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A BLURRED LINE v2.1

Hi guys,

curious to try this one, but it won't run as I do not have the RTP stuff. Could I ask the developer to include that and let me have a donwnload of the whole thing in one go?

:-)

If possible, I would appreciate that.

Thanks and Regards!

ALONE playthrough

ALONE

author=Red_Nova
I've been meaning to respond to this. I'm not sure why it took me this long or if it's even important anymore, but whatever. I'm doing it anyway.

It's all good, man. It wasn't exactly my finest hour in that situation either, so believe me when I say I understand where you were coming from. Everything's totally cool and I hope you stick around and contribute more reviews or even games here!


Good to know you feel that way, Red_Nova!
Thanks for letting me know :)

ALONE Review

author=CashmereCat
Quite a brilliant review, very well-written. :)


Thanks, CashmereCat :)

ALONE

author=Red_Nova
It's great to see this has a game page! I'll take a look at this when I get a chance to see the new stuff.


Allow me to once more apologise for that situation before about your game.
I should have PM'd you first, Red_Nova, at least.

Review Fantasy IX

Thanks for the badge!

The Mirror Lied

I tried submitting a review, but got no reply nor does it appear visible, so I'll be posting it here, don't know if there's an issue with the system right now:

An Archetypal Adventure

Zydin
03/05/2016 10:52 AM
3 views


Wonderful experience! How well thought out! It really captures the player's imagination.

It's not really a game but more an experience to enjoy.
It is so rich in unconscious motifs and symbolism that I would dare call it an archetypal adventure - did the author choose the symbolism consciously or was it the unconscious that brought it to the fore while producing it?

A summary of my impressions about the symbolism would be:

- The house is the "temple", that is, the symbol for the whole structure that supports the psyche. Not exactly the brain, but the software interconnections that serve as an "Operating System". The house is old, large and is filled with artificiality. It is also fragile to the decomposing fire of the actual soul, being only a fantasy construction and not the actual natural "temple". It is ruled by the falsehood the abandoned ego was forced to build around in order to make sense of life, given the absence of the self, cut off somewhere beyond the prison walls.

- The child is not only the archetype of the same name itself, but also the embodiment of the current state of the ego function: abandoned, confused and always searching for what was lost (even if unaware of what exactly it is looking for).

- There is only one natural plant in the whole house, all the others are described as decorative foliages, indicating that they are probably not real but plastic plants or mere un-living decorations. The act of watering it, is the equivalent to feeding that spark of hope for a return to the natural living temple. As the plant grows with the water, it eventually punctures through the house, through the falsehood prison that is, and finds an escape.

- The white bird (birdie) is the pure messenger of the self, who tries to reach the child and convince her of the path to freedom. From the computer, the messenger of the "false" tries to convince her to kill off her sole chance of escaping, her only way out, which would lead her to remain forever within the boundaries of the strange false predicament in the house.

- In the end, the child, instead of killing the bird, kills herself, therefore becoming the bird, which was her true nature after all: as the death of the centre of falsehood brought about the reunification between ego and self, or, as Jung would put it, individuation. Death, as an unconscious symbol, means dissolution of the smaller into the larger. In this case of that particular small false character into the larger true one.


This is of course, my own personal interpretation and experience, but I think it sprouts from a conscious or unconscious intent of the creator of The Mirror Lied, I dare say.

Actually, that is what true ART is, the one that "forces" the audience to look at themselves in the mirror, by reflecting on ambiguity.
It is a pity that modern art deviated so much from this principle, there should be more art like this piece here.

It may not be EXACTLY a game, but it certainly is a work of art.

Excellent work!

4.5 stars out 5

Three Cheers for the Strawman

author=iddalai
So...

Drama strikes again.

Well, firstly, and because I understand Red_Nova's concern with buzzing, I'll start by talking about "Three Cheers for the Strawman" (played both endings):

- The high pitch sound that plays during the intro (and other parts of the game) is a bit too loud, it's a great choice for the atmosphere but as it is it may be too painful for some people.

- I love the swamp ambience sound, it immediately draws me into the setting.

- I like how each map name is related with the different acts of the story.

- The music is well chosen and sets the mood right.

- I like the visual effects that kinda look like old rainy image quality and dark tone.

- Juno's image in the stat menu kinda makes her look male, dunno if this was on purpose, but I feel like pointing it out.

- Does "Will" do something besides hit points or is it only there to show us how high or low Juno is feeling?

- I think the game would benefit from having new sprites for chests, crystals and monsters, just to make it all custom (DS battle sprites are OK since they're not used very often and were well chosen for their function, "Mask" comes to mind).

- The story is interesting since it affects us all in one way or another, we've all doubted our skills before, specially when working with other people.

- Some battles I lost or won due to randomness, missing attacks, I don't know if that was the point. After some time I could get away with only using the cleaver over and over and then finishing the enemies off which made other weapons redundant.

- In the "Out of time" map, there's this text box "Juno's first foray into the comedy scene with 'Wacky Times with Mr.Headfield' received astonishingly poor reviews. The chief criticism is that the jokes all felt forced", the word "forced" steps out of the text box.

- In the same map, some objects cannot be examined which I felt went against what the previous maps teached me, it's not a gameplay necessity, but it adds to the atmosphere.

- I liked the idea of using a certain weapon to finish enemies off, it gives the battles a nice dynamic.

- I like the idea of delaying the "end" battle and how that may change the ending depending on how many times you lost, but do the answers we give also shape the ending? Some of the answers make it seem like the player doesn't care for Juno at all which would make the good ending afterwards a bit dissonant.

- I think the idea of strawman could have been played more, it's only in the title and alluded metaphorically by the story concept and nothing else.

- I enjoyed the game, it's a well thought experience!


Now about the other "stuff".

Having played the game, I do notice some gameplay similarities, although I feel my great friend Zydin may have exaggerated a bit :P

I can't get angry at him, after all he had my best interest at heart and was just worried about me. He's that kinda guy :)

Even if "Three Cheers for the Strawman" had been influenced by my game (which many have come to call "ALONE"), I wouldn't ask for credit.
Of course I'd feel honoured if I was mentioned as an influence by someone like Red_Nova, had it been the case :) But I wouldn't ask for it, that's the kind of action that should come from the creator himself.

Sorry for posting here, but since this is public I feel everyone deserves to know what I think about it.

Sorry, Iddalai, for having put you in this position and also apologies to Red_Nova for not offering my thoughts privately first.

I hope you understand that when one likes something so much (as I do ALONE), it is easy to let that emotion be an influence on one's actions.

Credits to both Iddalai and Red_Nova for putting together two great gems!

Three Cheers for the Strawman

author=Liberty
Zydin, for future reference, don't double post. You can make multiple quotes per post and multiposting in a row is against site rules. You've found the edit button, make use of it to add more commentary.


As to the claim - frankly, I can think of at least three or four other games that this is 'like' and that it might have been inspired by, but even if it were it would not have to put any kind of 'this was inspired by' in the description or credits. It's only when you have something that is heavily inspired by another game that that might be necessary, and even then it would be up to the developer as to whether they wanted to do that or not (it is recommended else you get people like you posting on their pages demanding retribution against the mere mortal who dares to draw inspiration from anything ever).

Frankly, I'm sure ALONE was inspired by many other games out there, but I don't see you championing their cause.


-the fights are also sort of puzzles (you need to use newly acquired items to unlock the solution of the fight).

Probably taken from Cope Island which does this amazingly. Also Pale Echoes does this too. In fact, more than a couple of games do as well.

-the atmosphere of the game is similar. The base idea of psychological interaction with the world is also similar.

There's a shit ton of games based on the psyche of the character and interaction between them and the world. I hope you're not trying to say that my own game in this kind of genre was stolen too, because quite frankly you'd be wrong.

-the game progression is set up in the same way, with a fights working as doors to the following areas or protecting treasures.

Just like most old-school jRPGs. Who knew that they'd have seen the future and managed to steal from a game that didn't even exist yet! :O

-in Iddalai's game, leveling up will reduce stats instead of increasing. In Red Nova's game, the crystals seem to increase at first, but then there are a few that surprisingly reduce stats, creating the same surprise effect as in Iddalai's game.

It's been done many times before. In fact, there was this amazing little game from about 2-3 years ago called Veek which did this so well.


-Iddalai's game was built in a way to frustrate the player into giving up as part of the psychological experience. In Red Nova's game, everytime one loses, there is a message motivating the player to quit.

OMG it's like every horror game ever!!! Not a new concept at all - a lot of games do this.

-similarly to "ALONE", this game uses different game setting and lore-related names for weapons and enemies.

As does a lot of jRPGs and other games that have weaponry. Seriously, you're reaching for straws here.

I did some research into Iddalai's game url and found that Red Nova admittedly enjoyed the game very much and commented as such:

And? That means nothing. You're building quite the ...strawman argument.

Still, credit is due and I believe Red Nova owes Iddalai credit for influence and ideas.

He doesn't.


Thank you for your comments and also the advice about double posting.

I have agreed above with Red Nova to only discuss this further privately (through PM), so as to not overload the game discussion forum with anything other than actual game discussion, if he (or anyone else) wishes to do so.

Regards!

Three Cheers for the Strawman

author=Red_Nova
You just don't make a public post like the one you made in good will. I would have believed this statement if you made any attempt to contact me personally before going public, or even talking about it with Iddalai first. Hell, if you just copy and pasted this into a PM and sent it to me, then we could have talked about it and hopefully settled it without the need to drag in others. As it is, now the game's buzz has flared up and is on the front page because of drama rather than actual discussion on the game itself, which I find disgusting.

And yes, I'm aware of the hypocrisy of my posts contributing to the buzz. My point is that maybe this whole mess could have been avoided if we just talked about it. Maybe it just would have delayed this situation going public, but you seem like a rational person, so I like to think we could have settled this just between you and me.

But you're right. Peace now. If you want to keep this conversation going, then let's take it to PMs.

I gotcha and take your points in. Maybe that is what I should have done, gone to PM first. Yeah, that would have avoided heat for your game, sorry about that.

Oh well. PM me then, if you'd like to talk about this from this point forward.

Like I said before, I emailed Iddalai, so he'll soon be checking this out too.
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