Really glad that this weird little experiment finds its audience even years after release. Thank you for the kind words, and you might be the first person to comment on the hidden message in the stained glass. Good eye!

Thank you very much for the kind words! Hoping our next upcoming game will captivate you just as much!

Thanks for the kind (gross?) words! We're glad you enjoyed it.

Thank you for playing, even though this one is a difficult one. Hopefully we managed to toe the line and not shock for shock's sake. There was a more earnest intent behind it.

Thank you for playing, and paying this much attention to the details!
There are no canonical endings to TSOTG, it is meant to be inspiration for either self-reflection or creativity. Glad you've enjoyed it.

Thank you for playing! While the ending messages are meant to be opened to interpretation for personal introspection purposes, we can hint that you've most likely been given the 'material grief' ending. Thus, 'shedding the inanimate' in this case would suggest you to reconsider your attachment to material possessions.

While we understand that not everyone is in a position to pay for their entertainment (whether they're in a tight financial situation, or they do not have access to credit cards or paypal-like online services to make a transaction), in return we ask players to understand we are a very small indie studio (two full-time employees working on a very small budget) and making games is currently our livelihood. Giving our work away for free is not an option for us, unfortunately. Buying our games (especially buying here on Itch.io) is the most direct and best way to support us in making more content in the future, although we already appreciate the love you are sending us with your desire to play \SPEK.TAKL\.

If you wish to experience our games for free, the internet provides a few ways to do so, such as let's players completing the game on video. Perhaps later you'll be in a better situation to pay for our work, and we can wait until then. No pressure. Thank you for your interest in our titles!

Thank you very much for the kind words! Glad you enjoyed the experience!

The game is built on a Unity asset that supported controller controls, but the game was not built with consideration for controllers.

So short answer : no, you should not use a controller to play, since we cannot guarantee it is going to work all the way

Complicated answer : maybe it can be played with controllers. It was never properly tested. The game was made with keyboard and mouse in mind.

Thank you so much for playing! The upcoming Steam version is basically the same game (bundled with its sequel / prequel Please Follow), so no need to play the Steam one, if you were wondering.

Thank you very much! Hopefully the game itself was a worthy experience. Your support means a lot to us!

None are planned. Hopefully this is the last version we'll put out of this title.

\SPEK.TAKL\ - Banned Edition is now available to download and play here :
https://somewhat.itch.io/spektakl-banned

\SPEK.TAKL\ is a late-night TV binge-watching simulator. You can just sit on the couch of you new 1994-inspired apartment and just waste the night away. Or you could watch the grimy VHS tapes you receive through the mail slot of your apartment door. But we don't recommend you do that.

Why a banned edition? Because we really wanted to upload it to another popular PC games platform, but the game was too steamy and it got banned!

This game was released earlier in 2019 on this very website, but this version has a few additions to it :

• A new, fourth ending, exploring the themes of the original game even further!
• Unused music from before was reinserted in the game!
• A few subtle quality of life improvements, such as subtitles for the garbled dialog!

It is the ultimate version of the experience. Play it today!

DISCLAIMER : If you've bought and played the original, consider that this version has very little you haven't experienced already. Please take this into consideration before buying it again. Of course, we appreciate your support, but we want you to make an informed choice.

Unfortunately, this game will not be published on Steam. We were planning to, but we've encountered problems.
For more information, you can read the blog post we wrote about the situation here.

Thank you for the kind words! You mention the re-launch : if you've played before, make sure you are interested in the new content before buying again. Not much has changed with the original. Just be certain you make an informed purchase. :)

This new version is out today! Please make sure you read what's new in the game page, since not a lot was added compared to the original version. Consider if it's worth a second buy before committing to it. We appreciate your support either way.

The game is out! Thank you for you support. You know the admiration for each other's games is mutual! :-)

It's out today. Hopefully you've maintained the hype until now!

It's now available! We hope you'll have a great time with it.

It's out now! Today is the day!

The game is out now! Take the time to read what's new in the game since the last time you've played. Be warned that not a lot has changed, so make sure you are still interested before buying. We appreciate your support nonetheless.

It should be available now, we just published it a few minutes ago. We hope you enjoy your time with it!

Thank you very much for the kind words!
Yeah, the end messages, which we assume is what you are referring to when you say it was underwhelming, were meant to be left vague as to become as wide-reaching as possible for as many players as possible. Unfortunately, the effect is that it lacks the personal, directed feel of the rest of the experience, we agree. 

The new, yet-unannounced project we are currently working on is a spiritual successor of The Shape On The Ground. While being wider in scope and fundamentally different in gameplay mechanics, it came from a similar place initially. We hope it will please you as much as this one did!

Unfortunately, no. It is not currently viable to do so on Steam, especially as we cannot offer proper support if anything happens with a Linux copy. It would be a poor customer experience all around. We apologize.

Thank you very much for all the kind words! IMS was made with the means and technical knowledge I had at the time, and so I put all of my chips in the story / ambience of the game. I still stand by what I wrote in the postmortem, though : I would not touch that subject again, nor do I want to dive deep into this sort of darkness again. Hopefully, the game ideas I have for the future will be as gripping without being as harrowing, and will keep you coming back for more.
Also, it took a lot of time to get around to it, but I am warming up to the idea of openly advertising my games as simple / no death walking sims. Like, "safe horror"? Does that make sense? Anyway, I am glad such games can find an audience. And even though the games I have made up to now are lonely experiences, I understand wanting to share them with friends. I can only hope I make good games-as-conversation-pieces, if nothing else.

You can contact us at somewhatsoftware AT gmail DOT com
Otherwise, if you are running the game on PC and have an antivirus installed, try disabling the antivirus. It's a well known issue that some old Unity executables are being detected as a false threat.

Hey! Coozie! Always a pleasure to watch you play my games, as usual. I'm glad you stuck around to play the sequel, too. Love the editing you did, especially the ending, making it more abrupt than I originally made it. It adds to the surrealness of it all. 

Thank you very much for the very flattering comparison. There is a thin line between sex and death and horror, isn't it? Glad to see I threaded that line successfully!

Thank you very much for taking the time to play! Your comment honors me, and I hope the rest of my works will keep up to your expectations. Know that there is a sequel / prequel / related work to Please, called Please Follow, if you wanted to explore more of the same universe.

That's the intended effect. Glad the game works to its fullest intent!

I make sure to include a disclaimer on each of my game pages about Mac OSes. I personally cannot test to verify the games will work in every Mac environment. What I can say with certainty is that if you are running Catalina OS, my games will NOT run unless you use emulation of older OSes.
If this is not the answer you were expecting, and wish to get refund for the game you purchased, we can work something out. Contact me at somewhatsoftware AT gmail DOT com

"They ask nicely but they sound desperate as hell" might have been a throwaway comment you made, but it's right on the money.
Thank you for playing!

Thank you for playing, and thank you for the kind words!

Thank you for the comments! Since you have the bundle, note that you are also in possession of the sequel/prequel/alternate thingie, Please Follow. So if you are curious for more of the same universe, you can look into it.  Have fun!

Thank you very much! It was indeed an experiment in sound design first and foremost, so I am glad you've picked up on that aspect. 

Thank you for playing! Always happy to see the game find its audience, not everybody is out there looking for atmospheric experiences. I'm glad it found you.