I really like your choice of pictures and the object head people you made! They're quite delightful!
Ms. Lucy and Arthur's perspectives on what makes a good life are pretty solid, and Lucy's in particular made me tear up a little, hehe. Both neighbors are interesting characters and feel like pretty great people to spend the end of times hanging with
I think my current interpretation of the TV is that it represents Echo (and a lot of people)'s fears about what the end of the world will feel like. The fire and neighbor on neighbor slaughter are very "revelation" and I think I've heard of religions having floods in their final days too. Ragnarök seems to end with everything underwater...
So she holes up in the mysterious room, which continues to feed her more terrible predictions.
Meanwhile the gentle end, and beautiful lights, are something a bit more hopeful. Even though it's still the end, it's nice and you can be with your friends to see it. The fact that it's always the same, unlike the TV, seems to suggest that the narrative sees it as the "real" end of the world. Maybe? I dunno
I do feel like the protagonist was primed by the neighbors to expect the end of the world to be nice, so maybe that has something to do with how they consistently see it was pretty and nice. Still, when Echo finally ("touches grass"haha) sees it herself outside the room, she seems to also confirm that it's similarly pleasant. Unless there's something in the air that's making them BOTH hallucinate pleasant things, and the TV was right all along!!!!
It's probably a mistake to try to find an "objective reality" in a weirdcore game anyway, ehehehe
I think the time loop function makes the message of the story more unclear. The protagonist all four endings says that they're going to keep repeating this infinitely. Maybe this represents how we're always not sure what day will be out last day, but the world keeps going regardless? Or maybe there's no metaphor to apply backwards to real life, and I should just enjoy this strange world where the end of the world happens forever and ever.
Thanks for this semi-spooky game to enjoy on Halloween!
Gave me indescribable feeling. Like, I feel something deep after playing this but, I just can't decipher it. Thank you all the same, though!
If I can say one thing, it's that I enjoyed the gimick of having to choose different name each time. It gave me the chance to explore truly being all the names I've gone through over the years, and that nice. Oh! I also liked the duality in the end of the world being what you saw it to be. That was quite poetic I think
aaa this was such a cool experience!! i came here from 'my robot boyfriend' (i also loved it, so thats why i went looking for everyone's other works lmao) and i'm not disappointed!! the whole vibe is impeccable.... i loved the characters and i loved how you can't choose the same name and how every time you try it gives you a new message... it was a nice detail!!
i read the devlogs you wrote and just wanted to share my own interpretation about the game.
to me the story as a whole explores the 'what's the point of all this' question. arthur and ms. lucy at some point try to answer that too. it's like when you're a kid and you don't see life as a sequence of days, but only one day at a time -- and that's why you feel so eager to try to do everything the MOMENT you wish for it. or when you are a teen and every chore you're given you try to dismiss by asking "why should i do that, if i'm going to die anyway?", "why should i organize my bed if i'm going to sleep on it tonight?"... or even the bizarre advice of "live every day like it's your last" (i never agreed with it anyway,,,,,,). it all boils down to "why am i here? what do i exist for?" i guess.
that existencial crisis can make you anxious. and i think that's what happens to echo. she is so disturbed by the end of things, worried about how they will end, that she shuts herself in a room to hide from all of that (and i expand this "fear" not only for the end of life (death) but for other things too (friendships, relationships in general -- i thought of that after seeing the 'bloody end of the world' sequence). she's scared and lonely. she feeds on a tv -- a symbol of media -- that tells her everything she fears will happen. (reminds me a bit of how people would get so scared and down when feeding themselves with the news in the pandemic tbh...)
it's not... an easy thing to overcome. i guess with depression and anxiety it gets hard to get over that fear of the end and accept it as a nice thing -- or as a new beginning, as the game suggests every time you change your name -- but friends can help you.
also i need to say that i really love the friendship between the main character and echo, aaaaaa. how she accepts each iteration of them, and how they themselves accept her and try to help her every time. even in the loop before the last one, when they get frustrated with searching for her, they don't give up on it and don't lash on her when they meet. they're really supportive of each other and that was incredibly sweet.
i guess that sometimes it is like that. you get scared, and you need someone to stay by your side, just for you to listen. some other times, you need someone to pull you out of your comfort zone and reassure you in the meanwhile. both things are okay. and i like how both are portrayed here. every day is a new day.
idk i just rambled a lot here ksffkjsfsdhfs but this game made me Feel Things and i'm really glad for it. i loved the vibe and the message and the characters and everything, really. excellent work!!!!!!! thanks for this game
Oh my gosh, thank you so much for the comment! (Sorry for the late reply, I've been really busy lately with finals.) And also thank you so much for reading the devlogs. I'm never sure if people actually read them all the way through or not, so it's really nice to know that people do. (I really need to write another devlog about the flower language used throughout the game, but we'll see if I can get around to it lol).
I really enjoyed reading your interpretation, especially the part about the TV because it's not something I considered. When I wrote about the TV, I intended it as a way of making it ambiguous whether the events on the TV were really happening or not. But it is absolutely true that spending so much of your time watching the news can feed into your fears and anxiety. The news is such a strange thing because on the one hand, watching it all the time can ramp up your anxiety, but on the other hand sometimes you feel guilty for not keeping up with what's going on the world.
It's also very true that when you're a kid, the days pass so slowly. And then your parents try to convince you to wait until tomorrow to do something, but tomorrow is just so far away.
I'm really glad you liked the friendship between Echo and MC because it is central to the story. In every iteration, they are friends. They have an eternal bond. It makes me feel anxious when friends fight, so even though MC initially blames Echo during Day 4, it was very important to me to make sure that that anger did not last.
It is totally cool that you rambled in your comment. I love to read people's ramblings about things they enjoy. But I am especially glad that this game impacted you so much :) Thank you for sharing.
It is absolutely amazing! I am crazy about weirdcore/dreamcore, and i am so happy that there is A WHOLE GAME with such style! More dreamcore to a god of dreamcore O3O
As for the game itself, i found it very cute, really. It is sweet and inspiring, but not in a moralizing way. I believe we all have our End of the world, sometimes it happens more often, sometimes less. And we all want to hide from it in a room behind a white door. But we can't hide forever. And sometimes it is worth facing this End and realizing it is not that scary! And more importantly - with friends and strawberry cupcakes - no apocalypse can be frightening hahaha
As a person who heavily struggles with mental health - such games really affect me. Good luck in future projects, dear creator <3
Thank you so much for your lovely comment! Sorry for not responding earlier.
There are more weirdcore and dreamcore games on this site that you should absolutely check out if you haven't already. I really enjoyed playing Eurydice--it's a very short VN with two endings.
I'm really glad you liked the story. One of my goals when writing it was to make sure that it didn't come off as preachy, which is an easy trap to fall into, so I decided that when the player asks the adults for help, the adults should give them real answers, answers that they believe in, not watered down answers because they're "just a child."
There's something really beautiful about good endings. There's this sense to me that friendship is eternal. The story may end, but the relationships continue.
I also struggle with mental health. In fact, it has just occurred to me that I have had mental health problems for longer than not. I am glad that this game was a comfort to you.
I love your game! I had a lot of fun trying to guess what was really going on, I think my guesses ranged from multiverse of ending dimensions, to a glitch in the matrix trapping us to repeat doomsday.
The pacing is great and the surreal imagery works perfectly with the narrative, creating a psychedelic effect that has you further questioning everything. The inclusion of rejecting repeated names was also a really nice touch, definitely pushed me away from the 'groundhog day' scenario.
I am so curious about the end of the world events shown in the room. Whether they are just videos fabricated by the room to torment our friend, or if that is what is shown simply because that's what our friend is expecting to see. Could also be that they are the true events, and what the party-goers experience is nothing more than one intense psychological trip.
AAAHHHH, thank you so much! I really enjoyed watching your playthrough! Concerning the rejected names, I think the game kept rejecting the shorter names because the conditional statement was only looking at the letters of your names in order, so it rejected the shorter versions of your name while accepting the longer ones, if that makes sense.
I liked listening to your different theories about what was really going on. I might explain my own interpretation of it in a devlog later, but it might be more fun to let everyone have their own interpretations of it. For me, the reason why there is no explanation in-game is because I've discovered that some of the eeriest experiences I've had in gaming have been from games that never explained the mystery in full. The game just drops you in the middle and expects you to find your way on your own. That's what I wanted to do with this game. Which version of the apocalypse is the true one? How much does everyone remember from their past lives? Where is Echo? That's never explained, so you have to find your own way through.
A very surreal and dreamcore Visual Novel full of interesting characters, a wacky world, a surprisingly touching story plus a very fun gameplay mechanic, I won't spoil anything here but it was really fun playing the game over and over again, the endings are also very satisfying.
It's very interesting playing trough the perspective of a little kid during an event of this magnitude and see their attitude towards other people that maybe are just misunderstood. 10/10 would dream here again.
You have no idea how excited I was when I saw that someone made a video out of my strange game! Thank you so much! I'm glad you enjoyed it. I went with a child's perspective for this for two reasons. One, weirdcore and dreamcore rely heavily on nostalgic and childish imagery. Two, I felt like telling the story from a child's point of view would let the player take the apocalypse for granted. As in, of course the world is ending today, of course we will celebrate it. What else would we do for the apocalypse?
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I really like your choice of pictures and the object head people you made! They're quite delightful!
Ms. Lucy and Arthur's perspectives on what makes a good life are pretty solid, and Lucy's in particular made me tear up a little, hehe. Both neighbors are interesting characters and feel like pretty great people to spend the end of times hanging with
I think my current interpretation of the TV is that it represents Echo (and a lot of people)'s fears about what the end of the world will feel like. The fire and neighbor on neighbor slaughter are very "revelation" and I think I've heard of religions having floods in their final days too. Ragnarök seems to end with everything underwater...
So she holes up in the mysterious room, which continues to feed her more terrible predictions.
Meanwhile the gentle end, and beautiful lights, are something a bit more hopeful. Even though it's still the end, it's nice and you can be with your friends to see it. The fact that it's always the same, unlike the TV, seems to suggest that the narrative sees it as the "real" end of the world. Maybe? I dunno
I do feel like the protagonist was primed by the neighbors to expect the end of the world to be nice, so maybe that has something to do with how they consistently see it was pretty and nice. Still, when Echo finally ("touches grass"haha) sees it herself outside the room, she seems to also confirm that it's similarly pleasant. Unless there's something in the air that's making them BOTH hallucinate pleasant things, and the TV was right all along!!!!
It's probably a mistake to try to find an "objective reality" in a weirdcore game anyway, ehehehe
I think the time loop function makes the message of the story more unclear. The protagonist all four endings says that they're going to keep repeating this infinitely. Maybe this represents how we're always not sure what day will be out last day, but the world keeps going regardless? Or maybe there's no metaphor to apply backwards to real life, and I should just enjoy this strange world where the end of the world happens forever and ever.
Thanks for this semi-spooky game to enjoy on Halloween!
Gave me indescribable feeling. Like, I feel something deep after playing this but, I just can't decipher it. Thank you all the same, though!
If I can say one thing, it's that I enjoyed the gimick of having to choose different name each time. It gave me the chance to explore truly being all the names I've gone through over the years, and that nice. Oh! I also liked the duality in the end of the world being what you saw it to be. That was quite poetic I think
aaa this was such a cool experience!! i came here from 'my robot boyfriend' (i also loved it, so thats why i went looking for everyone's other works lmao) and i'm not disappointed!! the whole vibe is impeccable.... i loved the characters and i loved how you can't choose the same name and how every time you try it gives you a new message... it was a nice detail!!
i read the devlogs you wrote and just wanted to share my own interpretation about the game.
to me the story as a whole explores the 'what's the point of all this' question. arthur and ms. lucy at some point try to answer that too. it's like when you're a kid and you don't see life as a sequence of days, but only one day at a time -- and that's why you feel so eager to try to do everything the MOMENT you wish for it. or when you are a teen and every chore you're given you try to dismiss by asking "why should i do that, if i'm going to die anyway?", "why should i organize my bed if i'm going to sleep on it tonight?"... or even the bizarre advice of "live every day like it's your last"
(i never agreed with it anyway,,,,,,). it all boils down to "why am i here? what do i exist for?" i guess.that existencial crisis can make you anxious. and i think that's what happens to echo. she is so disturbed by the end of things, worried about how they will end, that she shuts herself in a room to hide from all of that (and i expand this "fear" not only for the end of life (death) but for other things too (friendships, relationships in general -- i thought of that after seeing the 'bloody end of the world' sequence). she's scared and lonely. she feeds on a tv -- a symbol of media -- that tells her everything she fears will happen.
(reminds me a bit of how people would get so scared and down whenfeeding themselves with the news in the pandemic tbh...)it's not... an easy thing to overcome. i guess with depression and anxiety it gets hard to get over that fear of the end and accept it as a nice thing -- or as a new beginning, as the game suggests every time you change your name -- but friends can help you.
also i need to say that i really love the friendship between the main character and echo, aaaaaa. how she accepts each iteration of them, and how they themselves accept her and try to help her every time. even in the loop before the last one, when they get frustrated with searching for her, they don't give up on it and don't lash on her when they meet. they're really supportive of each other and that was incredibly sweet.
i guess that sometimes it is like that. you get scared, and you need someone to stay by your side, just for you to listen. some other times, you need someone to pull you out of your comfort zone and reassure you in the meanwhile. both things are okay. and i like how both are portrayed here. every day is a new day.
idk i just rambled a lot here ksffkjsfsdhfs but this game made me Feel Things and i'm really glad for it. i loved the vibe and the message and the characters and everything, really. excellent work!!!!!!! thanks for this game
Oh my gosh, thank you so much for the comment! (Sorry for the late reply, I've been really busy lately with finals.) And also thank you so much for reading the devlogs. I'm never sure if people actually read them all the way through or not, so it's really nice to know that people do. (I really need to write another devlog about the flower language used throughout the game, but we'll see if I can get around to it lol).
I really enjoyed reading your interpretation, especially the part about the TV because it's not something I considered. When I wrote about the TV, I intended it as a way of making it ambiguous whether the events on the TV were really happening or not. But it is absolutely true that spending so much of your time watching the news can feed into your fears and anxiety. The news is such a strange thing because on the one hand, watching it all the time can ramp up your anxiety, but on the other hand sometimes you feel guilty for not keeping up with what's going on the world.
It's also very true that when you're a kid, the days pass so slowly. And then your parents try to convince you to wait until tomorrow to do something, but tomorrow is just so far away.
I'm really glad you liked the friendship between Echo and MC because it is central to the story. In every iteration, they are friends. They have an eternal bond. It makes me feel anxious when friends fight, so even though MC initially blames Echo during Day 4, it was very important to me to make sure that that anger did not last.
It is totally cool that you rambled in your comment. I love to read people's ramblings about things they enjoy. But I am especially glad that this game impacted you so much :) Thank you for sharing.
It is absolutely amazing! I am crazy about weirdcore/dreamcore, and i am so happy that there is A WHOLE GAME with such style! More dreamcore to a god of dreamcore O3O
As for the game itself, i found it very cute, really. It is sweet and inspiring, but not in a moralizing way. I believe we all have our End of the world, sometimes it happens more often, sometimes less. And we all want to hide from it in a room behind a white door.
But we can't hide forever. And sometimes it is worth facing this End and realizing it is not that scary! And more importantly - with friends and strawberry cupcakes - no apocalypse can be frightening hahaha
As a person who heavily struggles with mental health - such games really affect me.
Good luck in future projects, dear creator <3
Thank you so much for your lovely comment! Sorry for not responding earlier.
There are more weirdcore and dreamcore games on this site that you should absolutely check out if you haven't already. I really enjoyed playing Eurydice--it's a very short VN with two endings.
I'm really glad you liked the story. One of my goals when writing it was to make sure that it didn't come off as preachy, which is an easy trap to fall into, so I decided that when the player asks the adults for help, the adults should give them real answers, answers that they believe in, not watered down answers because they're "just a child."
There's something really beautiful about good endings. There's this sense to me that friendship is eternal. The story may end, but the relationships continue.
I also struggle with mental health. In fact, it has just occurred to me that I have had mental health problems for longer than not. I am glad that this game was a comfort to you.
Absolutely loved this! Thank you!
I'm so glad you liked it! Thank you for commenting!
The pacing is great and the surreal imagery works perfectly with the narrative, creating a psychedelic effect that has you further questioning everything. The inclusion of rejecting repeated names was also a really nice touch, definitely pushed me away from the 'groundhog day' scenario.
I am so curious about the end of the world events shown in the room. Whether they are just videos fabricated by the room to torment our friend, or if that is what is shown simply because that's what our friend is expecting to see. Could also be that they are the true events, and what the party-goers experience is nothing more than one intense psychological trip.
Amazing work on the Spooktober jam!
AAAHHHH, thank you so much! I really enjoyed watching your playthrough! Concerning the rejected names, I think the game kept rejecting the shorter names because the conditional statement was only looking at the letters of your names in order, so it rejected the shorter versions of your name while accepting the longer ones, if that makes sense.
I liked listening to your different theories about what was really going on. I might explain my own interpretation of it in a devlog later, but it might be more fun to let everyone have their own interpretations of it. For me, the reason why there is no explanation in-game is because I've discovered that some of the eeriest experiences I've had in gaming have been from games that never explained the mystery in full. The game just drops you in the middle and expects you to find your way on your own. That's what I wanted to do with this game. Which version of the apocalypse is the true one? How much does everyone remember from their past lives? Where is Echo? That's never explained, so you have to find your own way through.
Again, thanks so much!
nightmare fuel
My favorite kind of fuel.
(Glad you liked it!)
It's very interesting playing trough the perspective of a little kid during an event of this magnitude and see their attitude towards other people that maybe are just misunderstood. 10/10 would dream here again.
Keep up the good work!
You have no idea how excited I was when I saw that someone made a video out of my strange game! Thank you so much! I'm glad you enjoyed it. I went with a child's perspective for this for two reasons. One, weirdcore and dreamcore rely heavily on nostalgic and childish imagery. Two, I felt like telling the story from a child's point of view would let the player take the apocalypse for granted. As in, of course the world is ending today, of course we will celebrate it. What else would we do for the apocalypse?
Once again, thanks so much!
Arthur has such a beautiful face-equivalent~
Arthur: ...
Arthur: Thank you.
(Glad you like him!)