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(SPOILER WARNING): Trials and Tribulations...

  • pianotm
  • 02/02/2016 08:49 PM
  • 2312 views
DEVELOPER: Superstroke

STORY: It doesn't seem like it, but there is a story. Mind you, it's more of a philosophical musing. Still, there's a story in it nonetheless. The main character, the Dreamer, is assigned a set of tasks. Though it's not apparent, there is a purpose behind these tasks. Upon completion of the tasks, the Dreamer has the opportunity to discover why he was assigned these tasks. Then, cyclically, the Dreamer is returned to the beginning of the game. It ends with a quote from No. 44, The Mysterious Stranger: Being an Ancient Tale Found in a Jug and Freely Translated from the Jug by Mark Twain. I won't reveal the quote, but I will say that it runs along the lines of the quote, "Life itself is only a vision...a dream. Nothing exists, save empty space and you. And you...are but a thought." The game has atmosphere that lends itself more to a nightmare than a dream, using the same kind of dark ambient, industrial style of music as games such as Silent Hill, with equally dark ambient images. Set in a place where you have no past or future, the game appears to present a metaphor for death, or rather a place somewhere between life and death. The fact that the game repeats over and over again suggests a Purgatory of some kind. The messages and philosophies described in the text suggest more of a Buddhist view of life, strongly following the concept that there is no reality except individual perception. Some may find the assertions Trial makes to be slightly pretentious, but a deeper look reveals an advanced understanding of how the human mind works; the distinction between the Dreamer, the Dupe, and the Examiner echoes the Freudian concept of the Id, the Ego, and the Super-ego. More interestingly, upon deeper examination of the human mind, we find that these separations in our psyche are more tangible than a metaphorical idea in psychology. Learning to meditate clearly demonstrates that there are, in fact three individual thought processes operating at all times. Superstroke clearly understands this, as in the actual psyche, there is an observer aspect of our minds that operates above our active consciousness that we are only rarely aware of, in the game, there is an Examiner that we do not control, and rarely see, but watches all that we do. There's a lot to take in from this game considering that there's only a few minutes of gameplay and a few lines of text. Ultimately, I may be overthinking this as there is a psychological hook that suggests that nothing you do matters anyway, giving the game a distinctly nihilist subtext. When one considers this aspect, one could easily see this game telling you that nothing you do matters.

GAMEPLAY: The gameplay is nothing special. You can control the direction your character faces whatever direction you're walking, which is something you don't regularly see in controls, but other than that, the puzzles are essentially simple switch puzzles, with a fairly basic timed combination puzzle. It can be challenging if you don't know the rules of the puzzles, but once you've figured out how everything works, there is very little intellectual challenge in solving the puzzles. All in all, the game isn't bad, but it's more thought provoking than challenging. The game even comes with a psychological hook. If you figure out the meaning of the game, you'll realize that you could have simply done nothing and made it all the way to the end.

PRESENTATION: Very nice. The game flows seamlessly. The scene and act divisions are laid out in the most basic, clearly comprehensible way, evenly dividing the challenges throughout the game. There is a distinctly dark tone, that firmly asserts that the Dreamer lives in darkness, darkness being analogous with ignorance. Well constructed and well thought out.

GRAPHICS: A close look shows that the tiles are a combination of original assets and a mix of tiles culled from other resources. It looks original, but close examination reveals some very familiar objects. It's all put together seamlessly, and flows nicely. Every asset, whatever its origin, looks like it was made for this game. The minimalist Dreamer and Examiner are clearly original assets made for this game. I can find no flaws in the image construction. There is nothing glaringly out of place; nothing that feels like it doesn't belong in this game, which is very rare for even the best Indie RPG Maker titles.

MUSIC: A bit uber-grimdark, in my opinion. It seems appropriate to the atmosphere, but it really is the kind of music that makes you expect a zombie or some cosmic horror to jump out at any moment, which is definitely the kind of atmosphere this game is not going for. I understand what Superstroke was going for: the music representing the noise of a sleeping mind, but I think that a more subtle soundtrack could have been used to better effect. This music gives you the sick feeling that something is going to get you at any moment, and that just isn't what this game is about.

CONCLUSION: This is definitely a case of your-mileage-may-vary. Some of you will love this game, some of you will hate it. I personally loved the concept, and thought the philosophical subtexts were interesting. Though, the game can be taken in multiple ways, some of which I don't agree with; but that's nothing more than an example of a well reasoned presentation. Good games should mean different things to different people, and in that, this game is a resounding success. Still, for all the good, some will feel the message is a little ham-fisted, but that's okay, too. It just means that while some of us will understand the message for what it is, others will be offended by the suggestion that we're dupes (fools and idiots) that need to wake up. An excellent offering that I highly recommend.

Posts

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Hello pianotm.

First of all, thank you very much for this review, I found it extremely enlightening.

author=pianotm
I won't reveal the quote

It would not have been a spoiler really, look just above your review, in the game profile picture ;)


author=pianotm
This music gives you the sick feeling and that just isn't what this game is about.

I was bummed you thought the music didn't fit too well. I assume you are mainly talking about this one:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WtEMHeCLDF0
The music is indeed all from Silent Hill 3, except for the reoccurring drone which is from... Fable 3.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iBePpRnShZU

I considered using the first minute for the 3rd trial (the one with the sand), but it felt like a bit too much, especially for the minimalist tone I was trying to go for. I might go back to it and change it if it was really that bothering.

I'm very glad you got the message I was generally going for, although I tried to leave it open-ended and up to the current Dupe's interpretation.
That's a bit what the real experiment is maybe. ;)
Although you seemed to feel the message was "ham-fisted" (I didn't know that expression, I had to look it up),
I'd be curious to hear more about this from you.

The game is an adaptation (honestly pretty faithful too) of a strange dream I had a long time ago.
I pulled a switch, which seemed to stop my heartbeat and had to complete some puzzle thing with clocks that were ticking.
I was then told that since I had stopped time by pulling the switch, and I had no past and no future, I would behave differently than I normally would (no remorse, no regrets, no hope, no anticipation and whatnot) and that's what the experiment was about.
I obviously added a bit more here and there to make it a bit more coherent.

Now this is where I'm going to disappoint since most of the other things you mentioned were intentional:
I absolutely, absolutely had not thought of the Dreamer/Dupe/Examiner as the Freudian trinity of the psyche.
I mean I was aware of the concept when developing but this interpretation gives the game almost a completely new sense I think so bravo to you.
I had intended them to all be the same person (and I mean, they originally were all technically me in my dream and I tried to reinforce that with the end quote), but really not like this. Wow.

And for the conclusion, the game already got a better reception I was expecting (it got a review).
I obviously don't mean to insult my player, just to toy with him a little ;), but that's only because the game was born a little bit from my personal frustrations and also to get the Dupe thinking when faced with nihilistic, surreal but cold imagery. Like that dream did for me 5 or so years ago.

I definitely hope more people will share their interpretation of the game, this was a very interesting read.
pianotm
The TM is for Totally Magical.
32347
Superstroke
Hello pianotm.

First of all, thank you very much for this review, I found it extremely enlightening.


Hello! And you are very welcome!

pianotm
I won't reveal the quote
It would not have been a spoiler really, look just above your review, in the game profile picture ;)


And...it is just the game name.


I was bummed you thought the music didn't fit too well. I assume you are mainly talking about this one:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WtEMHeCLDF0


Yep. What you have to realize is that this music was written for a horror game. In the background of the track, there are low ambient noises that sound like growls and animal roars. The drum beat is meant to remind you of footsteps. All of these elements operate on the subconscious and speak to us on a visceral level. However non-musical it may sound, it's actually quite brilliantly composed considering it it hits all of a persons flight or fight triggers.

The music is indeed all from Silent Hill 3, except for the reoccurring drone which is from... Fable 3.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iBePpRnShZU


And this is much better. It's creepy and dark, but it doesn't have the heebie jeebie factor that Silent Hill's music does.

I'm very glad you got the message I was generally going for, although I tried to leave it open-ended and up to the current Dupe's interpretation.
That's a bit what the real experiment is maybe. ;)
Although you seemed to feel the message was "ham-fisted" (I didn't know that expression, I had to look it up),
I'd be curious to hear more about this from you.


What I was basically calling attention to was the overwhelming sense that the game is telling us that either nothing we do matters, or that we are sleeping dupes. Of course, with a bit of introspection, we know full well that this is true, but people in general will often misinterpret such a message. I think what really makes me think so is the Examiner's line that he's not speaking to the Dreamer, but the Dupe above him. It was just one of those moments that made me stop and think, "Wait...is he talking about me?" It's funny at first. Then when a player realizes the message of the game...some people may take that the wrong way.

The game is an adaptation (honestly pretty faithful too) of a strange dream I had a long time ago.


This explains a lot that we see in the game, especially since dreams are reflections of our psyche. So, you may not have considered certain aspects, that were already there for the player to see.

I pulled a switch, which seemed to stop my heartbeat and had to complete some puzzle thing with clocks that were ticking.
I was then told that since I had stopped time by pulling the switch, and I had no past and no future, I would behave differently than I normally would (no remorse, no regrets, no hope, no anticipation and whatnot) and that's what the experiment was about.
I obviously added a bit more here and there to make it a bit more coherent.


And it was great to see. Dreams always make for interesting stories.

Now this is where I'm going to disappoint since most of the other things you mentioned were intentional:
I absolutely, absolutely had not thought of the Dreamer/Dupe/Examiner as the Freudian trinity of the psyche.
I mean I was aware of the concept when developing but this interpretation gives the game almost a completely new sense I think so bravo to you.


Again, if you were basing this on a dream, then that's perfectly understandable. There's a simple experiment practiced in Zen meditation: you don't have to actually know how to meditate. Just get comfortable, relax and then, without speaking (very important), say "cat" (rather, think "cat") exactly 100 times. Now, as you get to 50, you may notice some interesting things going on your mind. When you get to 100, if you've been paying attention, you should have noticed that you are functionally operating on three different levels of thought. So which is the real you? The one saying cat (the Id, or the Dupe), the one counting (the Ego, or the Dreamer), or the one keeping track (the Super-ego or the Examiner)? That's the thing you notice: no matter what you're doing, there's an aspect of your consciousness that isn't doing anything except watching and analyzing. According to the Zen teacher, this Examiner is your true self.

I had intended them to all be the same person (and I mean, they originally were all technically me in my dream and I tried to reinforce that with the end quote), but really not like this. Wow.


If you're anything like I was when I started studying this stuff, you'll probably start taking a closer look at your dreams. Your dreams contain everything about you.

And for the conclusion, the game already got a better reception I was expecting (it got a review).


It looks like this is your first game, unless you've been making games on other sites. Really, really excellent! Certainly better than any of my efforts. Then again, I've yet to complete any of the games I'm serious about.

I obviously don't mean to insult my player, just to toy with him a little ;), but that's only because the game was born a little bit from my personal frustrations and also to get the Dupe thinking when faced with nihilistic, surreal but cold imagery. Like that dream did for me 5 or so years ago.


The way I see it, if you've never offended anyone, you're doing something wrong. I'll definitely be interested to see anything else you might come up with.

I definitely hope more people will share their interpretation of the game, this was a very interesting read.
author=pianotm
And...it is just the game name.

Then I guess it's very subtle. Which is good.

author=pianotm
In the background of the track, there are low ambient noises that sound like growls and animal roars. The drum beat is meant to remind you of footsteps.

I was particularly interested in the "windy" characteristics of the sound, not so much the gritty industrial side. After a bit of thinking, I reuploaded the game with an entirely different soundtrack. I replaced two of the SH tracks with some Lustmord which I hope is better, even though they are a little less subtle, but I even personally prefer them to the SH tracks. I also completely changed how the music comes in the third trial in the desert so that instead at first there is no music, and then, as the Dreamer walks, the ambient music where the drones come from starts, and I find it leads to a completely different experience. It still a little desperate, without becoming annoying (like the same sound every 10 seconds). Overall, I think it is now a lot more fitting, although not perfect.

author=pianotm
The one saying cat (the Id, or the Dupe), the one counting (the Ego, or the Dreamer), or the one keeping track (the Super-ego or the Examiner)? That's the thing you notice: no matter what you're doing, there's an aspect of your consciousness that isn't doing anything except watching and analyzing. According to the Zen teacher, this Examiner is your true self.

Zazen, if done "right" (a lot of different schools of thought on that), always lead to very interesting experiences.

author=pianotm
It looks like this is your first game, unless you've been making games on other sites. Really, really excellent!

I have been making with rpg maker for 8 years give or take. You are right however, this is the first game I fully finish. (Don't even try to make that huge open world rpg kids :p) I am glad you like it!
author=Superstroke
author=pianotm
And...it is just the game name.
Then I guess it's very subtle. Which is good.


Ah! It's

The faded text on the right!

Different contrast settings change how hard it is to see.
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