Nightwards, Heartwards

scornz 2017-05-02 00:27

Screenshots look amazing, but I can't seem to download it from itch.io... it's downloading a small 10 KB file full of text. Let me know when this is fixed and I'll come back and vote!

miotis 2017-05-02 01:46

Absolutely beautiful. Thank you!

flo-m 2017-05-03 08:52

@scornz Is it PC or Mac, downloading from the itch website or the app? We haven't seen these problems ourselves - try downloading it from the website/app instead (if you can), otherwise try the direct download link (where it says 'Download PC/Mac version' above). If those still don't work, let me know and I'll see what else I can do!

2017-05-03 13:35

Interesting game! I included it in my Ludum Dare 38 compilation [video series](https://youtu.be/NY55jLVxX30), if you’d like to take a look :)

binaryferret 2017-05-11 13:53

Interesting idea! Mostly text driven game, and that's good because I enjoyed your writing style :D The visuals suited the style of the game you were getting across.

Good job!

juju-adams 2017-05-11 22:03

This is definitely the kind of game I'd play on my tablet in bed. I love the writing; everything feels as though I'm peering through the mists of some kind of opium-fuelled dream. It's marvellous.

The transitions add to the feeling of mysticism with imagery that is wonderfully ambiguous, communicating both motion and state in intelligent ways: the direction of travel for each transition feels natural, an extension of the scene that's being conveyed. It took me a while to notice that the background changes colour too (and it appears to be a different colour for each aspect?) which is a lovely piece of polish that I'm glad you had time for.

This is a sort of labyrinthe, isn't it? That the game lets you explore first and then starts guiding you to goals is intelligent, though I do feel the opening phases go on a bit too long. Working out a way to get two companions at the same time took a lot of trial and error... perhaps there's some feedback missing there that'd help the process along.

This is the type of cloud-watching game I enjoy. No time pressure, just some words and a lot of imagination. Thanks for sharing.

randomhuman 2017-05-12 15:11

Very interesting concept, and beautifully executed.

5mixer 2017-05-13 11:26

Hmm, very unique and interesting game. I've never really been a big player of text games, but I tried to follow this one. I kinda get that it's a bit abstract. I found the four people, but wasn't really sure what to do - or even if there was an ultimate goal. I thought I'd have to try and get all four people togethor, but wasn't too succesful heh. I like the transitions. Audio was okay, and kinda suited the very abstract, mysterious vibe you had, though sometimes it got a little annoying when it went high pitched. Overall, a good entry that I struggled to fully understand :)

ellian 2017-05-14 10:46

What a weird, unique game! The audio was very loud and creaking in my headphones; but the overall atmosphere was weirdly interesting. I kinda liked the message it was trying to give in its own weird way.

ocarson 2017-05-16 02:46

Well written, mysterious game! I go in to more detail in this video. https://youtu.be/v2p2lrV26C4

qzqxq 2017-05-16 03:45

This was quite the interesting experience! I was able to get two people together and starting receiving "quests" to go to the edges and corners of the map, but I then started getting very vague quests like "Find a home" that I couldn't interpret, so I stopped.

I don't think I was the intended audience for this game; the writing was very poetic and you clearly have talent, but it was also too abstract for me to appreciate fully. It was a little weird since the characters are quite concrete (e.g. they clearly leave you for being too focused on the mind or the heart), but the location descriptions are all very vague and abstract. There was a similar weird contrast with the quests that just asked you to go to the edge of the screen vs. the more fuzzy quests; I think it would have felt more consistent if all of the quests were of the latter type and the player had to experiment to figure out what was going on.

I probably would have enjoyed this game more if the story was slightly more concrete and I had some goal or narrative to hold on to, as opposed to wandering around and trying to make sense of cryptic instructions. However, all of this feedback is very subjective and pretty much a matter of taste.

On the positive side, I really loved the polish you put into this. The visuals, like the background and the transitions between locations, are very pretty and fit the game well. The music and sound effects also fit in pretty well. The compass and the arrows pointing at the 4 characters are excellent additions: without them, I would have been hopelessly lost. Overall, this really feels like a complete and polished game, so nice job!

diegoctorguet 2017-05-16 11:14

This entry is interesting. It has that experimental vibe which catched me very fast but I found some difficulties about understanding what the different states of mind are. Maybe it's just for my lack of knowledge on the topic but I felt a bit lost playing it, and I ended playing it without reading the texts to see where it was going to. I've searched if anyone in youtube played it and had the same problem and I saw he ended up making the same as me. Maybe you could work a bit more in making the game more friendly by giving a bit more of context. Cool music, concept and art. And some fragments I've read are neat too. I love to see a completed game as an entry, and I'm sure the correct people can enjoy it. Good job!

yetikatt 2017-05-17 22:43

Lovely art-style, and an interesting idea, I found the four people and read the text, I wasn't sure if I was perhaps missing some greater symbolic meaning? But all in all it was a very interesting concept and kept my attention for the whole thing. the UI has been executed superbly. A great and unique entry. Well done!