Molleindustria has recently released an excellent short game with the music of Jesse Stiles. In Every Day the Same Dream, you play a man who awakens (continually) to your alarm going off, your clothes waiting to be put on, your television that cannot be watched, your wife who cannot be kissed good morning, traffic, and a seemingly endless cubicle farm where you work. A crone figure in the elevator suggests that you can break away from this routine, somewow. The music hits just the right point between the humdrum repetition of the workday and the idea of an alternative to these. The almost entirely grayscale game doesn’t write a prescription for the player’s happiness, and some of the steps are much sillier than others. Nevertheless, the game hints at how people can explore the everyday and escape the oppression of the ordinary. That’s not bad for six days of game development work and for a few minutes of your time.
Nick Montfort
Fun game to play after sleeping to five pm trying to shake off the New Year’s Eve woozies. Reminds me in some ways of that well-known art game whose name I forget but where you basically just move forward through a beautifully rendered pixelated landscape. I wonder if anyone’s theorized the basic aesthetics of such games. I forgot that I loved playing these little indie things so much (though they can border on frightfully pretentious and/or maudlin).
I found this game about a week ago and enjoyed it. Would make a good new addition to this year’s Groundhog Day post on GTxA… :-)
I don’t know if I have the patience to find out whether there is more than one ending, but wow… I’m left speechless.
It’s inspiring that something so simple can have such a profound moment, where we literally need to stop what we are doing, and think about nothing other than what just happened.
I shared it with my friends and said to them..”um, yea… i dont know what to say, but that if you are averse to thinking, then you probably shouldnt play this game. note: it is somewhat disturbing.. but beautifully so”