in the "Joke", "Fact" interactions. It makes Normal Myrddin show up in Chibi Myrddin sections:




That advice never is marked as asked and i cannot proceed in the game.
Just letting you know, here is the history, the repertoire text is the one that makes Normal Myrddin show up:



Sorry and Ill answer\talk about the game at a later moment, in summary: thank you for your beautiful message! ^^

I gotta admit, seeing the snow globe in the post image put a big smile on my face, haaaha.

As with what I've seen so far from the project, I can literally see the amount of effort and love you put into your work. It is refreshing. And here I go, crazy theorizing and overthinking details, hahagha ;)

I'm very excited to jump in, thank you for your great work, developer. This wish to always fine-tune and get better is, honestly, what makes me even more excited to see what is to come. I'll play the new update slowly but surely, since Ill have to revisit the past chapters to see the additional content, but I will definitely share my thoughts on it when I get the time after finishing it and having a bit more free time.

Note: nice with Tumblr! I hope it helps the project! +1 follower.

No worries at all, don't strain yourself! Take the time you need! I was just confused by itch.io notification which mentioned the game updated O.o.

Thank you for the response and your hard work!

Did the game just update to 0.3 or was the update only related to images in the game page? I was going to download the new version, but noticed it still says InteractWithMe! - 0.2.5 (Linux)...

I apologize for the confusion.

This game is so fun already, even the demo. (The art style and sound effects are great as well!)

I really like the mechanics and cannot wait to see the rest of the story and possible paths when the game releases!

If you like managing, dispatching and eccentric and funny characters inside a very interesting plot interacting with others , you and the environment, then you will mostly enjoy it.

Additionally, I've seen some say it is similar to Dispatch, while I do think some parts of the mechanics are similar, this is still a very different game with a Medieval style and a different story, but the dispatching ideas are definitely interesting here as well.

Honestly I think we are among the first ones heavily theorizing around here, plus vocaloidsrcool, but I do believe after the next update people will share more of their theories once the real mystery starts to surface.

-- Warning, heavy themes below:
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And regarding your comment: the developer did say the next update is going to be more brutal, which is definitely going to be something. I think we might see Myrddin getting more directly hurt, yes. But I also believe he tried to harm himself, after all he has been there for a long time.

We don't know the exact time. He was a child when he arrived but he might age differently. Myrddin did say he created a clock and he destroyed it when it got to the 1000th day. So he stayed there for AT THE VERY LEAST almost three years. Of course, not counting the fact that he took a long time to actually know how to create objects on his own to finally create the clock. So in all that spare time, I'm sure very negative thoughts crept inside his head.

But honestly, I think the motivation behind his actions might not only be the isolation but the torture the Voices do to him. He comments something about there being no limit to what one can harm the other, even though he says he is resilient. So I think he is partially referring to the torture he goes through because of the Voices. We did see the Voices use loud noises, change the room size, and sever our connection with Myrddin. So they probably can do a lot more.

Random note: also, very interesting that Myrddin does not like brown, if I'm not mistaken, especially because the whole room is pretty much white and brown. Very curious.

That was a very interesting read, ahahh! Thanks for the heads up.

I will comment below the "read more" so that no one gets spoiled, even though I don't think it is much for now, perhaps the next updates will get more interesting. Anyway, since our comments are very down the scroll, I highly doubt many will see, but it is better to be safe than sorry:

Warning, heavy themes below.
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• Interesting, there are comments with unused dialogue. I wonder if they are things Myrddin doesn't want to say to the player, or if it was an extra thing the developer added with Myrddin kind of "aware of it." But that is less likely, since Myrddin can change our interface (positioning of choices and what we can or cannot see). Perhaps he regretted it or didn't trust the player yet?

The divinity question is probably related to his suffering. I like the fact he was hopeful in the end, saying he/we can be grateful for some things (which are some of the signs that make me believe he might not be 100% evil or tricking us with malicious intent, at least from what we know now), but there is an underlying message of someone who might be tired of his life. It is a heavy conversation and an important one, I wonder if it will pop up in the next update.

There were some interesting comments in other places as well, like the beginnings of another interaction where we will create a story as the main character with Myrddin. Very interesting bits here and there. I liked reading Myrddin's interactions for the different names, I thought of testing Myrddin as the name but didn't know he reacted to silly and pet names. Not gonna lie, the dialogue with the pet name was endearing, I giggled a bit, hahh.

However, I might have a feeling the next update might hold more mysteries now that the developer knows more people are engaging with the game. Who knows, let's wait and see!

Finally, I wanted to know your thoughts regarding the next update. What do you think is gonna happen? Your early theories? After all, we have time until the second half of June.

Next last important question: when did Myrddin get environmental sounds?! I didn't know you could get sounds from a book. O.o hahygah

No, no, I agree there is something at least suspicious with how he introduces himself:

The three dots are interesting. He started off with a simple sentence, but didn't finish it.

Regarding this comment:


 "Or does it feel like something that got handed to you and you just... kept it?"


Maybe it is related to Myrddin not knowing his origins, more specifically, not remembering his past. Like I theorized before, his past and future are nonexistent, like he said himself when he had a breakdown: he has no past (memories) or future (he's stuck in the cube). Maybe he showed up in the cube or was transferred there without much memory, but the Outer or a third party told him his name and that was it. That's why he asks us if his name feels like it belongs to us. And no matter what answer we give to him, there is a strange noise that plays out in that moment (maybe it is a reversed audio? I don't have experience with those, but I don't know if we already have such a thing in the game yet), and then Myrddin just brushes off the comment and continues. Very weird behavior, I wonder if the Voices scared him or pressured him to change the subject or something like that.

And you probably read what I said about his mythological name being related to a mad man who got prophecy powers, so that is very interesting. Currently, it looks like Myrddin is hiding things from us, but I honestly do think parts of his memories are missing since at some points of the story he gets very philosophical regarding why he is in the cube and about himself.

Someone who is simply hiding who they are from us usually wouldn't go as far as creating those minor moments of existential crisis. In summary, I think the name Myrddin is very intentional and has meaning, yes. And he is looking for the meaning of his name, since he doesn't have a "past."

Additionally, I believe a nice way to get into his psyche is to analyze his questions that happen before his future/past breakdown:

Some of those questions show two interesting things, at least initially, to me (and I'm curious to know what you think of them as well):

• Myrddin does not fully know what he is, but he is sure he is not human. We don't know if we are his first interaction with humanity. It doesn't seem likely since in multiple moments he expresses himself as if he has talked to someone else before.
• He probably considered that his past might involve (or he vaguely remembers) him doing something bad, and that's why he is in the box. But he believes (or wants to believe) in second chances or in stopping endless suffering (being stuck forever in the cube).

The last question shown in the screenshot I think is more directed at us, in a way. Like how powerful our words can be and how we can destroy or help Myrddin. Probably related to future endings.

The previous questions, though, they are more intimate:

Like he is testing or exploring our morality, or perhaps ending up leaking his own. I think the questions above show us that Myrddin is trying to fit into something he does not know what it is, and he wants to know if the Player would be willing to give him those chances, eventually. But those questions, I don't think they relate to endings directly, because apparently there are no variables being stored for those, if I recall correctly. (Yes, I just checked again, no variables for those answers.)

Finally, I wanted to mention this sentence he says right before his first breakdown/altercation with the Outer/The Voices in a direct way:

"YOU WILL MAKE IT STOP SOON"

That really stood out to me. What does he mean? Hmm, perhaps he did think ever since the beginning that the player might help him. But do you think he was manipulative since the beginning? I do think he is suspicious, definitely. But perhaps it is early to say with certainty if he is malicious, especially because it does seem like he doesn't want us near the Outer/the Voices, meaning perhaps he does want to protect the player, or at least the connection with the player.

But here is the thing: there is a moment he mentions something crawling in his mouth, something like that. Like it was using his face. I wonder if the Outer/the Voices can pretend to be Myrddin? If they already did it at some point? Interesting and worth keeping in mind.

Argh, for some reason my answers are not getting posted, only some of them.
Edit: now i think it worked.

Okay, great one. I like that you already start with a very important theory: the key related to the mystery around it.

I don't think it is a stretch; as a matter of fact, I thought it was very curious that once the Voices/Outer made Myrddin be sucked into the darkness and severed our connection in the end, we saw the room getting farther and farther, almost like seeing the room as a small cube in the end... I thought it was a very interesting visual choice.

But I don't know if the room or the game file themselves are the key.

Because at some point we will need to deal with the key, right? And since the developer mentioned that it might be possible to see the story expand to more than just talking to a person in a room (see one of ToMyself's answers to my theory comments in the updates section), then it's difficult to think the game file might be the key, but the room could be (the cube game icon also being an interesting note, even though many games have icons like that as well).

So if the key is actually the room (seeing it from our perspective, it does look like a cube), I wonder how we are going to explain that to Myrddin in the next chapter. Since the story might expand, like I mentioned above, we might be able to free Myrddin from the box sooner than we expect, and finally see what is outside, which I theorize to be something different from what we (humans) are used to.

Also, having the message "Do not trust the false Messiah" appear near the moment we see the room/cube distancing itself from us is very interesting. Once again it might just be a visualization of our connection being severed, but it might also be nodding to something else.

Now, the implications of the game being the key would mean the player would have to have access to the game files. Past updates from the developer do mention liking details as such, but I don't think anything extremely big is in the files for now (but I will comment about the MainAct in a future message, don't worry!) simply because ToMyself mentioned having difficulty balancing the browser and the downloadable version of the game. I theorize it's because the downloadable version would have details rewarding those who check the game files, and it is more difficult or unavailable at the moment to check the files if you're playing on the browser.

However, in the most recent update, the developer mentions the story will have more and more limitations in that regard. I wonder if it's because we're getting near some sections in the story where we will have to check the files more frequently, and since it is difficult to do so in the browser, it would create discrepancies between both versions. But that's just a technical theory.

Now, an extra observation here: near the end of the chapter, Myrddin keeps saying stuff similar to "I can't ask that of you" and "It is my burden to carry." Again, my current theory is that Myrddin is not a 100% bad guy. But he was very cautious, and his sentences might imply he actually wanted the help, obviously. However, I cannot deny that there might be a possibility he was expecting us to take pity on him all along.

But if I'm being honest, I don't fully believe in that theory, since Myrddin was very angry and unstable when we read his book, meaning it is very possible that he wouldn't be able to manipulate us right after being very emotionally unstable. Even so, I thought it was worth mentioning here, like how hesitant he was to ask for our help. That moment was interesting, maybe planned.(Early theory here, not much to go on, particularly a path I don't think might be the one, but interesting enough to mention anyway.)

Hello, LJEphr! First, I just wanted to say that is totally normal, sometimes I don't receive notifications from Itch.io either.  And i also apologize for the late reply! I was very busy these days. But I read what you commented days ago and thought about it. I had some thoughts in mind, I just didn't have the time to actually type full replies, unfortunately, ahah. At least we have time until the next update, but again, I'm sorry for the late replies! I hope we can still share theories after each update and so on.

And please, do share the link to the video! I'm very curious and i would like to see more of your vision. I managed to get into the files of the game per your recommendation and also managed to get some other thoughts of my own, 

I'm curious to know yours. I will answer your comments  one by one below, I believe it will be more organized that way.

Sounds like a solid plan for now . From what I have seen so far, at least, I'd be interested in an enhanced version, if there's ever one. It's a joy to help indie games, when possible\viable.

i gotta say, I'm truly happy there seem to be more people engaging with the page and the game lately. Granted, I only found out about the project 4 days ago XD , but it is  good to see it getting more traction. Now I'll wait until June; cannot wait to see what's in store! I cannot say I'll be that free in June, though. But when I do get some free time, I'll definitely play the update when it comes.

Now, on to a small discussion regarding the Merlin show, since you mentioned it and i have some free time for now, at least:

(I apologize if some of my sentences are a bit weird... English is not my native language.)

Spoilers for BBC Merlin below:

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Dear developer, whatever do you mean by "the effects and cinematography have not aged perfectly"?!






Well...

I wonder, when Myrddin said it takes a lot to scare him, how he would fare against the Diamair. (Even wilder thought: how would a BBC Merlin and Myrddin interaction go? Ahahaga) 

Anyway, the creature above spooked/surprised me a little the first time I saw her, honestly. Anyway, she helped Gwaine, which is great! She is a good one, just has a design that made me stare at the screen for some solid seconds until I hit play again.

But jokes aside, I really enjoy the practical effects the show had. The fantastical creatures, "the almost-Queen" troll, for example. And even though the dragons' CGI wasn't the best, due to the environment and look of the show ( Plus the great voice acting! ), things did look more magical.  (And do not even get me started with the medieval clothing! I love that aesthetic, and even though it is not 100% accurate, it looked very good and intune during the show.)

Very often older shows have that style that's similar to comparing homemade food to restaurant food. One is shiny and popular, the other is made with time and care. Newer shows don't have that "charm," I would say. I do notice care and time invested in Interact With Me! so, naturally, people would connect deeply to projects as such.

And since we were talking about actors, let me mention Morgana's actress: Katie McGrath. Whenever I find any interactive fiction game or story about Arthurian legends, I very often see her as Morganaa. She really impacted how the character is envisioned in many future related projects, I believe.

Which brings me to a silly question that occurred tome right now, If you could choose a voice actor for Myrddin, who would it be? Or rather, how do you imagine his voice? Aside from the bleeping sound and humming in the main menu or courese, haha.

Now, a funny detail I decided to mention for last: I haven't actually finished the show yet!

So I'm glad you didn't mention the ending directly, hahaahha. Funnily enough, I have known the show ever since i was younger, having tried to watch it with a family member back then. Years later, i managed to start it, but I didn't finish it because I didn't want it to end yet... if that makes any sense, aaaha. As I said, maybe it is the nostalgic nature of it all, but i stopped at episode 9 of season 5: "With All My Heart." And i'm waiting for the day I'll rewatch it once again and finally finish it. (Yes, I've managed to avoid big spoilers to this day... at least in general.)

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Those were my two cents. I'm sorry to diverge from Interact With Me!, but don't worry, after the next update, I'm sure I willhave a lot to talk about regarding the game. Thank you for your attentive words, developer, have a great one!

And I thank you! I was wondering if you plan on publishing the game on Steam (I don't know the bureaucracy regarding that, though. So it might be difficult.)

Or if you plan on having a Tumblr blog about the game? Many VNs have it, it might help spread the word about the game and\or create a new way for people to get to find out about it.

Additionally, yes I know of BBC Merlin! Colin Morgan's acting was great. I have nostalgic memories from that show. And I quite enjoy all its seasons, characters and overall story.

Regarding your comments, I will carefully add them to my thinking folder so that I expand my theories. 👀 

Since you also shared some theories, I mentioned some of mine in the most recent update post that ToMyself did in the comments section after a reply ( https://tomyself.itch.io/interact-with-me/devlog/1525192/road-to-03 ), in case you wanna exchange perspectives/theories and findings. 

And, yeah, it's a good idea to explore the game files as well, didn't do that yet.

That is great to hear! (And, yeah, I really like Alice in Wonderland as well, it is my favorite Disney tale, hahjhaa, what a nice coincidence. Myrddin and I are pals in that regard.)

Warning of long text below, I apologize. You don't even need to go through it all, honestly. (Only perhaps the bug report, but they are minor.)

And I'll try to share what I've thought so far,  even though I am probably missing details for my theories, hahah. Although, I do plan on theorizing more after the big update in June.

But before that, I did notice possible bugs in the game, and I will use this chance to mention them:

- The furniture question does not disappear even after the player has already asked it. ( If I'm not mistaken, the question is something along these lines: "How did the furniture get in here?" )

- (Possible bug) Myrddin does not react accordingly when the player changes the ambiance sound. He always says we picked the same one (granted, I only tested with two sounds: rain and wind, if I'm not mistaken). But I don't know if it is intentional or not. Maybe he doesn't identify the different sounds for lore reasons?

- In the Linux version, the cube CG is missing! At least in my case, that's what happened. I had played on the browser first, though. So I knew the CG was supposed to show up. In the end, I installed the Windows version and used Wine to run it on Linux. I  managed to get to the scene with the CG, so I'm guessing it is only related to the Linux version:




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That's it regarding bugs.

Now, regarding my initial silly theories

- Myrddin: his name has an interesting meaning. It is related to a semilegend of a mad man who ended up having prophecy powers... Interesting.

"While there his insanity only grew until he finally reached enlightenment and recieved the gift of prophecy."

Plus, he had a twin sister. Reaching very poorly here, but maybe his sister is involved in all this or is part of the voices? I have no proof,  just found it interesting to know that he haas a twin sister. He was also reinvented as Merlin in some books and legends. ( Which is such a nice detail since I really like the Arthurian tales. ^^ )

Myrddin does have special abilities inside the cube: some could say he behaves like a warlock or wizard. Additionally, being stuck in the cube might drive him "mad" like in the legend. However, my problem here is that he doesn't seem to have much memory, when he mentions he doesn't have a past or future. Still, his predicament does look like a magical prison of sorts. So whoever locked him there was probably an equally (or more) powerful wizard...

- The ASCII85 code: his first sentences are a short poem mentioning him being trapped, but also a door which dreams of being opened. Interesting that he was muttering that right at the moment we arrived. Also interesting that he mentioned at some point in the game that he does know how we got there. I wonder if his mutterings are part of a spell that would create our connection, and he was simply waiting to see if the idea would work out or not, giving him a chance to finally talk and interact with someone. That does reinforce the wizard side as well. 

Finally, the sentence in the game description is related to the last one we got in the current version of the game: the false messiah. Since Legend Myrddin is a "prophet" of sorts... Hmm... someone does not want us trusting him, huh? Perhaps the voices and dark eyes do think they are in the right.


So far im leaning towards the idea that Myrddin is the Messiah. and the voices believe he is in the wrong, or, at the very least, is untrustworthy.



- Whenever the voices or weird sounds show up: I tried to correlate all the times the weird sounds show up, and one got my attention:

When we mention if we feel strongly toward our name or not. In that instance, no matter what answer we give, Myrddin responds the same, and that caught my attention. While that does happen in other moments as well (due to the limitation of variations in a game, of course),   the fact that the weird sound was there as well makes me believe that Myrddin's name is important and in tune to who, or what, he is. And the voices agree with that. That is also why we can add more meaning to the Legend Myrddin tale.


- The first book: okay, when I first heard it, my immediate thought was: Myrddin is or was that silhouette. Perhaps they took away his memories and he was stuck in the cube as a means to not destroy the world anymore. That line of thought is, in a way, related to the odd questions he asks us before his past/future breakdown: he asks for how long can someone suffer until what they did is excused, and if someone is being good only because is being watched.

However, that was just my first thought. Honestly, I believe Myrddin isnot going to end up being completely, 100% evil. B ecause I can see there are sides of good in the way he is written in the story so far. So, now I'm more inclined to the idea of Myrddin being the prophet who tried to warn the other kingdoms of the upcoming attacks from the silhouette, OR he is merely a part of the silhouette, who could, perhaps, receive a second chance, atonement! Anyway, early theories here, of course.

In any case, I do think that first book is VERY related to Myrddin's nature and past. Like he theorized, maybe he did create the book with his unconscious memory. But, at least regarding him trusting the player and wanting to be free, I don't think he is lying about those. So far it appears he really trusts the player in a way that gives him hope. So I hope we can help the good side of the story.

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I'll stop now hahaa, im probably missing a lot, but it was a nice thinking exercise. In the next update, I'll come back to my theories and see if any of them were useful. 

Thanks again for creating this very enjoyable game!

Nice to know the game is going to be receiving updates soon! Take your time and don't forget to rest, Im sure the result is going to be great.

I'm very curious to know how we are going to deal with the aftermath after that cliffhanger. I wonder if the player will unlock different ways to affect the room's world.

I really like the idea of the beeping sounds for Myrddin's voice, I think it adds more dynamism to the interactions, but, in the end, choose what mostly fits the game and your vision.

Regarding objects, man, can't think of many right now, but maybe: snow globe, bolo paddle, 8 ball, rubik's cube? A disco ball? XD

In any case, curious to know about the new chosen objects!

So happy I found this one by accident, hahaa. What a fascinating game!

I really like the little hints about the mystery scattered here and there. We have room to theorize. And It's so interesting to find such an interesting game that plays with the idea of breaking the fourth wall. I usually gravitate to games like that.

The art style (character design and background piece) are beautiful as well, minimalistically beautiful, I'd say. Additionally, Myrddin is such a funny guy, haahah.

But aside from all that, I really enjoy the themes it touches on: physical and mental isolation, anxiety, the risk vs. reward discussion and so on (At least in the current version of the game I played. I assume more themes will be explored.). I think this game has even more potential to be extremely fun and, what I consider to be the most important part: very touching as well. The buildup really helps us put ourselves on his shoes and the current ending is a great cliffhanger.

I would also like to compliment Myrddin's personality more specifically: since it is  a game focused mostly on text, the protagonist's behavior and perspectives are vital to making the experience engaging, and I really like what the developer did here by giving him silly/ironic/confident personality traits making him genuinely fun to interact with. At least from my perspective, that helped the experience a lot.

I think this game is shaping up to be extremely interesting, and I can't wait to find out more about the mysteries (I already have some theories, they are probably wrong... But the intention is what counts.) and the meaning behind the voices and the dark eyes...

I will definitely keep an eye out for the next updates!

A very interesting short story! A self-contained one that still managed to convey sentiment.

Great! Thank you very much for the response!

Hello, itchio team.
Im unable to comment or reply, noticed this behavior yesterday, but it might have started sooner. I believe no previous comments of mine violate rules, can you please remove the restriction?
My ticket id: 367159

Wooo!! Promising! I like the branching narrative feature, im curious.

No problems! People warned me about that. ^^ Very excited about the next chapters.

Spoilers










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WHAT!!//?? I DIDN'T know that, wooooooow

Poor Athiel in that route, maaan I gotta try that route in friendship's path, thanks for telling me T-T , I gotta check the authors Tumblr more often

And here I thought the game coudnt be more hurtful\emotional hahahag

Heeeereeee we go!!! ^^

Finally got back at reading this after some months and im pleasantly surprised with the emotional turns this plot has up until chapter 3.

The characters all have very unique and funny interactions in a way that is so comforting. 

This IF is very good, the way the trauma is written is amazing. It is fascinating to have a text based IF talking about grief! <3

MAJOR SPOILERS BELOW

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Okay, Juliet, somehow, became WORST than I imagined, how COULD she do this??!! That's sick behavior right there,  I am very curious to know how this plot twist is gonna be handled. Although, according to the game's description, Elias is not a LI in the game so(according to my understanding, nothing confirmed, i believe, but i didnt see much of the authors Tumblr though), welp 


And, I think him being alive is especially hutful  in Athiels route, argh. Im very invested.

My theory is that the game wont make Elias a LI even if his memory is back. Perhaps his memory is never coming back either.  And we'll have to learn to accept that as a character growth point in the story.

Progress at your own pace! Glad you're taking the time to solve/deal with your struggles. I'll definitely keep an eye out for any future updates ! Even if it takes a while, the IF plot\concept is already very promising. :)

Excited. ^-^

It's okay, we look forward to the next episode! Take your time. <3

Happy with the results! Excited to see more content in the future. <3

It looks very promising so far! I'll keep an eye on this IF in the future updates.

Let's gooo! <3

The Spring part is just a demo.