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Spoilers ahead!

I'm glad you enjoyed it! The password does spell out the protagonist's fate. Wouldn't it be even more ironic if the same thing was foreshadowed in the very first line of dialogue in the entire game ...

A lot of thought and planning goes into all my games. I'm thinking of posting the planning for each game after five more games have been made, so the planning for Acrophile will likely be on my twitter soon!

Thanks for playing! Do let the story sink in for a bit, I tried to give a lot to chew on. Left a comment as always.

Sort of. There's a hint in the references file

Thanks! I hope the ending was worth it :)

I'm glad you enjoyed it! As for a secret, I wonder what that lock on the main menu means ...

I'm glad to hear that you enjoyed it! I spent a while on the sound design alone. I needed the music to emphasise the horror of the thing you eluded to ... but also how it can turn into a rich sadness. 

Also, Soma is amazing - the central philosophical idea to the plot makes for a baffling yet perfectly logical opening and possibly the best video game ending I have ever experienced. 

Congrats on unlocking the epilogue! The board of coloured dots does have a meaning. What the colours indicate is straightforward, but I'm guessing you're either asking why some colours are duplicated, or why some circles are filled in. I'll cipher the answer with rot13. 

Gur pvepyrf ner n puebabybtvpny fhzznel: rzcgl pvepyrf jrer snyfr cbfvgvir qvirf, shyy pvepyrf jrer gehr cbfvgvir qvirf. 

Thank you for your log files! It should be fixed now.

I believe what happened was the drag & drop script wouldn't reset if the customer walked away while you were dragging the fish. Was able to replicate the bug with v1.0.1, and with v1.0.2 it doesn't happen any more.

Thank you for playing! The environment took a lot of fiddling to get right. Originally there was a sun visible in the sky that produced harsh shadows that lengthened as the sun set. It was cool, but the clarity through the air ruined the impression that the rain was super heavy (something I wanted from the beginning), so I scrapped it for fog and it felt way more claustrophobic. 

As for your question: 

Gur cebgntbavfg vf zneevrq gb gur crefba va gur svefg nhqvb ybt jub unf gur qnex terra pbybhe ... gur bayl crefba jubfr anzr vf arire zragvbarq.

(comment contains BIG spoilers)

Congratulations on getting the secret ending! I definitely made this one way to difficult to get and I'm making sure they're more approachable in the future. Someone has found the secret ending before (look up Ochre Secret Ending on YouTube) but you're the first, it seems, to want to really understand it!

As for the clue's wording, I tried to keep 'time' as the main object of the slipping and 'sand' the secondary object. Maybe brackets would have been better instead of commas: 

"... to realise when time (like sand) is slipping through your fingers ..."

"it feels like time is slipping through my fingers"

There was originally no 'sand' there. But at some later point I added "like sand" to link it to an hourglass and must have missed that the sentence wasn't as clear anymore.

I'd love to answer your questions - I won't flat out spoil the whole story but I'll ask some questions (kinda like the Socratic method).

1. The elevator's functionality is clued by the inscription: it descends when four people stand around it who are ALL 'transferred' as you put it. The inscription is composed of three drawings. The first two depict an elevator descending when the humanoid figure has no swirl on their face. The third slice shows four dots around a (strangely familiar) square symbol - this is a bird's eye view of what is required. It wouldn't make sense if one person was living, because "Not a single soul had witnessed the opening of the studio. And not a single one ever would."

2. Olivia's face - like everyone else's - disappears after looking at her painting, but before her painting is placed back on the wall. When she's walking toward the obelisk, her face has already vanished. You say 'she's doomed to a different eternal life', but the normal ending and the secret are the EXACT SAME ending, from different perspectives. (Remember, she cannot avoid her fate, it's inescapable.) What part of Olivia do you think the normal ending focuses on? What about the secret ending? These two parts of her have been separated from one another.

3. The office-like chamber does represent something, but I don't think I'll reveal too much yet. It's related to an underlying theme. To explore the theme, consider: 

a) Why does the symbol on the ticket (and the game icon) look the way it does? (it's not arbitrary)

b) What one feeling are all three characters suffering from (in different ways)? What are the sources of this feeling?

c) The oracle says "The combination of iron, the inorganic, and oxygen, the organic ... it's unnatural." They attribute it to iron-oxide in a literal sense, but what else is it reminiscent of metaphorically?

d) What was Olivia reminded of here: "Faceless people within square frames ... it reminds me of something but I can't quite put my finger on it."

e) The entire secret ending process places importance on 'taking a break'. From what? There's a literal answer - the game - but what's the metaphorical answer? 

Your comment about the Oracle is spot on :)

And yeah, in retrospect it was definitely overly-obtuse. I think I got too adventurous after people found Pleonexia's secret ending so easily and ramped it up way too much. Your idea about locking the secret ending in when you enter the words is a good way to simplify a secret ending, and I'll consider doing something similar in the future. I might not change this one though, because I think it's nice every once in a while to have bits of my games that are extra hard to sus out, like rabbit holes, so that you can dig your fingers really deep into the them and still pull stuff out.

Thanks so much for playing!

Hmm that is weird. Sorry! It doesn't seem anyone has encountered that glitch before. I don't have access to my PC at the moment but when I do I'll take a look and let you know what I find.  

Since the game might have crashed, it'd be great if I could get your playthrough's log files. 

You'll find them in this folder:

%USERPROFILE%\AppData\LocalLow\WhileGameIsFalse\Pleonexia

Send them over to whilegameisfalse@gmail.com

Answer is ciphered to hide spoilers (chuck it into rot13.com to decipher)

Ab bar qebjaf va gur bprna, ohg gurer ner qernz frdhraprf jurer gur cynlre snyyf vagb jngre, naq n cvpgher qrcvpgvat sbeprshy vatrfgvba bs jngre.

wahoo :(

Thanks for playing! My early Christmas present was another awesome voice over from you! Left a comment on your YT video as well.

Soundtrack is finally up! You can find it here:

arvgure ner neovgenevyl pubfra yby, gurl obgu unir fcrpvsvp zrnavatf. gur frpbaq xrlcnq vf n uvag sbe gur rcvybthr pbqr, naq gur qan rkprecg nvqf gur fgbel. gur qan vf sebz n pregnva trar (frr ersreraprf). gurer ner uhaqerqf bs gubhfnaqf bs uhzna trarf, ohg v pubfr gung bar.

Thanks for playing! I couldn't wait to watch your playthrough. Left a comment on the channel but yeah, I agree with the criticisms. And about the soundtrack ... I have been thinking about putting the music from my games on my YouTube channel. Might be coming soon ...

Just watched the playthrough and left a comment on the video. Thanks for playing!

Yeah - I saw your reply on YT as well - guiding players was tricky. Making Echo say "I should walk over to this specific window to ponder...." over and over can make the narrative seem forced. Making the box appear on the counter without any sound or warning also can be easy to miss. I learned a lot of quirks about 3D games from making this one. Lesson learned. And thank you for your donation, I always appreciate them! :) They are completely optional, so please never feel obligated.

Thanks for playing! Each game I've made has a rich narrative. I've left a more detailed comment on your YouTube video. You did find a bug (the window thingy) so I might patch that.

Thanks for playing!

Thanks!

Thanks! Glad you liked the debate. As for the hint, I'll cipher it for spoiler protection.

V'z nffhzvat lbh'ir nyernql ernq gur pyhr va gur ersreraprf svyr (vs abg, purpx vg bhg). Va gur onfrzrag ner gjb cvrprf bs cncre. Bar cvrpr bs cncre vf n xrlcnq, ohg lbh nyernql fnj n xrlcnq ba gur onfrzrag qbbe. Jul vf gurer n frpbaq bar? Jung'f qvssrerag orgjrra gurz? Gur bgure cvrpr bs cncre ybbxf yvxr n qvpgvbanel ragel ...

The cipher is rot13 (you can use rot13.com). Let me know if you're still stuck :)

I'm glad you enjoyed, and thanks for donating!

(Comment contains spoilers)

Let me immediately begin by thanking you so much for your determination and patience! It means a lot when I see someone trying to see the secret ending. You've put in more than enough time than I expected and you deserve clarity! I must admit I think I've made this secret ending too hard/convoluted to get. Multiple oversights on my part. I haven't heard of anyone getting it in comments or videos, so I'll give you some hints and hopefully others will benefit from it too.

Based on what you've figured out, you're not far from getting the secret ending. From my experience with puzzles, being told the answer is never as rewarding as figuring it out yourself, so this comment will not spoil it entirely (but will get close). Feel free to stop reading if you get any ideas. But I also understand that's not how everyone likes to play games, so if you want the answer straight up please let me know and I will be happy to provide in further comments! I spent a solid bit of time on the secret ending so I hope it's worth it.

To get the secret ending, there is a certain action you have to perform at a certain time. The advice has two important parts to use.

1.                      The first is the group of 4 underlined words, forming an idiom. In the entire game, there is only ONE other time that idiom is used. You can only get the secret ending when the paragraph containing that idiom is the one you're currently "reading". That is to say, the second it shows up, wait for any automatic text to finish and do NOT press space! If you press space, the next paragraph will start typing and the chance is gone. I know ... very unforgiving. (This is what "only in that very moment" tries to imply).

Oversight by me: The idiom only shows up the second time if the game knows you've received the advice during THAT playthrough. Originally it would show on every playthrough, but that left open the possibility for people to accidentally stumble upon the secret ending without experiencing the bad ending first (which would narratively make no sense). So, it only shows if you have the advice, which you can only get after the bad ending. Not the best idea in retrospect because people might not realise this and without a save system the game takes a long time to play.

That leads me to my next oversight: the idiom doesn't show up at the most convenient time - it's not at the beginning of the game, nor in the middle ... sorry. It's not during the bad ending either, so never click "It's no use. There's no way out.". You also have to have given the old lady her painting.

2.                The second important part is the action you have to perform. Hitting the X to close the window isn't the answer: Due to the way the game is currently programmed, no information is retained when the game window closes (hence why there is no save system). When the game is reopened, it has no knowledge of what you did on previous playthroughs.

There will be an indication when you perform the right action - you should notice something different. If you stop at the right moment and don't hit space, you should eventually find it.

If only there was some functionality implemented into the game that seemed redundant. As if the entire game could be perfectly playable without it, but for some strange reason … it's there.

Hope this is enough and good luck! I'll respond if you want further hints or the answer. Use headphones to get the most of the secret ending. :)

Thanks! Glad you enjoyed.

Yes, I use Unity (for now...). The glitching component of my shader works by displacing (tiny) square regions of the image by a random amount, at random intervals. The locations of the squares are determined by random translations of a texture that is fed into the shader (they are not procedural). 

I did base mine on Yames' one but I know for sure mine doesn't replicate theirs exactly. When designing it, I drew on the shader examples from Shaders Laboratory (which is an amazing free resource in general). At least to me, programming shaders through code is difficult, so if it's any consolation, I made mine with heaps of trial and error. Maybe if you're using the shader graph it might be a bit easier.

Left a comment on your channel - thanks again for playing! I do understand that the text adventure isn't like the usual ones (e.g., commands like north/n, use, take, inventory/i). That's definitely one of the things I'd change if I made another text adventure, but I probably won't make one for a while (I think most people prefer the visually-oriented ones). I'm planning the next game to be of the sort. Glad you enjoyed the slow-burn horror!

I'm excited for you to play it! And yes, the hint is intended to make no sense in isolation haha. I will also not confirm nor deny your sneaky suspicion.

(comment may contain spoilers)

Thanks a bunch! Yes, this was very much a change in focus, with narrative being #1. I mirror your thoughts about game mechanics exactly - they were designed secondary to the story, so I can see how they feel a bit separated.

I agree that there isn't much in the way of branching possibilities - the idea that you may not be able to change your fate is part of the story, so many events have to happen. And yes, this adventure has certainly taught me text adventures are hard to code!

I hadn't even realised the release in America would be so fitting, so lucky me. Good luck for the secret ending! Don't forget there are hints in the usual place.

Thanks for playing! I watched your playthrough a couple weeks ago. As for allusion, there are loads of hints (some maybe too subtle...) that contribute to the underlying story, including: the colour of the people, the lack of bird sounds/fish/insects, the notebook, effects congruent with cordyceps, the propensity of the tribe members to use tactile descriptors, the way Arthur has an idle animation but tribe members don't, etc. Glad you enjoyed! 

Just watched your playthough! The secret ending answers some of your questions (but it also raises a few of its own haha). Thanks for playing!

Thanks so much!

Thanks for playing!

(spoilers)

Yes, that's intentional. The game is deliberately designed so that you can't satisfy everyone. So don't worry if you can't catch some! Additionally, there is some leniency to it, so you can even miss some fish and still be alright.   

Thank you! It's in the works.

Much appreciated!

Yeah I knew it was a risk trying a 'real-time' system, and my intention was to instil a sense of panic/stress, but at the same time I can understand how, when combined with the randomness of the fishing, players could find it tedious/annoying. Thanks for the feedback.

Thanks! Just watched your video. There is a secret ending that doesn't leave you in the dark. You don't have to complete the entire game again to get it, but you could alternatively just search up someone else's playthrough and watch it. I liked your interpretations of the characters' voices!

Good to hear! Unfortunately it's likely I won't continue this story. I think how I want to approach game development is to have each game explore a different idea, considering I have accumulated many ideas that could become games and I only have so much time to develop. I think I want all my games to be one collective anthology. (As a bonus, I'll never have to worry about under-delivering on a sequel, haha.) And no, I haven't read that story of his (but I am aware of other things he has written). Thanks for playing!

Thanks!

Hmm... it says you can't be messaged. You might need to check the 'allow messages from everyone' option in settings