Apparatus

"Apparatus" is a cute, positive little game about the relationship to yourself and to the world.
You start as a slime-thingie trying to find out what you are and what you want - you meet our Freudian companions Id, ego and super-ego. Which makes one wonder what you are .. are you the body, part of the ego or something else entirely?

Either way, you find yourself stumbling through a cute, quickly drawn world, talk to the residents there and find many catch-phrases concerning our life.
That relationships are hard work and are only worth keeping if they make you happy (add value to your life), for example.


Riddle solved : I'm part of the walls

The whole game was made very quickly and it shows on numerous ends - orthography, graphics, mapping.
Additionally to the lack of any capital letters, there are numerous typos to be found. Items can be infinitely obtained, by the by. They only have a symbolic meaning, so that does not hurt very much.

The graphics are custom-made, but very quickly. There are some glitches every now and then as well (your slime phasing through objects, for example)
There are only 2 house ex- and interiors which are out of proportion to each other (intereriors huge, exterior almost your slime slize). While this all applies and some areas appear quite messy, it has a cute flavor to it and it contribute to the feeling of uncertainty with all its undefined lines.

The music track is quite suiting, however. The cutesy does stand in contrast to the themes talked about, but this is a deliberate and rather charming aspect of this game (a little bit like Pen Pals I wonder how much more often I will reference this game..)


So it is.

There is no real action to be taken at all. You walk around and talk a bit, that is it. Yet that is not a bad thing.

Your "companions" are symbolizing your core parts, and while I cannot fully agree with Freud, it is a fact that we have different "parts" of ourselves which make up our ego. These different trains of thought presented toward one topic appear only natural in the game.

The world itself, specifically the distorted residents, seem to represent the different impulses we got from the external world - reminding us of what we want and need to do in the world.
It does not get specific, it is kept in a very general sense and you are then presented with some general phrases concerning our lives.
I doubt this could be seen as deep, but I find that the simple truths are what we need to remind ourselves of.
I think this game does what it sets out to do. But it could need some polish, and some activities to tie the message to your actions.

It is not a game that questions your existance or that wants you to think hard or change yourself, but it is a game that gives you a little bit positive energy and that fluffy feeling you need to keep going. It is quite alright to not be certain of everything in your life.