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Peeking at Stars is a short atmospheric game created during my first term at Game Development college. It was inspired by my depression at the time and also by several drug trips that I had. The game is no more than 10 minutes at max, has no battles, and only a small amount of story.

This game never came out as what it was supposed to be, but is still an interesting time capsule of my emotions and outlooks at the time that it was made. Out of the three games I made in Term 1 it's my personal favourite.

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  • Completed
  • Roden
  • matrixmancs
  • RPG Maker VX Ace
  • Adventure
  • 11/07/2014 03:11 AM
  • 09/13/2022 05:55 PM
  • 12/19/2014
  • 35774
  • 29
  • 235

Posts

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CashmereCat
Self-proclaimed Puzzle Snob
11638
It so good to see you're making lots of progress on games, man.
unity
You're magical to me.
12540
Subscribed! :D
I like how your cliffs are actually shapely instead of square.

Hope to see more game images from this project when you finish more maps/scenes.
Subscribed! This looks interesting. Looking forward to it.
i'm in love with the visual design! the cool palettes are wonderful.
Thank you for all the kindness and support, guys. Things will really be kicking off soon, now that I've nailed down a definitive visual style and figured out how the story will ultimately play out.

I'm very confident about the holiday release date.
Just played it--what an unsettling project. It's like playing a cold and disquieting prose poem.

A little sad that it got truncated (albeit for understandable reasons) because it has a lot of potential, but all the same it's quite an effective piece.

One bug that I ran into: in the last room, if you talk to the character (only interactive one there as far as I could tell?) from the side, you will get stuck and the game will freeze. From below works fine.
author=Breakingchains
Just played it--what an unsettling project. It's like playing a cold and disquieting prose poem.

A little sad that it got truncated (albeit for understandable reasons) because it has a lot of potential, but all the same it's quite an effective piece.

One bug that I ran into: in the last room, if you talk to the character (only interactive one there as far as I could tell?) from the side, you will get stuck and the game will freeze. From below works fine.


I apologize for the truncation. Hopefully in the future I'll be able to provide better art games with Unity 3D or other, more advanced engines. Could you provide a screenshot of the bug? I know you're referring to the town area, but I'm not sure what NPC in specific you mean.
Not sure if this is the same bug that Breakingchains found, but after following the left-most path at the beginning, then after the cutscene heading right and up into the town area with the bolted down houses, in the northernmost area with all the space dudes standing around the game freezes after you talk to the guy in the middle of the room.

edit: okay, I think it is the same bug; when you talk to the dude in the middle the crowd that says something about finding a good spot to sit or something, it freezes.
Yeah, Suzy found it. Bug screenshot:



That is the NPC walking endlessly into the player with no way to move. Sorry if my last post was too vague, haha.
Oh wow, I'm a dumbass. I'll get on top of that right away.

EDIT: Alright, the fixed download is up. I'm not sure how I let that slip to be honest.
unity
You're magical to me.
12540
I finished the game. I'll leave my thoughts here ^_^

Short, but packed with feeling, and that feeling is a profound sense of dread, loss, and lost time. I agree with the poem comparison. Very well done. This is certainly an inspiring piece.
Yeah, that was pretty cool. I liked the sad little town and the general atmosphere of defeat.
charblar
"wait you made this a career?"
3574
I got around to playing this so...
As always your environment was amazingly done and fit the theme of the game while it was short it really had a lot of feeling in it no npc seemed to have pointless filler in it's dialogue and the spotlight effect on the screen really set mood too. Overall a good experience and a good followup for Carpan.
Well, that was an interesting empty ride.


The graphics are wonderful - the color palette is beautiful as well. This style really suits you and your game.

The general atmosphere created is .. well, I can see what it's supposed to be. Defeat, dread, giving up, watching .. and, perhaps, regretting. But I find nothing really gets to me.
The message presented at the beginning - being afraid of moving forward - is what I tried to look the game through at. The "peeking at stars" may also hint at aiming higher, or wishing to do so.
Yet I can't feel anything of that in the game, you feel like you can be different from the rest. Or at the very least you physically move forward, which is more than the others do. It gives off more of a sense of giving up on the world, which is very different from (the intended?) being afraid of acting, albeit related.

The game left me feeling a little bit empty, but that is it.

Perhaps I have too much of it in real life and assume it should be felt stronger, perhaps I can't get a feeling it. It just doesn't seem to be made for me.
But I can see very clearly that is a beautiful little piece. It's a shame it didn't have an impact on me.
Thanks for playing, guys. I really appreciate the time people put into playing my games, even if it is a really short amount.

@Kylaila: Yeah, therein lies the problem with art games. You either hit the nail on the head or miss it by 50 miles. That's why I decided to start working on more legitimate game-y stuff. I'll admit that I did struggle to solidify the message in the game, mostly due to envisioning this project with a much bigger scope and lots of choice involved, and then trying to compress it down a lot. In that vein it's like a half-failed experiment, I suppose.
Very true. It's possible to give it a little more direction, but it is a very difficult thing to balance.
I actually thought you could've given it much much more meaning by allowing some sort of reaction or choice, but welp, art is art.

Looking forward to more of your stuff
Max McGee
with sorrow down past the fence
9159
well dat was short. almost too short to review, honestly, but I WANT DAT MAKERSCORE so review ahoy.

(You have a very cool graphics style, by the way. I'd love to collab on some kinda game with you some time.)
author=Max McGee
well dat was short. almost too short to review, honestly, but I WANT DAT MAKERSCORE so review ahoy.

(You have a very cool graphics style, by the way. I'd love to collab on some kinda game with you some time.)


Thanks for the review!

A collaboration of some sort could certainly be kept on the table for when such an opportunity arises. I have a vested interest in traditional high fantasy stuff but I don't write it at all.
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