Hope - A 2 Day Game By Ben304 & Calin Leafshade

[Calin Leafshade]

Hope

Our hero awakens in a strange world, tethered to strange machines, unsure of how he got there and if he wants to go back...



"It's like being pulled from a dream by the scruff of your neck." - Hood



The result of a 48 hour game jam.

Conceived, written, designed, drawn, scored and tested in 48 hours. So don't expect wonders :p

http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/games.php?action=detail&id=1278

[Igor Hardy]

Was this done for some kind of a contest or something? Or just to test how fast can you do this kind of thing?

[david]

downloaded, played, finished, enjoyed
you guys are bringing the adventure games to the higher and higher level
excellent

BTW: the font you chose is very good and is readable

Thank you for this little game  

[ThreeOhFour]

Igor: Just for the sake of doing it, not for any event.

David: Thank you

[IndieBoy]

Good job guys.

[Jimbob]

And so it begins... the first of about twenty games Ben will be involved with this year (challenge set! haha). Nice little mood piece. Like the guitar work ambiance.
A little blunt in places perhaps, but its 48 hours
Well done.

[Leon]

Very nice one. Not much to puzzle :-( , much more to enjoy on the graphics and audio section. The second part of the interactive story was a bit disappointing because there was no choice in the conversation. A nice wordplay/puzzle to convince and persuade #634 would be nice.

Graphical:  In the midsection of the game, when distracting the Stalker, it still looks like he's facing towards the catwalk and thus still can see you. If his face wouldn't be visible, he'd face the other way and really couldn't see you.

Overall, nice, but I'd love to see you two take another two weeks and create something more challenging for the player. In this case, you've won the challenge for yourself :-)

Slight typo (while talking to #634): DeepNet adjusts it's service --> its

[Helme]

Ben without Sebastian -What happened 

Very nice for only 2 days, but I would rather prefer to see Ben working some months on a medium length game.

[Calin Leafshade]

but I would rather prefer to see Ben working some months on a medium length game.

It's like you can see into the future,

http://www.gnomeslair.com/2010/01/ten-gnomish-questions-ben-chandler.html

[arj0n]

Well well Ben & Calin, go Winter's Shadow go!

[Sythe]

Our hero awakens in a strange world, tethered to strange machines, unsure of how he got there and if he wants to go back...

I thought artistically it was well put together. The backgrounds, animations, interface, music, etc.

But the moral of the story... to me at least, it doesn't make a whole lot of sense;
Deepnet is a pretty explicit analogy for the state. But if talking the state out of violence actually worked, then wouldn't we all be free already?

If all that was needed to stop organized crime was to sit down with mob bosses (and likewise politicians) and explain to them that humans are not their chattel, then surely we would not have had 10,000 years of grinding poverty and slavery...

Remember in 1984, Winston doesn't win. Talking doesn't work, because the people inflicting violence are psychopaths.

The other thing that doesn't make sense is that this centrally planned economy with all the vats and enforcers etc could even exist in the first place. The government can't even run a public school or fix major roads once a decade, even with > 50% of the resources of the productive sector. If everyone is in vats, how is it managing to maintain itself?

[Calin Leafshade]

I think your forgetting the 48 hour constraint :p It's hard to form a cohesive and consistent story in that period of time.

but essentially the point was that reality is always better than a fantasy, no matter how good it makes you feel. This is a reference to people who proclaim that it doesnt matter what they believe, as long as they are happy.
Obviously thats a fairly thinly veiled attack on religion, but also any other belief that does not comport with reality. Anytime someone is deceiving themselves to make themselves feel better I think they are doing themselves and reality, which is beautiful in itself, a disservice.

If you'd like some backstory it goes like this:

DeepNet was a corporate entity that could offer people a "better than reality" experience. They said that you could jump into the pods and be happy for the rest of your life. You'd never know you were in there and life would be perfect.

Robert Nozick concluded that if people were offered a chance at a fake "perfect life" they would turn it down and no one would get in the pod. However my world asks the question of *what if* it were adopted en masse by the entire population. because i mean logically there is no reason NOT to get into the pod and yet something about the human condition makes us want reality more than a more favourable fantasy.

Anyway, as is always the case in these things, DeepNet applied a flawed logic a little too ridgidly and wouldnt let anyone leave. As he puts it "Why would you choose to not be safe". Extrapolate that over many decades and you have the situation portrayed in Hope.

Ofcourse there are a million holes but it was a quick 'thought experiment' if you like.

[kaputtnik]

Ben without Sebastian -What happened 

Oh, I spent those 48 hours sleeping. They didn't want to wake me up, so Calin took the good ole guitar and recorded the music himself.

[RedTalon]

I love the backgrounds. Great work guys.

Red Talon

[markbilly]

I love how the story seems to be a mix between The Matrix, Nineteen Eighty-Four and Beneath a Steel Sky - perfect!

Full opinion soon...

EDIT: Lovely little game, Ben's art is getting better and better! The music was fab and the darker story was interesting.

The end dialogue sequence did seem a little un-interactive, though. That's my only crit'.

[Sythe]

I think your forgetting the 48 hour constraint :p It's hard to form a cohesive and consistent story in that period of time.

Yeah that's true. It is quite an achievement for 48 hours.

DeepNet was a corporate entity that could offer people a "better than reality" experience. They said that you could jump into the pods and be happy for the rest of your life. You'd never know you were in there and life would be perfect.

Makes me think of: Abre los ojos meets The matrix.

because i mean logically there is no reason NOT to get into the pod and yet something about the human condition makes us want reality more than a more favourable fantasy.

Well there is actually. The utility function of a gene is to promote the continued existence of that gene. Accepting life-long stasis would be a form of suicide, if there were no way to get out once under.

But we don't need to look to the future for examples of this. People use heroin right now to exactly the same effect. And even though it's as readily available as cigarettes in most cities, most people don't run out and dope up. Why? Because they have their lives to lead; Another way of saying their genes push them onward toward reproduction.

Genes only know how to do one thing: maintain themselves. The cells in your hand only know how to be a hand, and make more hand cells. Your brain and heart and liver and lungs are a means to an end from the perspective of that cell. Each organ in your body exists in nearly perfect ignorance of the other organs. They are all cooperative parasites on your brain, which is a cooperative parasite on them.

But the selfish desire to survive is the very definition of life. The purpose of life is to replicate. That's why it still exists. Any dynamic system without a bent toward continued existence will cease to exist. Life exists because the meaning of life is life itself.

[Calin Leafshade]

ofcourse in terms of species survival there is every reason not to get into the pod.

However from a personal, selfish perspective there is no logical impediment to life long stasis. if you wouldnt know the difference and your life would be perfect what would stop you?

Also heroin is not a valid analogy since heroin is physically damaging and not self sustaining.

DeepNet will keep you under in perpetuity and keep you healthy which no ill effects.

[Vukul]

Great work, what can you add to this?

A bit trivial in the message, though (strongly reminds of Matrix), but still very consistent.
This duet, I'm sure, will make perfect projects (waiting for Winter's Shadow!)

Great artwok, as always.
And also, good scripting. The interface, which became standard for Ben's games, found it's final perfection in this game: inventory panel easing up and down, overhotspot labels fading in and out - everything looks very good.

[Sythe]

However from a personal, selfish perspective there is no logical impediment to life long stasis. if you wouldnt know the difference and your life would be perfect what would stop you?

Because you know the difference now. And the only point of having knowledge is to better one's self in the future. If one knows that action A causes a consequence equivalent to death, then why would one undertake action A, unless deranged to the point of suicidality?

From a personal selfish perspective -- the only perspective -- your actions will conform with your internal values. If your internal values are toward self-termination, for whatever reason, then maybe tank-life would be an option. But if your values are toward survival and reproduction, as most people's are, why would you even be remotely tempted to act against these values?

The stasis tank is a bad example because it suggests the system can be unplugged. A better example is the veil in the fifth harry potter book. It's a one way entry to a kind of death.

You can put whatever you want over there, but in so far as people are unable to satisfy their life goals there, they will be no more tempted to enter there than they would be to enter an active gas chamber.

DeepNet will keep you under in perpetuity and keep you healthy which no ill effects.

Well that just depends on your definition of healthy. I would define health as the proper functioning of an organ or organism. Which would case both drug use and deepnet into the unhealthy category.

Anyway, cool story. Keep up the good work.

[neon]

Nice! I like it. For a 48 hour project it's absolutely amazing. Looking forward to what's coming next.