Depth Self - A narrative game by Flokami

[raw]
made by Flokami for Ludum Dare 57 (JAM)

CoverImage.png OpenImage.gif PuzzleExample2.gif A short narrative puzzle game about memory, guilt... and digging through files.

Laura can’t remember. Not this part of her life. Not what happened. Not why it still hurts.

Using a device called the Depth-Self, you’ll explore the forgotten corners of her mind—through images, voices, and strange documents scattered across a mysterious interface. Click. Drag. Dig. The truth is somewhere in there.

It’s a game that messes a bit with your head—and a bit with your desktop.

🧠 Narrative-focused 🖱️ Puzzle through files and fragments ⏳ Short, emotional, and personal 🕹️ How to Play Depth Self plays with your files—literally.

When the game starts, it creates a folder filled with strange files. Your goal is to explore and interact with them to unlock pieces of Laura’s memory.

Load .jpp files in-game and reassemble them like puzzles.

Complete them to reveal .jpng images containing hidden clues.

Watch for the “writing” indicator—this means new data is being saved to the folder. Something just changed.

Once you’ve gathered enough clues, you’ll be able to run the DepthSelf.brain program and dive deeper

⚠️ Content Warning Depth Self deals with themes of emotional trauma and many more. Some moments may be emotionally intense or unsettling.

Take your time. Step away if needed.

Ratings

Overall 164th 3.906⭐ 50🧑‍⚖️
Fun 236th 3.681⭐ 49🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 3th 4.542⭐ 50🧑‍⚖️
Theme 303th 3.896⭐ 50🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 305th 3.927⭐ 50🧑‍⚖️
Humor 499th 2.658⭐ 40🧑‍⚖️
Mood 173th 3.989⭐ 48🧑‍⚖️
Given 114🗳️ 103🗨️

Feedback

simon.parzer
07. Apr 2025 · 16:20 UTC
Does the game end at "Leave me alone." or am I missing something?
Sayeg
07. Apr 2025 · 16:30 UTC
Really cool take on a narrative puzzle game! Loving it!
xpoho
07. Apr 2025 · 16:53 UTC
Nice narrative experiment! Time to think about some things.
xpoho
07. Apr 2025 · 16:54 UTC
@simon-parzer


UPD: as i was asked, i place this link to the solutions for this nice developers ^_^
https://flokami.itch.io/depth-self
ThisIsSpy
07. Apr 2025 · 17:17 UTC
Extremly creative and cool idea! Love it! :D
🎤 Flokami
07. Apr 2025 · 22:30 UTC
@xpoho Hey ! Thanks for giving the clue to unlock him ! We hope that you've enjoyed the game !
We've uploaded a guide on the itch page containing the solution, so can you please edit your comment to link to the itch page guide instead of giving it here ?
Thank you much !
🎤 Flokami
07. Apr 2025 · 22:31 UTC
@sayeg Hey thanks ! Glad that you enjoyed it !
🎤 Flokami
07. Apr 2025 · 22:32 UTC
@thisisspy Thanks ! We tried our best to have an original take on the theme or in the game design of the game !
🎤 Flokami
07. Apr 2025 · 22:33 UTC
@simon-parzer Hope you will give it another try ! The solution can now be found in our guide available on itch.io
LDJam user 14887
08. Apr 2025 · 01:13 UTC
looks rad!
jazzydingo
08. Apr 2025 · 04:17 UTC
very cool, i like these games that play in windows! innovative! was difficult to figure out at times, some things didnt open/react and it was a little awkward shuffling between windows and file folders. but very cool game!
YibiRabbit007
08. Apr 2025 · 13:06 UTC
Multi-window games are unimaginable to me, you're amazing!
🎤 Flokami
08. Apr 2025 · 13:12 UTC
@yibirabbit007 Haha thanks, it was for us too at the start of the jam but Godot power is fantastic to manage this. But if we could make another similar game I honestly think that we would build a fake OS screen to make things easier to read and understand.
xpoho
08. Apr 2025 · 13:40 UTC
@flokami Ok, no problem! Updated my comment for you ^_^
kenevil1
08. Apr 2025 · 15:14 UTC
Such a unique idea, absolutely loved playing this. I really like how you play with the windows, already can tell how long it probably took to get it working just by playing lol, and the art style on top of this along with the angling, 10/10 job!
viscera
08. Apr 2025 · 15:27 UTC
ОЧЕНЬ КРУТАЯ ИГРА потрясающее исполнение суперр
xoudz
08. Apr 2025 · 15:42 UTC
cool idea
LDJam user 413537
08. Apr 2025 · 15:47 UTC
cool game!
ShisenGumii
08. Apr 2025 · 15:49 UTC
Great idea ! Loved this one
sofia.miglan
08. Apr 2025 · 15:55 UTC
I like the idea of transferring the topic about depth, it looks unusual.
MacheteMami
08. Apr 2025 · 16:10 UTC
Wow! I can't imagine how much effort it got to bring this all together, but it really paid off. Great job!
HappyTrollAngus
08. Apr 2025 · 16:24 UTC
Very creative! This was fun to try to puzzle through. The walkthrough guide could use a little more detail though. If someone is stuck enough to read the spoiler/walkthrough, they probably want more than just hints.
🎤 Flokami
08. Apr 2025 · 16:31 UTC
@happytrollangus Yeah, I will update the guide to include puzzle solutions.
LDJam user 374028
08. Apr 2025 · 17:40 UTC
The game is pretty cool with the multiple windows and files, but I'm stuck in an infinite open/close loop when she does not want to remember.
🎤 Flokami
08. Apr 2025 · 17:50 UTC
@andriybyelikov Don't forget to check out our guide (we've included the solution for this exact case). Or you can contact me in private (on socials) I can help you !
Senkoso
08. Apr 2025 · 19:14 UTC
cool idea and visual 💗
SoaringMoon
08. Apr 2025 · 19:29 UTC
Experimental narrative game that pieces across multiple windows. Puzzles were well designed.
bene-labs
08. Apr 2025 · 19:32 UTC
Super creative and cool idea but I sadly couldn't get past the first puzzle despite trying for quite some time - everything looked correct but it didn't seem to count. Probably a bug, as two of the screens borders got stuck being complely green while the other borders were stuck being gray after a while.
I hope you can fix it as I really want to give it another try but it was still a cool experience already
LDJam user 304226
08. Apr 2025 · 19:32 UTC
Woah, really awesome and unique idea, haven't seen this kind of weird interaction with desktop since Windowkill or Oneshot, but anyways, really cool game, some of the image puzzles felt a bit really hard and tricky to line up, but other than that they were pretty fun to do! Good game.
ugly_robot
08. Apr 2025 · 19:49 UTC
What an amazing amalgamation of art! 2d illustration, voxel art, and, of course trippy and totally unique visuals!
The window usage and file editing remind me of 'One Shot' - if anyone wants to check out games with a similarly deep use of your PC.
With a little help from the guide, I did get to the end (I was trying to create the file in the wrong folder) - but still uncertain if the 'last 3' jpngs are openable?
Either way - fantastic stuff, great story - a truly unique and amazing artistic work!
Yatsu
08. Apr 2025 · 19:53 UTC
I love games that flirt with the system. You bribed me with this
ugly_robot
08. Apr 2025 · 19:53 UTC
Oh - also I coouldn't delete the folder in the windows explorer as the subfiles were created with system permissions (I think?). (had to use powershell `rm`)

NBD, just something to consider
🎤 Flokami
08. Apr 2025 · 19:53 UTC
@bene-labs Hey thanks for the feedback ! To clarify what you have to do with the windows. First I would recomend to rotate each windows view in the good angle. To do that just click inside the window and move your mouse. When the central border become green, you're good. Then each border have a bar that become green when well-placed, the four windows form a single picture so at least two borders of each should be green (sometime it can require a bit of manipulating before getting the border green because of tolerance of detection).
It can be a bit hard to have the good angle sometimes but it exist just try to move a bit around.
Please tell us if that helped you or if you need more help (or maybe a bug report) feel free to contact me at mail at contact@titangstudio.fr.
Yatsu
08. Apr 2025 · 19:54 UTC
I love games that flirt with the system. You bribed me with this
🎤 Flokami
08. Apr 2025 · 20:13 UTC
@ugly-robot Big thanks for the feedback ! The 3 images was planned to be openable as a way to see them again, but we didn't had the time to include it !
Very strange for the permissions things, none of us had a similar case. Have you opened the game with elevated privileges xD ?
Hypersomnia
08. Apr 2025 · 20:26 UTC
really creative way of narration!!!
ArenAvgust
09. Apr 2025 · 05:45 UTC
The narrative is so cool! I will pley it again and again, amazing work!
Virtual Turtle Studio
09. Apr 2025 · 08:34 UTC
I would have loved to get into this since I love games like this and the concept seems really good! However, I just wasn't able to piece together my first image, no matter how hard I tried, even with the guide. It took me a while before I realised I could drag inside the windows, and then I realized it's actually a perspective camera and not just a 2D image. However, I just didn't know what part of the images I was supposed to overlap, since all showed the entire scene. I'm guessing I'd have to line up the angles of the cameras, but I unfortunately wasn't able to. The art looks really cool though and the way the game controls is awesome. Really good job!
MagnesiumNinja
09. Apr 2025 · 08:40 UTC
Nice execution of the multi-window idea! I appreciated the green lines confirming when things were lined up as well.
5huNo.3
09. Apr 2025 · 12:20 UTC
I'm so glad there was a guide! I wouldn't be able to reach the ending on my own. I'm glad I got to see how it ended. Have never played such an interactive, meta game before, so this was a very interesting game! The puzzles were a bit tricky when it comes to trying to fit all the windows together precicely, but figured out in the end. Great work!
aniretti
09. Apr 2025 · 20:21 UTC
very innovative gameplay! unfortunately, game crashed several times, when i almost complete first puzzle. but i think game is still pretty cool and i liked playing it, good job!
ByDado
09. Apr 2025 · 21:37 UTC
I loved the game but i couldnt get through the first puzle.Can someone tell me the game story? Im very curious about it
Lou Tremolieres
09. Apr 2025 · 21:44 UTC
Very nice game ! Loved the gameplay, it was unlike anything I had played before and the art was great ! Really nice experience overall, I'd love to see more games like this one
Anderson Job Loeffler
10. Apr 2025 · 00:08 UTC
Nice entry, I enjoyed the communication with the operational system. Keep up the good work!
🎤 Flokami
10. Apr 2025 · 06:00 UTC
@aniretti Hey I'm really interested to get more data about these crashes. Can you send me your computers specs, your setup (one or multiple monitors ?) and some detail about the crash (we're you making something specifically ?) by mail at contact@titangstudio.fr ? A big thanks to you if you can do that for me !
🎤 Flokami
10. Apr 2025 · 06:34 UTC
@bydado Hey ! I've updated the guide on the itch page, feel free to read it !
Tenzz
10. Apr 2025 · 16:48 UTC
HOW- Just, like, HOW
Egor Iv
10. Apr 2025 · 16:48 UTC
it is interesting
tdalmasso
10. Apr 2025 · 20:34 UTC
Bravo!! le gameplay original avec la manipulation de fichiers, les graphismes nous mettent dans l'ambiance, il y a une petite histoire vraiment sympa pour une jam. Je verrai bien ce jeu aller plus loin et carrément devenir une perle indé.
gg!!
David05
11. Apr 2025 · 21:45 UTC
Really good game, interesting concept. Trying to align things through multiple windows is such a cool idea. Interesting take on the theme too. The story is also really good, but damn I did not expect it to get so sad. I know that was the idea tho so good job on capturing that emotion through this game!
byebye
13. Apr 2025 · 09:58 UTC
Incredible idea, I've never played anything like this! I had a hard time figuring out what to do at first, and also hard to figure out how to get to the ending, so more hints and a basic tutorial would have been nice. But that's a small thing, I had a great time playing this game, good job!
YT-TY
14. Apr 2025 · 13:44 UTC
The game’s thematic presentation is quite innovative.
Borabee
15. Apr 2025 · 06:09 UTC
I was really looking forward to playing your game, since the concept is so cool! However sadly it keeps crashing on my notebook, making the game unplayable :'') If I use 2 screens (my normal setup), it crashes as soon as it loads, if I use 1 screen, it crashes once I open the image files. From what I've seen in the comments, this seems to be quite a rare problem, but you were asking for specs in order to look into it, so... In my case, I'm on Asus Vivobook K6502HC, Windows 11 Home, Intel Processor i9-11900H, 16GB RAM, DirectX 12, GPU Intel UHD integrated 8GB + NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 4GB, 1920 x 1080 resolution. I'd be happy to send any other necessary specs here or via e-mail, just tell me which ones you need heheh

If you have any tips on how to work around this or if you release a version with a fix, I'd love to come back to play and rate!
🎤 Flokami
15. Apr 2025 · 06:34 UTC
@borabee Hi thanks for the specs, can send me your crash logs too ? It should be located at C:\Users\<YourUsername>\AppData\Roaming\Godot\app_userdata\DepthSelf\logs . You can send me these at contact@titangstudio.fr !
Ammonit
15. Apr 2025 · 09:59 UTC
Interesting solution! Looks pretty nice!
ellaris
15. Apr 2025 · 10:47 UTC
Really cool game. I liked the interaction with the files and multiple windows, and the feedback of getting closer to the solution (border colors).

- I had a problem solving the first puzzle, I might have accidentally resized the window while trying to move it (you should probably make them non resizable), the bottom-right window's top border was green, but top-right window's bottom border was not and I couldn't get them them both green at the same time, I could only have 7/8 green borders. I restarted the game and had the same problem and fixed it by resizing the window.
- Accessing the ending was too difficult, I went to the guide but still took me a long time to figure it out. I have read the clues, but didn't think of checking them again, and even with them I still wouldn't have come up with the solution to it on my own, and it feels really bad to have put in a lot of effort into solving it, getting to the interesting part and then having access to it blocked.