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(Note: This LP is done with the developer's permission to bypass the 3 months requirement) What is this game? Neverending Nightmares is an indie horror game that's a semi-autobiographical take on the lead dev's problems with OCD and depression, part of which was thanks to his previous game flopping. You play as a man called Thomas who has constant nightmares about his death, his sister's death or other messed up things. The problem is that he wakes up from one nightmare to go into the next one. It's a really short game (like you can get all three endings in about 2 hours) but I think it's one of the better indie horror games released in a while. You can either get for the PC or the OUYA. How's this LP going to work? I'm going with subtitles for commentary instead of talking because I don't think my dumb nerdy voice is gonna to add anything to the game. I will be showing all of the endings, of course. Maybe not show off every single path to get to them but what I don't show in a video, I'll make up in explanations. So I'm guessing no spoilers for this, huh? Yes! Horror games are no fun if someone just ruins all of the fun so if you played the game and know stuff ahead of the videos, please keep it to yourself! Also, some scenes in this game are pretty disturbing, the videos with those scenes have been tagged with NSFW (PS. The first few videos are poorly timed so the subtitles might be too fast for people to read. That has been fixed in the other videos.) Episode List Episode 1: The Nightmare Begins + The Coming Storm *NSFW* Episode 2: Lost Child Episode 3: Insanity Episode 4: Childish Things + Destroyed Dreams *NSFW* Episode 5: Together At Last *NSFW* Episode 6: The Final Descent Episode 7: Wayward Dreamer *NSFW* countzio fucked around with this message at 01:47 on Nov 11, 2014 |
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Oct 12, 2014 22:35
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As someone suffering of sleep paralysis which often leads to nightmares of "waking up" and finding yourself still in bed over and over, this was not a good LP to watch at midnight when I should be sleeping soon.
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Oct 12, 2014 22:59
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This is pretty cool! It definitely has that "kickstarter game" feel, but I wanna see where it goes.
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Oct 13, 2014 04:32
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I read an article about this game (uh... nevermind where) early in its development that got me intrigued, then I completely forgot about it. Now that you've reminded me, I'm excited to see how it all turned out.
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Oct 13, 2014 04:54
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Well.... That was a thing. This is gonna get progressively more disturbing inst it?
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Oct 13, 2014 05:16
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This looks fairly interesting. Seems like a less "arcadey" thing compared to Knock Knock!
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Oct 13, 2014 06:04
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Thesaya posted:As someone suffering of sleep paralysis which often leads to nightmares of "waking up" and finding yourself still in bed over and over, this was not a good LP to watch at midnight when I should be sleeping soon. False awakening dreams are absolutely the worst.
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Oct 13, 2014 12:23
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Ghostwoods posted:False awakening dreams are absolutely the worst. They are. I am not just blaming this, but I do feel it might be part of the reason I slept between 05.00 and 06.00 last night. I had other missed chances of sleep during the night, but I am quite certain this messed up one of them.
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Oct 13, 2014 12:35
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In my experience as an asthmatic, it's not so much the running that's the problem. It's the stopping that gets ya.  This game looks really interesting, and I'm definitely enjoying the LP. The color scheme is really messing with my eyes though; I think I'll try turning on some more lights in my room with the next video to see if it improves, otherwise I may need to watch these in small segments, which would really ruin the flow. :/
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Oct 13, 2014 14:59
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Ghostwoods posted:False awakening dreams are absolutely the worst. Absolutely. I suffer from sleep paralysis too, and the worst thing is sometimes I'm aware I'm dreaming and still can't wake up.  That said, I really like the look of the game - something between white noise and lithographs, very effective. The psalm in the bible is Psalm 22, very fitting for the situation. AutistTree fucked around with this message at 23:24 on Oct 13, 2014 |
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Oct 13, 2014 23:17
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This game has an interesting art style. To the folks suffering from dream problems, have you ever tried practising lucid dreaming? Most people try it because they want to control their dreams and become like Neo in The Matrix... but in my experience even if you don't reach that level of lucidity, just practising lucid dreaming techniques trains some part of your subconscious to remind you during dreams that it isn't real, so there's no need to be scared and you can just wish anything bad away at any time. And that alone makes nightmares less of a problem. False awakening and sleep paralysis experiences seem to differ. For some people, they are triggered by lucid dream techniques, while for others they become more controllable. -- Anyway, back on topic, countzio, when you were explaining the origin of the main characters' names, some of the longer subtitle lines disappeared so fast I didn't have time to read them completely. Can you please keep an eye of how long they stay on screen in further updates?
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Oct 14, 2014 20:18
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Carbon dioxide posted:Anyway, back on topic, countzio, when you were explaining the origin of the main characters' names, some of the longer subtitle lines disappeared so fast I didn't have time to read them completely. Can you please keep an eye of how long they stay on screen in further updates? That's actually the biggest fear I had doing this because I read fast but I know not everyone does. I already finished the second episode but starting with the third episode, I'll have people I know look it over to see if they all can see every subtitle. Speaking of the second episode, Fraps died after finishing one level but I figured it was long enough to call it a day. There's also a hiccup near the end of the video around that time and I apologize for it. Episode 2: Lost Child
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Oct 14, 2014 20:33
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Watching the first video I find myself wondering if there's anything more to this game than walking very slowly around an Edward Gorey drawing and then something startling happens and you start over again? Because I've never had sleep paralysis or OCD or depression or false awakening dreams or anything like that so am I just missing a crucial component that makes it work?
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Oct 14, 2014 20:49
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Hah, waking up from falling, I think most people will have experienced that one. I didn't check it myself, but the layout of the dream house seems confusing. Does it actually make sense in three dimensions? Because with the dream theme, it would be neat if it didn't. Crane Fist posted:Watching the first video I find myself wondering if there's anything more to this game than walking very slowly around an Edward Gorey drawing and then something startling happens and you start over again? Because I've never had sleep paralysis or OCD or depression or false awakening dreams or anything like that so am I just missing a crucial component that makes it work? No, I think you got it. It's an artsy 'horror' game that's rather slow paced. I'm kinda interested in seeing where it's going, but I can understand if this type of game isn't your cup of tea. Carbon dioxide fucked around with this message at 21:22 on Oct 14, 2014 |
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Oct 14, 2014 21:19
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I watched the second video and I'm prepared to retract my original comments now that stuff is actually happening. That said, this game could definitely stand to lean less heavily on bog-standard horror cliches like the creepy dolls and broken music-box chimes, which have just been done to death at this point. Also it's nice to see Debilitas is still getting work
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Oct 14, 2014 21:31
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Crane Fist posted:Watching the first video I find myself wondering if there's anything more to this game than walking very slowly around an Edward Gorey drawing and then something startling happens and you start over again? Because I've never had sleep paralysis or OCD or depression or false awakening dreams or anything like that so am I just missing a crucial component that makes it work? Look at this guy acting like he's so well adjusted that looking at knockoff Edward Gorey while listening to creepy music isn't his idea of a good time.
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Oct 15, 2014 00:27
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countzio posted:That's actually the biggest fear I had doing this because I read fast but I know not everyone does. I already finished the second episode but starting with the third episode, I'll have people I know look it over to see if they all can see every subtitle. Yeah geez, some were gone insanely fast. You can't put up a 40 words subtitle for 2 seconds. Take into consideration that people will be having their eyes on the action, need to notice a subtitle popping up, and only THEN can start actually reading it. At one point i had to rewind the video like three times to catch a long line that was gone too fast for me to pause the video in time. Rule of thumb for subtitle length: Read the line(s) out loud and see how long it takes you. Got that? Now, double that time, or at least take it x1.5. That's your subtitle duration.
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Oct 15, 2014 01:09
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The game looks good, but I'm disappointed that there's so little to interact with. I feel like this should've been a point and click game or something. And I cannot get over how goofy the stair animations are. It really takes me out the game whenever he encounters some stairs.
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Oct 15, 2014 01:14
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GladRagKraken posted:Look at this guy acting like he's so well adjusted that looking at knockoff Edward Gorey while listening to creepy music isn't his idea of a good time. I think actually I'm just the wrong kind of maladjusted for this one
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Oct 15, 2014 04:23
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This is probably not the best LP to watch while almost falling asleep, haha.
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Oct 16, 2014 07:13
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Hope everything's going okay... 
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Oct 22, 2014 14:51
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azren posted:Hope everything's going okay... Everything's fine. I'm just lazy. I just finished recording the next episode so it will be up when I finish the subtitles and get everything double-checked. Never mind, video's done. Episode 3: Insanity countzio fucked around with this message at 02:45 on Oct 24, 2014 |
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Oct 23, 2014 02:56
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countzio posted:Everything's fine. I'm just lazy. Yeah, I see what you meant by boring. That felt pretty generic all the way through.
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Oct 26, 2014 18:48
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I think my main problem with this game is that it's so loving generic and it shouldn't be! If you're going to make a game that's 'a semi-autobiographical take on the lead dev's problems with OCD and depression, part of which was thanks to his previous game flopping' then that's about as personal as it gets, so make it personal! Make it about poo poo that scares you, not universal horror staples that everyone's totally sick of by now. Example: if I was going to make a game about poo poo I'm scared of, it would probably be a grown-rear end, healthy man being chased around a hospital by a clockwork snake- not a creepy dark abandoned hospital, a regular one with lights and people in and that hospital smell in every room- which might not seem like the most scary premise out there but I guarantee you have never played that before, unlike Giant Hug Baby feat. the Asylum Head Twitchers. A loving bedsheet ghost with 'FAILURE' written on it chasing you would make a better statement than those guys. Unless his game flopped so badly it compelled him to move to a big empty house full of dolls until he was committed to the Generic Video Game Asylum, this has gently caress all to do with any of that and he's a lying weasel and I hate him.
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Oct 26, 2014 21:57
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"Standard video game asylum" really says everything, doesn't it. I didn't even catch what was going on with the glass on the first pass since the shadow lines are so visually noisy, and only rewound to look closer when zio pointed it out. The audio cue didn't clue me in either since I thought it was just "oh hey asylum noise"
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Oct 27, 2014 02:52
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A quick post for two things: 1. I'll record the next episode either tonight or tomorrow night, subtitling probably won't take longer than that so everything should be up around the weekend. 2. If you were interested in buying the game, it is currently 25% off on Steam as part of the latest Steam sale.
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Oct 30, 2014 18:55
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The latest episode was finished on Sunday but I only made it public now. Episode 4: Childish Things + Destroyed Dreams I consider Destroyed Dreams to be the worst of the final levels and you can see why in the video. EDIT: Scratch that, next TWO videos will be second ending. Those levels were longer than I thought. countzio fucked around with this message at 09:22 on Nov 5, 2014 |
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Nov 4, 2014 22:47
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 Right, then.
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Nov 5, 2014 03:38
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Gee Thomas, aren't you glad you have asthma? Otherwise you would have turned out just like Creepy Thomas.
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Nov 5, 2014 04:55
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Skippy Granola posted:Gee Thomas, aren't you glad you have asthma? Otherwise you would have turned out just like Creepy Thomas. You'd think Thomas would be the one with the ax to grind since Evil Thomas can sprint like a champ. Speaking of which, Evil Thomas can kill you if he catches in the early animation frames of going through a doorway. What a dick.
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Nov 5, 2014 08:13
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So the endings are just determined by which direction you take?
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Nov 6, 2014 03:45
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Octarine Dream posted:So the endings are just determined by which direction you take? Yup. There are two ways to get "Destroyed Dreams" and only one way to get the other two endings. There's an achievement if you go every path if you are into that sort of thing. Speaking of which, have a new update. Episode 5 Only two more videos to go!
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Nov 6, 2014 06:33
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The Cat Lady actually had a pretty good hospital level. That game had its own problems, but that part was genuinely well done.
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Nov 6, 2014 07:15
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I feel like this game started out promising and then just kind of fizzled out, becoming repetitive. Which is too bad.
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Nov 6, 2014 10:06
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The parts that go on for too long and the "this thing looks significant. Wait, it's not significant at all. Why am I looking at this?" bit in the morgue do capture some of the nonsense that goes on in dreams but they're also the things that really don't work too great when translated over into a game. I imagine the brain needs to be in some manner of nonsense mode for those parts to be compatible and have the desired effect, because lucid gaming brain is probably feeling the tedium, and LP-watching brain is glancing at the video time remaining and going "wait, seriously?"
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Nov 6, 2014 11:16
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I really like the art style of the game, but I get the distinct impression most of development was spent on that.
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Nov 6, 2014 13:53
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Thesaya posted:I feel like this game started out promising and then just kind of fizzled out, becoming repetitive. Which is too bad. A lot of horror games really wind up like that. Well, maybe without the promising part but it generally all becomes doing the same thing over and over again. Octarine Dream posted:I really like the art style of the game, but I get the distinct impression most of development was spent on that. There wasn't a big breakdown of expenses on the game's Kickstarter page but it's probably a fair guess. I do appreciate the fact that there's really no loading time for anything in the game (I am going to assume a lot of time was spent on that as well.) Fish Noise posted:I imagine the brain needs to be in some manner of nonsense mode for those parts to be compatible and have the desired effect, because lucid gaming brain is probably feeling the tedium, and LP-watching brain is glancing at the video time remaining and going "wait, seriously?" I have never felt a game that feels like both really short and really long until this LP started. It's really weird to assume that an episode is really long or short, only to look at the file size and see the opposite.
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Nov 7, 2014 04:15
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Yeah I can't help but feel like the game has lots of potential - and a couple things are done decently well early on - but it just looks like yet another Newgrounds "horror" game. The artstyle is kinda neat, but I watch these and keep expecting to hear slowbeef and diabetus cracking jokes because it feels like something that'd get retsuprae'd.
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Nov 7, 2014 07:26
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Have to agree with that. The game feels really padded, which is sad considering the concept and art style its using is really interesting. Every level seems to drag on far too long and elements are either recycled far too much, or not diverse enough for me to really notice a difference. Probably would have done far better if he had cut out a lot of that walking or at the very least made something interesting happen more frequently. The first house area seemed to do that well enough, but afterwards it just dragged on and on.
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Nov 7, 2014 12:51
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This feels more like an interactive book than a game, only with less happening. I do like the art style though, shame he didn't really use it all that well - the art reminds me a bit of Paper Sorcerer which is actually a pretty good game.
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Nov 7, 2014 13:59
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