The characters are introduced one by one. They also sometimes have a backstory which may, or may not be interesting. You can save and/or load in this game. Otherwise, if you would not like to, that is fine too. The game has an end. It was made using my hands on a keyboard, by pressing keys and releasing them in turn. I also used the mouse occasionally, both dragging it across the wooden surface of my table, and clicking as well. I would do this in purposeful motions, to create the content of the game.
I hope you enjoy the game. Not to enjoy it is also an option.
What caught my attention right off the bat was how this is named "Project 1."
Glad it caught your attention. The first thing that came was the name, then everything else followed.
I thought that title was a smear on my screen or something xD Looks interesting!
A very cool, meta, and personal look into you and who you are, Cash. I found this to be quite a powerful experience, all things told, honest, a little bit clever, and very much about who you are as a person. ^_^ I enjoyed these 10-15 minutes.
Hide-Tag time for those who haven't played!
You explore a lot of concepts and ideas here that I really like. I REALLY like a game about making games! Very cool!
To be honest, the feeling I got playing this was: I think your biggest weakness as a developer is how harsh you are on your own ideas. The characters you create may have come about due to personal preferences, your own past, or even from partially shallow reasons, but that doesn't mean they are inferior or bad characters, as long as you continue to think of them as people and write them as such.
To that point, a lot of your own writing that you dismissed as "boring" or "bad" was in fact pretty decent. Sure, it's not perfect, but it's a step in the right direction. Being on a community where elements of games are scrutinized, sometimes over every small detail, can make us forget that no one is perfect. No one is born a saint.
As for that one room, there is no need to be ashamed of it. I know that bringing up during a debate about a certain subject caused a bit of a kerfuffle, but that was, in my opinion, just a case of the wrong time and place to bring it up. If you want to base games off of your faith, I say that you should do so! What's personal to us, what's most important... that's going to seep into our games a bit even if we don't want it to. It's all about how you convey your message to the world.
You are a very talented person with a lot of potential. It's okay to envy others. Just never forget that you have the power to do things that no one else has. No other game has spoken to me in quite the same way this one did. That in itself means a lot!
Okay, that's enough of me babbling and over-analyzing you over a game you made. ^^;; Hope I didn't step on any toes. The refreshing honesty of your game just made me want to respond in kind.
Thanks for being so open and taking a risk with your game!
The fun thing about these types of introspective narratives is that even attempting to explain a single actual human being evokes alot of real meaningful discussion. Which is the sign of a good writer in the first place.
I agree with Uni, you're pretty hard on yourself for not much reason! Even with the cookie-cutter characters I was entertained, and even more so to see that they were all just a part of the creator and aspects of the most important character in this story.
As for the last room? I really wish people could just believe what they want so long as it's not harming anyone/unhealthy. I'm fairly religious myself, which if I were to advertise, I'm sure I'd have a tougher life than I did. I don't find it really uncomfortable not telling anyone, but I also tend to leave out my sexuality among other things when I think about what I want to show the people around me.
I wish we lived in a world where everyone could be honest about themselves 100% of the time, but I have hope maybe one day soon we will live in that world.
Thank you to both of you for playing my game. I didn't expect such in-depth feedback. Your comments are both very inspiring so I'll address each of you in turn.
Thanks for your kinds words. I'm glad to know that someone actually got what I was trying to say, even if it may have been a little on the nose. As for my self-deprecation preventing me from creating characters... I had to somewhat exaggerate my self-deprecating personality in order to really convey how broken I felt when trying to be creative. I hope that my personal struggle with the creative process can help others feel less alone. Feel more like they're struggling with something that has been an obstacle for generations, and to treat it as a challenge rather than defeat.
I appreciated your PM regarding what I had to say in public. I was double-minded about whether to include "the room" in my game in the first place, but I felt like if I wanted to be truly heart-on-sleeve, that'd be the main thing I'd need to bare. It kind of went with the idea that I needed to elevate my personal life above my strive to be seen as artistic. If that makes people feel less lonely for having to make that decision, I feel like implementing that part of the game was worth it.
You didn't step on any toes, and in fact, I don't think it was over-analysis. I poured my heart into this little game made using purely RTP resources, and I feel like you understood it and validated my struggle, whilst also providing ways to cope and push through. Thanks for that.
Thank you. I hope that one day I'll be able to write a full story and implement it into a regular game. Creating a full story with characters and a plot is one of the things I've been striving to do for a long time. Your validation means a lot to me, and I'll keep struggling to figure this one out.
As I've said to unity, part of me felt like I didn't want to include the final room in the project, for fear of looking too "preachy" or to try and shoehorn religious themes into my game. For one, it was already a game that completely ignored the fourth wall and spoke directly to the player, so in that sense I was telling rather than showing at most points, which is generally seen as a bad practice. To add direct evangelization and baring my true spiritual motivations behind it all seemed like social as well as artistic suicide. But I feel like I'm proud that I did it, even if somewhat vulnerable at the same time.
Honesty is really good. I feel like sometimes I don't have to show everything to everyone, but then at the same time I feel like everyone should be able to tell anyone anything that they honestly feel about themselves, to be more transparent. Within reason, of course.
Thanks for your feedback. I appreciate you doing that very much.
Man, this game had me so much until the last scene.
Glad you enjoyed it until the end. Thanks for playing.
Haha! Let me know if you end up playing my game. If you're serious, it'd be nice to have a brother/sister game, anyway.
I'm sure you have vast amounts of imaginative ideas in your brain just waiting to be unleashed. I believe in you, bicfarmer!