Fortunately, I found this unique game and loved it so much!
Unfortunately, it introduced me to a genre that’s so niche I can’t even find a name for it?! So far, I’d put With Shining Eyes in the same category as Smile for Me, GlitchSPANKR, Mayor May Knott, Creature Kitchen, and Cosmo D’s games.
But searching for “3D creepy chill cozy clever puzzle game with full commitment to artistic vision and lots of secrets” is not getting me anywhere lol
Thank you for making this :)
I would love that too - but most people don’t have Macs for development, and Apple is notoriously hostile to indie game developers who don’t want to (read: can’t afford to) deal with their nonsense :(
If you decide to play the full game, I discovered that it works perfectly in Heroic with the “Wine Staging 11.2 DXMT” bottle. Not sure what that would be in Crossover?
I’m glad you found my maniacal late-night conspiracy theories interesting! :)
I wasn’t going to comment at all, but I was very confused by the comments. If this were a horror movie, I’d be picked off first - by everybody else, because I am always ruining the vibes XD
“Isn’t he cute?”
Y’all. He doesn’t have a face.
“I want to help him.”
Did you notice he never really explained why he doesn’t have a face?
“Aww, he’s so adorable and lonely.”
Just wanna remind you, in case you forgot - he has no mouth…so how is he talking to us?!
lol
For me, the real “psychological horror” is that once my disbelief suspenders were in place, it was so easy to trust and believe. To relegate major details (facelessness, weird behavior, my sense of emotional self-preservation) to background noise if I perceive someone as generally inoffensive or emotionally vulnerable. Like Myrddin’s a friend who’s a little weird at times, but otherwise a great guy.
How do I know he’s a great guy?
Because he told me he was…?
Yiiiiikes.
I can’t believe it took me so long to find this game. It’s so much fun to (over)think about. Thank you for making it :)
This is so exciting! I love this idea! The graphics and gameplay are so fun, and the granny voice is hilarious. I’d definitely play a longer version, but I think I’m misunderstanding how the mechanics work.
On the first transaction in a round, every number in each category is added up to make the total on the register. But on subsequent rounds, the register total doesn’t always match the board total.
It seems like some categories are being counted as others after the first transaction…like they’re indented, and the game thinks they are a subset of another category? I had:
Produce 5
(indent) Meat 5
(indent) Dairy 4
Register total: 9
When I only used a $5 coupon for meat and a $5 coupon for dairy, the produce 5 disappeared like it wasn’t counted. I didn’t combine any categories.
I started the game over and tried again with a different round. On the second transaction:
(indent) Meat 6
Dry Goods 3
(indent) Dairy 8
Register total: 3
What a great game! Really love the mystery and clever lore. My thoughts:
Myrddin is the modern-day version of Merlin - an illusionist, seer, and a shapeshifting cambion (half human, half incubus).
Myrddin is faceless, yet that quickly becomes the least interesting thing about him (he mentions something similar in the “room full of stuff suddenly empty and vice versa” speech). His overall appearance and demeanor are disarming and attractive while also being off-putting and egotistical. He can change his appearance, but it takes effort.
Myrddin’s half incubus side is both why he can change his appearance and why it is not as effortless as it would be for a full incubus.
We are told to “beware the false prophet” for a reason. According to another legend, Merlin was created to become the medieval version of the antichrist. A priest baptized him as an infant so he couldn’t be used for evil, but he was still a “disturbing and prodigious child”.
This explains Myrddin’s reasons for considering himself a genius, for refusing to hide his unappreciated talents like someone wanted him to, and why the powers that be imprisoned a CHILD in a box. (the box ties to a legend where a conniving princess traps Merlin in a stone box to die)
Anyway, they weren’t overreacting. They saw something we can’t, because he wasn’t yet skilled enough to manipulate them like he’s manipulating us. He’s had centuries or millennia to learn encrypted chess while we’re still using our fingers to add 2 and 2.
He’s stated repeatedly that what we’re seeing isn’t real. He is playing us for fools, and the comments that believe him have been super interesting to read.
THE BOX
There are plenty of theories, but I want to stick with the one that made the most sense to me based on limited info.
He only knows what the sky looks like based on pictures…but is it ever made clear that the pictures he sees are in books he’s physically read? I don’t remember learning how Myrddin manifests these books with titles, authors, and places he’s never seen.
He’s reading an unusual amount of fairy tales and fact books; what was fiction in one timeline (technology, science) is fact in this one, and vice versa. The answers he needs could be in either.
Are his dreams, daydreams, imagination, etc. actually visions - and is he exploiting these rare glimpses across timelines to find materials and methods to escape?
How many of his own past, present, and future timelines has he seen? Is the box blocking him from seeing this timeline’s future for a reason?
Oh, and why are there so many of the oddly specific “helpful advice” questions in comparison to other options?
Why are they correlated to strong emotions?
I think it’s because that’s what Myrddin needs. We are the key.
If the dev is using the modern definition of a cambion, I think that he is growing into his full powers. The box is kinda like a surge protector, lightning rod, grounding cable, etc.
(It’s possible an alternate version of Myrddin created it as a trap for himself? Because he saw the future, and it looked VERY bad. Anyway.)
Every answer we give him feeds his power, and he’s using us to expand his limited capacity. Being a kind, listening ear is boosting him.
As the conversations progress, he gets drained because the box is made to keep him at a certain level of power. Enough to function, but not to break free. Our interactions with him cause him to expend more energy than he’s getting right now, but he keeps having growth surges. The box can tell something is off and it’s fighting back. It can’t get rid of us because he used the surge recovery period - when the defenses are temporarily weakened and he can briefly connect to the outside world - to summon us.
But now that we’re in the box with him, maybe we can’t leave either?
We’re supposed to help him “find the key” to escape.
But can we?
Should we?
Since Flash was deprecated, it's been really difficult for me to find small, well-made (free) games by developers who love making games as much as their community loves playing them. This is exactly what I've been looking for - and I just realized there's a whole series of them?!
Thank you both for making these :)
I don't care if devs use AI art and writing, but I do care if they use bad AI art and writing - especially if they're creating a MYSTERY game. Games like The Roottrees are Dead used AI art, but that dev understood his audience. He knew that he had to carefully analyze the image results and choose what to use, because players would also have to carefully analyze the images for clues.
Someone having 6 fingers on their hand - like in this game - would be a clue that he didn't do the most basic AI art check there is.
If you're going to have AI write/translate, ask a few native English speakers (in different parts of the world!) to look over the script before finalizing it.
That's why I'm disappointed, and it's why I didn't make it more than 5 minutes into the game. Please take this constructive criticism into consideration as you make your next game.
Wow. What a pleasant surprise! I thought this was going to be a something quick or a demo, but it's a full game...with more content after the main story?! Thank you for releasing a (mostly) complete game for free with minimal bugs.
That being said: Please finish this game and take all our money.
Seriously. This niche has very few quality games. Making them requires an amount of effort closer to "obsessive labor of love", and most devs aren't into doing all of that. Those who are should be compensated.
ETA Naming the "oracle" Delphine was a clever play on words :)
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01100001 01101101 01100101 00101110
Or on GOG? Humble Bundle? Your own website? Literally anywhere besides Steam? The bit I've played was great, and I want to buy the full version. There's a little bit of something for everyone to enjoy in this game, but imo it's not as accessible to the crowd most likely to play it - niche indie retro gamers.
Agreed. Do people actually have friends like this for 5+ years in real life?
I didn't think this was supposed to be a romance game, but a friendship one. Maybe with a hint of a mystery? Why is Emily away, etc. Yet all of my friendship options either lead to never-ending potential relationship options or no friendship at all. My possibly probing questions get deleted and replaced with banal conversation. I'm sure the whole "Brad" thing wasn't helping, either.
The ending wasn't much of one tbh. I guess this game was hyped up so much to me that my expectations were too high.
It gave me a different screen and error, but I downloaded the Linux version and can play it that way. Here's the new error message, in case it happens to anyone else:
scripts/base/camera.lua:1: module 'libs.gamera' not found:
no field package.preload['libs.gamera']
no 'libs/gamera' in LOVE game directories.
no file 'libs/gamera' in LOVE paths.
no file './libs/gamera.lua'
no file '/usr/local/share/luajit-2.1.0-beta3/libs/gamera.lua'
no file '/usr/local/share/lua/5.1/libs/gamera.lua'
no file '/usr/local/share/lua/5.1/libs/gamera/init.lua'
no file './libs/gamera.so'
no file '/usr/local/lib/lua/5.1/libs/gamera.so'
no file '/usr/local/lib/lua/5.1/loadall.so'
no file './libs.so'
no file '/usr/local/lib/lua/5.1/libs.so'
no file '/usr/local/lib/lua/5.1/loadall.so'
Traceback
scripts/base/error.lua:59: in function 'handler'
[C]: in function 'require'
scripts/base/camera.lua:1: in main chunk
[C]: in function 'require'
scripts/base/scene.lua:6: in main chunk
[C]: in function 'require'
scripts/head/statemanager.lua:1: in main chunk
[C]: in function 'require'
main.lua:59: in main chunk
[C]: in function 'require'
[C]: in function 'xpcall'
[C]: in function 'xpcall'
If anyone else has this error, it's because you have to enable "Allow apps downloaded from anywhere" on the General tab under Security & Privacy in System Preferences. The problem is that some computers don't have the "anywhere" option anymore, so you have to open Terminal and paste: sudo spctl --master-disable and enter your password. Then reopen System Preferences and the option will be selected. This will work for future apps, too.
After all of this, you'll get the annoying "blocked because unidentified developer" pop-up, which means you go back to the General tab under Security & Privacy in System Preferences and click "Open Anyway".
Yet another instance of Apple trying to save us from ourselves by making us go through steps that make it more likely we'll mess something up. Sigh.
Hello, trying to play the Mac version (on Monterey) and I receive a blue screen with this text:
Error
main.lua:20: module 'lldebugger' not found:
no field package.preload['lldebugger']
no 'lldebugger' in LOVE game directories.
no file 'lldebugger' in LOVE paths.
no file './lldebugger.lua'
no file '/usr/local/share/luajit-2.1.0-beta3/lldebugger.lua'
no file '/usr/local/share/lua/5.1/lldebugger.lua'
no file '/usr/local/share/lua/5.1/lldebugger/init.lua'
no file './lldebugger.so'
no file '/usr/local/lib/lua/5.1/lldebugger.so'
no file '/usr/local/lib/lua/5.1/loadall.so'
Traceback
[love "callbacks.lua"]:228: in function 'handler'
[C]: in function 'require'
main.lua:20: in main chunk
[C]: in function 'require'
[C]: in function 'xpcall'
[C]: in function 'xpcall'
The browser version lags quite badly, or I would play it instead. Any help would be appreciated.
