SPOILER WARNING

I CAN FINALLY TALK ABOUT IT !!! YES !!! (NaoYuudai says hi)

Hello helloooo !! Little disclaimer, I didn’t know that “eyes wide shut” was the name of a film THIS IS NOT RELATED TO THE FILM IN ANY WAY. The VA (NaoYuudai) and I just thought it up (with some help) and it fit.

This game was meant to be an exploration of 4th wall breaking elements. It’s one thing to have the wall chipped at or punched into couple times, but for the wall to be smashed down is my jam. I think this worked especially with the size of the game and its simplicity.

I wanted to play with the concept of control and the fear of losing it. As a player, you ultimately have control over how fast or slow a game can be played. Clicking and key pressing are aspects of that control. But what if it can be taken away? And what if the game makes fun of you for it? Also, I remembered how a lot of players didn’t read the gamepage of a game I developed, “Wake Me Up If You Need Me,” so I wanted to call that to attention as well in this game. So many important things could be hiding in plain sight, one of those being the rules and features of “eyes wide shut.”

The art !! The background art especially was inspired by Deltarune Ch4 (toby fox you madman). I am such a sucker for religious imagery and church-like elements, so the conveniently small window I originally planned to be a rectangle with some bars ended up becoming a circle with a cross-like shape in the middle. The blue is kind of cause of that, but also because it blended well with Vigil’s design (its very blue).

The programming was excruciating, but fun !! Finding out that what I wanted to implement was possible, I jumped on the idea immediately. I didn’t add some functions like the game reading the player’s PC name, or the player’s weather, or the date. A bunch of trial-and-error but AUGHHH seeing it come together and work out is all the more worth it.

The programming was my favourite bit to plan too. I took some inspiration from a game I made years ago, “It sucks, y’know”. The audio work I did there was muddled piano, and the main menu was ambience (white noise, crying, and door knocking). Playing with audio is super fun and can do a lot to enhance the atmosphere. Of course, I was limited by the restrictions given by the game jam’s rules. I learnt a lot from this !!

So, what happens next? 

August 1

There’s a bit more that I want to tweak and add onto. The audio, mainly !! I also want to clean up the code and maybe add more tidbits in the bonus folder within the game’s files. What will absolutely NOT be changed or added to is the script, and voice acting. Nao’s done enough and needs to rest his weary back (nodnod). The character design won’t change either. I might tweak the background art a bit for funsies (I HATE MAKING BG ART AUGH), the UI art I could possibly tweak a bit too (not a guarantee).  Some functions of the game might change though, like the ability to change the auto forward time and text speed.

Thank you for playing !! But please do remember to move with caution <3