This was one of the most well made and perfectly put together games I've ever played. I had so so so so so many emotions throughout and It was just so damn fun. I can't explain it enough, you'll just have to play if for yourself and/or watch it. (I very much recommend playing it first if you can)
This was so fun! I was sitting in class playing the 3rd painting and my heart was beating so fast lol, I really liked the visuals, and the story was cool too!! Love ur game sm :D
Well. I am a detective, I always am in for a good puzzle and a good fright, and I can even solve strange things...I really hope this dialogue has unique ways of interpretation because if not I'll probably sound like a bad person.
Yes, some of the art is ai generated by VQGAN, one of the first publicly available models, which I then made edits to to help it be more cohesive. Going forward I will not use AI art anymore as it currently lacks the surreal, dreamlike look of early models.
Ah no problem! if you end up making one or have Twitter or any other place where we can coordinate about the translation, let me know and I'd be happy to help!
all the paintings look ai generated as well as some of the npc's I'm not sure if they actually are but I'm not really a fan of it but this game is so good anyway and I can get passed it. I also know form personal experience how long art takes and can just consume all your time, which is why I'm not a fan of ai art but also understand why you'd use it seeing as that's a lotta paintings which is a lotta time, its also a free game. It's very well made and I will be saving it to my playlist to come back to and dabble around.
This game made me feel so many things at once. Honestly one of (if not the) best games I've ever played. Thank you for just creating this. I'm actually in awe right now.
this was... gorgeous and frightening and dark and engrossing and clever and... comforting. i can't really put into words how deeply i felt this experience. i can only say thank you.
this is such an amazing game! i found the puzzles very fitting for each person and the art very pleasing. you, creator of this game, made me happy - and definitely many more - with this game :]
i hope the making of your next project goes well for you <3
I'm honestly having a hard time coming up with words to describe how beautifully macabre this game was. The storytelling is amazing and the art style is so unique. I love how each of the painting's environments hinted to the story of the character in said painting. By far my favorite game I've played here on this site.
After playing through the entire game, I realised that Charon was this guy who was supposed to guide souls to the afterlife or something of that sort. I completely forgot about 7 Days (another indie game) which used the same name for the person who 'leads' us.
Other than that, it was really a wild experience. Spoilers from here, but that lady is such a poor soul, I still feel bad for her due to this vengeful man who wants to play with her memory--who she loves oh so much it doesn't make sense until you're her. I guess I felt that sunken cost thing for a moment, but honestly? She deserved to hear the truth. All of them do, because when you're honest, you're actually respecting them instead of lying to them and trap them in that world of fairytales. Second guy was really a sad one, and third...I actually am struggling with the idea a bit? Why is there two forms of him (one being the spider and another the fetus-like baby)? I thought it was gonna be a case of an unborn fetus dying due to mother dying or something and cared for the mother oh so much only to find out he was a soldier. I would've expected a dying man, but that really confused me. Was it a kid because he's naive at heart and trusts propaganda ("he's our enemy so we should brutally torture him!") too much? And was the spider because of his (nonsexual) sadistic desires?
Really thought provoking anyway. Thanks for releasing this masterpiece out there and hell, making it free as well.
Thank you for your feedback, I'm glad you enjoyed it! As for the third sequence, this was my interpretation while making his character SPOILERS
I saw the spider creature as representing the violent side to this man, that emerged and was celebrated during war. But that is just a facade, and once you go through the level you see him for what he really is -- a baby (more specifically, something even younger, a fetus) who is childlike and oblivious to the harm he has caused.
I see, that's interesting! Yes, it does line up--although I never interpreted the spider as a façade and instead, being a part of him--just the more cruel one that takes pleasure in the pain, the part that became who he was physically, despite being very much a directionless person inside (i.e., a child / fetus). He did seem to understand the hurt he caused to the people when he recounted his experience when he was a fetus (or at least, so it seemed). Either ways, just having him out there recounting his life experience at that form really baffled me.
I do wonder...does the soul really get set free, or is it just a loop? I feel bad for both the soul and MC + charon, if that's the case.
the first painting felt easy but affirming since i recently had been in a similar situation and i dont see gaslighting really represented. the second painting felt a little bit more like a dream but i also suddenly felt unsure what to say to the boy. should i be honest? it felt weird but i was affirmed earlier to state the hard truth which is a freeing affect to someone in that situation still. but i still felt okay, not to overly spooked by the game. the third painting was starting out creepy and i tried to prepare myself for a jumpscare warning but i didnt get the key in the beginning until i did and i started being scared. then the monster was there and i managed it well etcetera etcetera, entering the fleshy room whichs music always seems to get a little louder, so i prepare for another jumpscare.
i get to the embryo guy and at first my reaction was oh no, it is some sort of a prolife messaging, jesus. well it wasnt and the embryo is this soldier guy. that thing started talking about how he doesnt really ever got to move on and alot of people tried. he is kind of a rude guy. and suddenly he describes that he murdered people. describing the pyramid still makes me shiver the timbers. after telling me about his murders he tells me its my choice if i want to make him move on. i kind of want to let him die but yeah, im there, slipping into letting him move on anyways, feeling very conflicted but i knew the game wouldnt proceed probably. i got out of the room and i feel dreadful. i see a pyramid in the flesh rooms walking floor and i feel like it was on purpose but like in a dream, i cant tell for sure. then the monster comes back and says this thing moved on. i exit the place and charon basically hits me in the face metaphorically, when i explains to me the monster he talked about is the guy. the sheer lonely imagery of the baby man made me empathize with a monster. it made me feel sick, as if it was supposed to play with my emotions and also make a player move on from whoever it can be that harms them and makes them stay in the limbo of are they good or are they not. answering a question i didnt know i was asking.
that still makes me feel a weird thing inside right now as im typing it. charon tells me to go to the last painting and i get to move on.
conclusion:
at the start i expected something else, before the domestic abuse warning popped up. i dont see verbal abuse being a topic alot in games and i like it when people bring awareness to it.
no matter how hard i tried to analyze this and be level headed it made me emotional, from painting to painting. i always felt an never experienced before awe from the design of the game. i cant put it into a box, like a suda51 game. a game i feel is about morality and a state of depersonalization.
i would have liked to say that im happy you didnt implement overly cruel gore elements (yeah yeah to each their own but personally i like thriller more and think overly crude gre is tasteless) but you still managed to make me really emotional and spooked, without usage of standard horror tropes. congrats, sincerely. if this ever becomes a whole game, i would love to buy it. it was so rich and thought through (sounds very cliche but its really true. i also love the name algebra falcon. kind of fits the theme and overall art style you got going on. i really appreciated to have played this on an emotional level though because i also had to learn that theres nothing sweeter than the truth sometimes...
my theory to the game is that its like the afterlife like in greek mythology and charon alluded to the styx. but i do think its supposed to be its own thing. i like that basically its a situation set up very well to cater people that have experienced maladaptive daydreaming and dissociaton of some sort. its lovecraftian and i do like me some weird shit. another theory of mine is the ai like art is kind of a commentary of how shitty ai makes artists feel ha. also maybe some painters died in the third painting because they are the same as the murderer. but sure i am not because i won by killing him. in the beginning the music has a slow gazey feel and i wonder if that was purposeful. also the music didnt try to make you scared like in a horror game, but rather just draw you into it. every painting had a use for the player to move on themselves. it seemed to be about accepting an abusive person real character, since it was a reacuring theme. thats why im also not sure if its actually supposed to have anything to do with death at all. sometimes when youre in a relationship where you betray yourself to stay with them, it feels exactly like this game, like a long exhausting, disorienting and draining walk. it only ends when you accept you dont need to reach the destiny
well this was long. but feel like i wanna give back to creators who make such good games for no money at all. i think this should be a installation in a famous museum somewhere and it has probably altered my subconscious already.
Thank you for the analysis, everything is pretty spot on. On your note about this becoming a whole game, I actually am working on a new, much longer game project right now, so please look forward to that!
solution: talk to the old lady and get to the middle of the maze (there is a different carpet there) then talk to her again and say "nothing". hope this helped
I told her straight on that her husband is toying with her, and she moved on! It's to say the hard truth, no sugarcoating, that they move on, I believe.
I actually created this account just to comment. This was truly an amazing game. The art, atmosphere and heavy themes I loved it all. The dialogue is also extremely well written. Thank you.
When I enter the 3rd painting, the one with the generator this is what I see. There is a white glow around the door you enter and around the door where you exit and everything else is black. I thought this was part of the game and managed to go inside the generator room and turn the emergency lights on while everything is black, did this 3 or 4 times as I mysteriously kept dying as something attacked me in the dark while I tried to remember which way to go. I decided to watch someone else play and to my surprise, their room looks like an actual room. I am playing in the Brave browser, will you be fixing this bug or should I play it differently?
Could you try playing in google chrome, and seeing if it works then? it may be possible to transfer your save via cookies. This would be a problem with the lighting script I'm using so it unfortunately may be difficult to bugfix as I did not write that code.
Randomly came across this game and really enjoyed it! Didn't know what I was signing up for but I think that made the experience even better. Great concept, cool characters, and a neat story.
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This was one of the most well made and perfectly put together games I've ever played. I had so so so so so many emotions throughout and It was just so damn fun. I can't explain it enough, you'll just have to play if for yourself and/or watch it. (I very much recommend playing it first if you can)
Watching your video right now! So far it is wonderful <3
Thank you so much!!
This was so fun! I was sitting in class playing the 3rd painting and my heart was beating so fast lol, I really liked the visuals, and the story was cool too!! Love ur game sm :D
Well. I am a detective, I always am in for a good puzzle and a good fright, and I can even solve strange things...I really hope this dialogue has unique ways of interpretation because if not I'll probably sound like a bad person.
I didn't entirely finish the game because chase sequences give me anxiety, but this is an absolutely amazing game!
great game. Quick question is the art ai generated
Yes, some of the art is ai generated by VQGAN, one of the first publicly available models, which I then made edits to to help it be more cohesive. Going forward I will not use AI art anymore as it currently lacks the surreal, dreamlike look of early models.
Wooooooo!
It is up to your interpretation, so if you think you did then they did :)
Ah no problem! if you end up making one or have Twitter or any other place where we can coordinate about the translation, let me know and I'd be happy to help!
all the paintings look ai generated as well as some of the npc's I'm not sure if they actually are but I'm not really a fan of it but this game is so good anyway and I can get passed it. I also know form personal experience how long art takes and can just consume all your time, which is why I'm not a fan of ai art but also understand why you'd use it seeing as that's a lotta paintings which is a lotta time, its also a free game. It's very well made and I will be saving it to my playlist to come back to and dabble around.
This game made me feel so many things at once. Honestly one of (if not the) best games I've ever played. Thank you for just creating this. I'm actually in awe right now.
<3
A beautiful, nice, cool game. Very, very good.
wow
there is something so oddly calming about this game even though it is supposed to make you feel uneasy. loved it so much!
this was... gorgeous and frightening and dark and engrossing and clever and... comforting. i can't really put into words how deeply i felt this experience. i can only say thank you.
this is such an amazing game! i found the puzzles very fitting for each person and the art very pleasing. you, creator of this game, made me happy - and definitely many more - with this game :]
i hope the making of your next project goes well for you <3
have a very nice day
thank you! Work on my next project is still in the early stages but it is full steam ahead.
I'm honestly having a hard time coming up with words to describe how beautifully macabre this game was. The storytelling is amazing and the art style is so unique. I love how each of the painting's environments hinted to the story of the character in said painting. By far my favorite game I've played here on this site.
Thank you, it warms my heart to recieve a comment like that :)
is the song at the title screen a twisted version of "Love Story" by Taylor Swift? cause I'm totally hearing that.
yes :)
Very cool game. I dig the artsy vibes it gives!
Loved this game and the story that it told. Looking forward to playing "Cohabitation" Soon.
After playing through the entire game, I realised that Charon was this guy who was supposed to guide souls to the afterlife or something of that sort. I completely forgot about 7 Days (another indie game) which used the same name for the person who 'leads' us.
Other than that, it was really a wild experience. Spoilers from here, but that lady is such a poor soul, I still feel bad for her due to this vengeful man who wants to play with her memory--who she loves oh so much it doesn't make sense until you're her. I guess I felt that sunken cost thing for a moment, but honestly? She deserved to hear the truth. All of them do, because when you're honest, you're actually respecting them instead of lying to them and trap them in that world of fairytales. Second guy was really a sad one, and third...I actually am struggling with the idea a bit? Why is there two forms of him (one being the spider and another the fetus-like baby)? I thought it was gonna be a case of an unborn fetus dying due to mother dying or something and cared for the mother oh so much only to find out he was a soldier. I would've expected a dying man, but that really confused me. Was it a kid because he's naive at heart and trusts propaganda ("he's our enemy so we should brutally torture him!") too much? And was the spider because of his (nonsexual) sadistic desires?
Really thought provoking anyway. Thanks for releasing this masterpiece out there and hell, making it free as well.
Thank you for your feedback, I'm glad you enjoyed it! As for the third sequence, this was my interpretation while making his character
SPOILERS
I saw the spider creature as representing the violent side to this man, that emerged and was celebrated during war. But that is just a facade, and once you go through the level you see him for what he really is -- a baby (more specifically, something even younger, a fetus) who is childlike and oblivious to the harm he has caused.
I see, that's interesting! Yes, it does line up--although I never interpreted the spider as a façade and instead, being a part of him--just the more cruel one that takes pleasure in the pain, the part that became who he was physically, despite being very much a directionless person inside (i.e., a child / fetus). He did seem to understand the hurt he caused to the people when he recounted his experience when he was a fetus (or at least, so it seemed). Either ways, just having him out there recounting his life experience at that form really baffled me.
I do wonder...does the soul really get set free, or is it just a loop? I feel bad for both the soul and MC + charon, if that's the case.
I'll leave that last part up to interpretation :) However, I will say this: I see the ending as a happy one.
Charon's a name for a dude in the Underworld in Greek mythology. So the name probably was an allusion to that.
did the doll say "tack själv"?
I mean, I understand that it means thank you, but why specifically Swedish?
yes, it is implied that his family may have been swedish
spoiler
the first painting felt easy but affirming since i recently had been in a similar situation and i dont see gaslighting really represented. the second painting felt a little bit more like a dream but i also suddenly felt unsure what to say to the boy. should i be honest? it felt weird but i was affirmed earlier to state the hard truth which is a freeing affect to someone in that situation still. but i still felt okay, not to overly spooked by the game. the third painting was starting out creepy and i tried to prepare myself for a jumpscare warning but i didnt get the key in the beginning until i did and i started being scared. then the monster was there and i managed it well etcetera etcetera, entering the fleshy room whichs music always seems to get a little louder, so i prepare for another jumpscare.
i get to the embryo guy and at first my reaction was oh no, it is some sort of a prolife messaging, jesus. well it wasnt and the embryo is this soldier guy. that thing started talking about how he doesnt really ever got to move on and alot of people tried. he is kind of a rude guy. and suddenly he describes that he murdered people. describing the pyramid still makes me shiver the timbers. after telling me about his murders he tells me its my choice if i want to make him move on. i kind of want to let him die but yeah, im there, slipping into letting him move on anyways, feeling very conflicted but i knew the game wouldnt proceed probably. i got out of the room and i feel dreadful. i see a pyramid in the flesh rooms walking floor and i feel like it was on purpose but like in a dream, i cant tell for sure. then the monster comes back and says this thing moved on. i exit the place and charon basically hits me in the face metaphorically, when i explains to me the monster he talked about is the guy. the sheer lonely imagery of the baby man made me empathize with a monster. it made me feel sick, as if it was supposed to play with my emotions and also make a player move on from whoever it can be that harms them and makes them stay in the limbo of are they good or are they not. answering a question i didnt know i was asking.
that still makes me feel a weird thing inside right now as im typing it. charon tells me to go to the last painting and i get to move on.
conclusion:
at the start i expected something else, before the domestic abuse warning popped up. i dont see verbal abuse being a topic alot in games and i like it when people bring awareness to it.
no matter how hard i tried to analyze this and be level headed it made me emotional, from painting to painting. i always felt an never experienced before awe from the design of the game. i cant put it into a box, like a suda51 game. a game i feel is about morality and a state of depersonalization.
i would have liked to say that im happy you didnt implement overly cruel gore elements (yeah yeah to each their own but personally i like thriller more and think overly crude gre is tasteless) but you still managed to make me really emotional and spooked, without usage of standard horror tropes. congrats, sincerely. if this ever becomes a whole game, i would love to buy it. it was so rich and thought through (sounds very cliche but its really true. i also love the name algebra falcon. kind of fits the theme and overall art style you got going on. i really appreciated to have played this on an emotional level though because i also had to learn that theres nothing sweeter than the truth sometimes...
my theory to the game is that its like the afterlife like in greek mythology and charon alluded to the styx. but i do think its supposed to be its own thing. i like that basically its a situation set up very well to cater people that have experienced maladaptive daydreaming and dissociaton of some sort. its lovecraftian and i do like me some weird shit. another theory of mine is the ai like art is kind of a commentary of how shitty ai makes artists feel ha. also maybe some painters died in the third painting because they are the same as the murderer. but sure i am not because i won by killing him. in the beginning the music has a slow gazey feel and i wonder if that was purposeful. also the music didnt try to make you scared like in a horror game, but rather just draw you into it. every painting had a use for the player to move on themselves. it seemed to be about accepting an abusive person real character, since it was a reacuring theme. thats why im also not sure if its actually supposed to have anything to do with death at all. sometimes when youre in a relationship where you betray yourself to stay with them, it feels exactly like this game, like a long exhausting, disorienting and draining walk. it only ends when you accept you dont need to reach the destiny
well this was long. but feel like i wanna give back to creators who make such good games for no money at all. i think this should be a installation in a famous museum somewhere and it has probably altered my subconscious already.
thanks
Thank you for the analysis, everything is pretty spot on. On your note about this becoming a whole game, I actually am working on a new, much longer game project right now, so please look forward to that!
BRO, I literally cannot solve the FIRST PUZZLE.
solution: talk to the old lady and get to the middle of the maze (there is a different carpet there) then talk to her again and say "nothing". hope this helped
thank you o(╥﹏╥)o
I told her straight on that her husband is toying with her, and she moved on! It's to say the hard truth, no sugarcoating, that they move on, I believe.
Breathtakingly beautiful. Charon's design in particular resonated deeply with me. Went in not knowing what to expect, was so pleasantly surprised.
Very special game, the dialogues give me a lot of insights
I actually created this account just to comment. This was truly an amazing game. The art, atmosphere and heavy themes I loved it all. The dialogue is also extremely well written. Thank you.
Woah, what an experience. Can't wait to see more from you.
Absolutely love this game! Thanks for the experience!
I can't save my game...I've tried every key but the game Just. Won't. Save. How do I save the game? Playing browser version.
what happens after you talk to Charon to save? Does it give an error message?
i cannot access my save lol, can you please help me?
(plus: im in download ver)
when you check the games folder in file explorer, what does it show you?
oh, its in the folders! ok gotcha (srry i didnt knew that)
Nasty old man
I'm on the third painting and I'm wondering do I wanna bother like I just woke up but like the monster or whatever is there just being silly fr.
It was worth it to get to the end! My heart was pounding running around haha
When I enter the 3rd painting, the one with the generator this is what I see. There is a white glow around the door you enter and around the door where you exit and everything else is black. I thought this was part of the game and managed to go inside the generator room and turn the emergency lights on while everything is black, did this 3 or 4 times as I mysteriously kept dying as something attacked me in the dark while I tried to remember which way to go. I decided to watch someone else play and to my surprise, their room looks like an actual room. I am playing in the Brave browser, will you be fixing this bug or should I play it differently?
Could you try playing in google chrome, and seeing if it works then? it may be possible to transfer your save via cookies. This would be a problem with the lighting script I'm using so it unfortunately may be difficult to bugfix as I did not write that code.
My new favourite horror game on here, made my heart jump out of my chest at points
Randomly came across this game and really enjoyed it! Didn't know what I was signing up for but I think that made the experience even better. Great concept, cool characters, and a neat story.
i love it!
its amazing
One of the best games on here, man, very well done. The dialogue is amazing.
A new experience in playing games. This game is very good. 👍
Really liked the game
i really liked the game and the music! the music weirdly reminds me of "enjoy the silence"
Beautiful thought provoking experience <3
great short game, writing, and art!