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[Jordan]

Loneliness

An experimental, minimalistic, micro notgame (enough adjectives? ) about loneliness, made for the Korean middle school students I taught for a year. Not much else to say 


Play now in your browser at:
http://www.necessarygames.com/my-games/loneliness/flash

Download source (FlashPunk):
http://www.necessarygames.com/weblinks/goto/126


Screenshots:

[tesselode]

Hey, I think I get it!

[Noyb]

See also A Day in the Life of Rod Humble Extreme HD Edition.

On my first playthrough I thought that the metaphor is that whenever you try to get close to someone they always run away, but the speed of their flight and the fact that you're breaking up their cliques makes it feel more like they're fleeing in terror. Now I'm beginning to think that the player character is some outside force that actively seeks to split up social groups leaving the individual members broken and lonely.

[agj]

Quite like the joyful patterns the dots are arranged in.

[ஒழுக்கின்மை (Paul Eres)]

i can move left and right but not up and down, is this normal? i cant seem to do anything

[Chris Z]

See also A Day in the Life of Rod Humble Extreme HD Edition.

On my first playthrough I thought that the metaphor is that whenever you try to get close to someone they always run away, but the speed of their flight and the fact that you're breaking up their cliques makes it feel more like they're fleeing in terror. Now I'm beginning to think that the player character is some outside force that actively seeks to split up social groups leaving the individual members broken and lonely.

...or he smells really REALLY bad

[tesselode]

See also A Day in the Life of Rod Humble Extreme HD Edition.

On my first playthrough I thought that the metaphor is that whenever you try to get close to someone they always run away, but the speed of their flight and the fact that you're breaking up their cliques makes it feel more like they're fleeing in terror. Now I'm beginning to think that the player character is some outside force that actively seeks to split up social groups leaving the individual members broken and lonely.

...or he smells really REALLY bad

Best theory so far.

[Jordan]

See also A Day in the Life of Rod Humble Extreme HD Edition.

On my first playthrough I thought that the metaphor is that whenever you try to get close to someone they always run away, but the speed of their flight and the fact that you're breaking up their cliques makes it feel more like they're fleeing in terror. Now I'm beginning to think that the player character is some outside force that actively seeks to split up social groups leaving the individual members broken and lonely.

...or he smells really REALLY bad

Best theory so far.

Haha, I like both these theories . Indeed, the original intention is what you thought, Noyb, though I confess that my implementation may be far from ideal. I think there are multiple dimensions of loneliness, and this notgame is definitely meant to convey one of its more active incarnations in the psyche (the fact that loneliness sometimes makes you feel like a powerful monster - see my reply to John Evans here). That being said, it may simply have missed its mark.

i can move left and right but not up and down, is this normal? i cant seem to do anything

Hm... the camera moves with your vertical movement, so it's true that your avatar should remain at the same y coordinate on the screen. But you should see other characters coming closer to you as you move up. If that's not happening, something is definitely wrong... can I ask what OS and browser you're on?

[ஒழுக்கின்மை (Paul Eres)]

yeah, the other dots don't move up and down when i hold up and down, they just stay stationary, forever. nothing moves up or down.

i'm on vista and in chrome

however, i think the problem may be that i'm using a keyboard from 1985: the ibm model-m, some of its keycodes may be outdated or something; perhaps you're checking for keys differently or something

[Desert Dog]

If I remember correctly, when I made a game in flash punk, and I had 'up' for jump, (and down for dig') all that did was make the game browser scroll up and down. [although left and right worked ok)

I changed it to Z and X. Unsure if this is related.

And, man, none of the other squares want to make friend with me. I so need a gun. That'll teach them.

[tesselode]

If I remember correctly, when I made a game in flash punk, and I had 'up' for jump, (and down for dig') all that did was make the game browser scroll up and down. [although left and right worked ok)

Then you need to click on the game to give it focus.

[Jordan]

yeah, the other dots don't move up and down when i hold up and down, they just stay stationary, forever. nothing moves up or down.

i'm on vista and in chrome

however, i think the problem may be that i'm using a keyboard from 1985: the ibm model-m, some of its keycodes may be outdated or something; perhaps you're checking for keys differently or something

Okay Paul, I've uploaded a new version of the game with WASD also as controls... see if that makes any difference, and we might be able to track down what the problem is

If I remember correctly, when I made a game in flash punk, and I had 'up' for jump, (and down for dig') all that did was make the game browser scroll up and down. [although left and right worked ok)

I changed it to Z and X. Unsure if this is related.

And, man, none of the other squares want to make friend with me. I so need a gun. That'll teach them.

Thanks for the tips, and indeed 

See also A Day in the Life of Rod Humble Extreme HD Edition.

On my first playthrough I thought that the metaphor is that whenever you try to get close to someone they always run away, but the speed of their flight and the fact that you're breaking up their cliques makes it feel more like they're fleeing in terror. Now I'm beginning to think that the player character is some outside force that actively seeks to split up social groups leaving the individual members broken and lonely.

I think you're definitely right about the other squares moving away too quickly, Noyb. I've uploaded a new version with slower running away, that doesn't look so much like fear. Thank you for the feedback!

[ink.inc]

An interesting, if mildly depressing experience.

[KM]

however, i think the problem may be that i'm using a keyboard from 1985: the ibm model-m, some of its keycodes may be outdated or something; perhaps you're checking for keys differently or something

Man that's some old keyboard. I'm surprised it's still working.  

And this really reminds me of highschool! (My parents are bowling balls.)