*Play now on itch.io *

Excellent experience. I really enjoyed creating my own stories. Congrats.

Absolutely stunning. I found myself thinking about myself and others, and a little scared. Awesome concept, sound design and graphics.

Somehow scary, well done!

I really liked playing your game. It's somehow scary and reminded me of a creepypasta, but it's also melancholic and made me think about a lot of things. Really like the merging feelings. Well done !

Really fun and interesting. My favorite channel was the shopping one.

Really enjoyed the game - it had some kind of horrror feeling as well. Everytime I've changed my channel I expected something to happen. Love the idea and the shrimp channel xD

This was really great. I love being able to "tune into tv stations" for new stories. Great job!

Polished, very well done.

Wow that was a crazy experience. The visuals are super neat looking, but the content really got to me. Very interesting game!

Sound makes the atmosphere amazing! well done!

Very intresting take on the theme. And really polished beautiful entry. Congratulations I really enjoyed it!

I really can't say that I didn't like that, but there's something about the expectations of agency that makes me feel really robbed when I understand that this experience offers no agency... Excellent writing, great visualisation, I just wish it actually mattered at all what I "did" or chose.

I kinda understand that the lack of agency is a kind of the point, but that doesn't make it "better", at least for me.

This would be amazing if there were some agency :P

Did I mention agency? :P

@tuism what do you mean by agency in this context?

Like, having my decisions and actions mean something in the game, knowing that I'm not just flipping pages in a linear book. There are so many decisions in the game, and all of them made me feel like they could have had consequence. But once I realise it all didn't matter I just didn't care anymore what I chose.

Yes you could say that artistically that's what the game was supposed to convey, but I disagree with that kind of art :P

Very interesting game! I included it in my Ludum Dare 40 compilation video series, if you’d like to take a look. :) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SlEs2Zt4em8

I really liked the mood in this game.

dafuq I just played :D omg so sick. Nice tho.

I really liked the atmosphere you created with the game - particularly the TV on/off animation and each advert was also unique and interesting. It was also an interesting decision to include the topic of anxiety/panic attacks into the game. It was nice to see some serious themes explored in the jam. Great to see a more narrative driven experience.

amazing writing and atmosphere. i ADORE games like this, and you guys got it just right. can't wait to see what you guys come up with next LD!


Great game! I liked the aesthetics used and the experience created. Congratulations.

Ótimo jogo! Gostei da estética utilizada e da experiência criada. Parabéns. :flag_br:

Love the tv tuning feature. This has a great atmosphere.

I really like what you did in this game, the ideas, the visual and the feel.

When I play, I hoped that all the channels could affect each other and forms some kind of link.

Since this game is about mental status, maybe in the eyes of special people, the channels of a TV could just link up in a weird way. From CNN news to a cartoon, to tv series and old fashioned commercials, they are interlinked somehow, which forms a unique setting of world.

To be more specific, a female character in a movie could be sad because of the news in the next channel; a boy wants to cut open sth but finds no tools, yet there is a Knife commercials in another channel; a cartoon frog sit under the sewage, but the sewage could be also in another channel, but in different visual style and mood.


Bad English, I hope you get my point..

@guoboism this is an interesting idea! Would definitely make the game more engaging mechanic wise. I wonder if it would change the feel though? Instead of feeling like you are tuning into different worlds and stories there might be more of a grandiose interconnected feel which is the opposite of what I was going for. Definitely a good thing to think about, thank you!

Nice job guys :smile:

Awesome experience. Great idea, excellent work creating the atmosphere. Congratulations, loved it!

There really is an original mood here... A bit disturbing x)
GG !

I'll admit I wasn't expecting this kind of thing! I really liked the interactive nature of the stories. I do kind of wish there had been a more interconnected narrative, but then again, part of the charm was that I never quite knew what was going to come up next. It's not a normal game but I think it's great all the same. Nice work!

Great game, I felt really immerse in it. I just didn't get much of the theme in it, but the game itself was awesome!
Great job!

I'm blown away, i did not expect anything this intense from ludum dare, i was fully immersed. Talking about specifics like the perfect moody music feels superfluous (or the hilarious hair of the spider, or the great writing in general), after the strength of the experience. Fantastic!
PS: i'm also happy that i had very little agency and that it was not (perceivably) connected - this way i could enjoy it without thinking too much about what choice is the optimal one, and what could influence what. I was guily-free able to choose whatever i thought initially, quite freeing actually.

Very atmospheric! Great work!

Absolutely beautiful work. If this was autobiographical then I am sure it was cathartic to make, and I congratulate you on expressing your self in this way. If it was not autobiographical, then I congratulate you for making something that can leave such a profound impression on people.

The surreality of this work, and the emotional impact are what really, truly impressed me.

This one might be the best game I have played so far. I think it is a finished product, but I wonder if you have plans to expand it post jam.

##Thank you

@shinyogre Thank you so much! That really really means a lot to me. Some aspects of it are somewhat autobiographical so I'm glad its managing to have an affect on people! :)

In regards to expanding on it, we think that we're done with this game specifically... but the world, themes, and style are going to be expanded upon in the game we're working on atm (plug lol) https://www.facebook.com/sandgardeners/

Very intriguing experience ! The game is interesting as it is but I wonder it could be more exciting if it was more difficult or take more time to find the tv sequence. Here, you can find them very quick so you play them without really interruption until the end. On one hand, it reproduce well the zapping effect but on the other hand, I think the player could feel rewarded and enjoy them more if he pass more time in the snow crash looking for them. Very good art that create a strange and hypnotic mood. Good job !

Very nice! I like the commentary in trying to find companionship in the tv [media?] (you can't). There's a sort of relief personally for me after playing the game to know there are other things I could be doing that isn't just flipping channels. Very polished entry, loved the little vignettes of thoughts and shows with the different perspectives and choices.

Ahhh

The feelings of an occupied, half-asleep mind at 3am is what this television reminds me of--essentially visuals for the racing thoughts. Especially neat how it doesn't seem to be my mind that I'm presented with, but still an empathetic one.

Did you have any inspirations for this? The pure surreal with a focus on television reminded me of some of Alan Resnick's material for example.

I seriously have no idea what the hell was going on in this game but it was fascinating all the same. One of the most interesting games for mood that I have played so far. Very unsettling.

5/5 Mood nice and unsettling

Is the game over after all the stations are gone? it said something is hidden between stations or something like that, couldn't find anything

Amazing entry that is also incredibly polished. I loved everything, from the sound design to the interesting writing. This is definitely one of the best entries I've seen so far.

Superb job!

@jjjjason hey thanks man it was partly inspired by Alan Resnick's work, i think the extended videos he did for This House Has People In It are super interesting in terms of active/passive viewing and voyeurism. Other inspirations? Kentucky Route Zero is definitely the number one inspiration for me in games, like text-based narrative and choice. That shit is perfection. David Lynch's films are a constant inspiration. Lost in Translation as well in a weird way was an inspiration. Also for this project I looked a little at early video art and the way we interact with video art in galleries/at home. If that makes any sense? lol

@lestat there's no more content once you've exhausted the stations, apart from the static, can see why the writing at the end would confuse you im sorry about that

Excellent! I really enjoyed the mood of this game! It catches the feeling of insomnia away from home so well and the fact that I was actually playing it because I can't get asleap right now is irrelevant ;)

It's so absurd, so intriguing. I loved it.

Wow. That was... an experience, for sure. Perhaps the way it tied in with the theme was a bit loose, but... it was still pretty interesting, to say the least. The art, the mood, the sounds... they were all fantastic. Writing was nice, too! Found myself swishing the dial back and forth after it was all over, hoping for more... Doesn't seem to have a big payoff, though, but the journey itself was cool. Good job, guys!

Our team does a weekly indie gamedev podcast called Nice Games Club, and we just did a Let's Play episode where we played thirty-six (!!) Ludum Dare 40 games, including yours (which we only got a taste of, but really liked)!

[Check it out here!](http://nicegames.club/2017/12/nice-plays-ludum-dare-40-games-2017/)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-BGt66ZnLME

This is one of my favorite entries. The audio is great- there's different static tracks, typing sounds, a variety of music. Some of the channels are really funny, some spooky, others surreal. I especially liked the news story of strange sounds in the mountains. It was one of the first I found, and made me think there would be a storyline about some phenomenon affecting the town you're in, and would affect all the channels. EG: I thought it was connected to the car ride story, but all the channels turned out to be pretty independent. Still really fun though, and gave me some ideas. Nice work! PS: this is way better than real TV.

Eh, the game tells me the TV has nothing more to offer and I'm not sure what to do. Maybe I didn't find it, or maybe the game is over and that's the whole point. Anyway, I'm not quite sure what I just played, or how it fits with the theme, but I liked the atmosphere and the peculiar graphics. It's impressive how you put up so much content in a limited amount of time.

https://youtu.be/SQCJrr4uBaw