“I was in a strange old building, seemed like a warehouse-turned-fleamarket. It seemed really big even though I only remember a few rooms.” – [Author description]
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Tape Dream (gargonherd)
Posted by Stephen
on March 31, 2012
[Download for Windows]
[Download for Mac]
This is haunting! Unclear as to whether or not there was an end-game, but the few tapes I did watch were very cool!
I wasn’t sure about end-state-ness either. The weirdest thing I got was a tape (via the alchemy table) that I couldn’t take out that filled the whole chamber with red light.
I managed to synthesize that tape as well. After the chamber is flooded with red light, you can open a door to another room with a coffin inside. You can hear whatever is inside the coffin banging on the lid, and if you try to interact with it, you get a weird roar. I haven’t been able to change the world past that point 🙁
ah, i didn’t know about the side room until a subsequent game.
I don’t think I can play this until there’s a fullscreen option or similar. 🙁
kongregate forcibly disables fullscreen. However, he’s also hosted a version on his website here :
https://cicadamarionette.com/Games/TapeDream/WebPlayer.html
(right click -> fullscreen)
I’d link to that instead, but there’re no instructions on it.
Excellent! This is a very disconcerting game…
i cant interact with any thing cos thers nothing to show you the controls somebody please help 😥
Unity Web Player is not available for Linux. Can we have a download please?
I added PC and Mac downloads to the post. You might need to email Lilith to see if she’s able to make a Linux build.
Played it on OSX. The Unity controls specified in the Configuration window do nothing:
– Left click does nothing.
– Right click does nothing.
– Middle mouse button does nothing.
– Jump (space) does nothing.
WASD + mouse let me look around and move, and ESC instantly ends the game without even so much as an “are you sure” window.
There is NO WAY to “synthesize” or do anything else “with” the tapes! My experience consisted entirely of just a roast chicken breathing heavily and walking back and forth between a mask and a brain.
Maybe this was playable on Windows, maybe not. I have no way of knowing that. But I find it odd that a Unity-coded game can’t handle cross-platform better than this. What did you do, use GetKey instead of GetButton, or something?
Release the source .Unity files and I’ll try to fix whatever’s wrong with it and make a clean Mac build for you. I’m currently using Unity 3.57 Pro.
Sorry.
I stand corrected. You need to point the dot in the center of the screen at certain objects (tapes, that weird red :#: cube thing, etc.) and hold the button down and really DRAG them. Lots of weird stuff starts happening once you start shoving boxes into slots. 🙂
Once more into the gallery! TEACH ME ABOUT ART, ROAST CHICKEN MAN!! *blasts off*
Watched all the tapes. Burned all the tapes. Is it Alchemy yet?
I’m still very confused.
I’m desperately trying to pry meaning out of this Art Game through interpretation, and drawing a complete blank.
Okay so Goo had a conversation with itself in voices so distorted I couldn’t tell what they were saying. Zin wants to destroy everything because he is Zin. His authority seems as dubious as his logic. Silhouette Box Yellow Face does open mike night poetry. :#: symbol box is apparently just a test pattern and some music. (Didn’t watch the whole thing.)
So let’s see. In a general sense, Goo doesn’t like to be watched. Zin is likes to watch. Silhouette Box Yellow Face watches itself being watched. Is this supposed to mean anything?
Are the colors supposed to mean something? Are we using auras? Eastern traditions of color theory? Or did the developer just pick colors they thought would distinguish the characters?
Or since the video faces are all talking about watching and being watched, is that meant to imply that the theme of the game is actually the interactive nature of art itself? What better medium than a video game to open a dialogue on such a topic? At least when The Stanley Parable did it, I knew what the heck was going on…
The worst part is the lingering thought in the back of my mind that maybe the title is meant to be taken literally, and it’s based on an actual dream someone had, with no particular message or intent at all.
Okay I watched a letsplay where a guy quotes what was apparently the full description of this game. On this webpage where I am typing this comment right now, https://www.freeindiegam.es , the full description is NOT visible. Instead, it just says “I was in a strange old building, seemed like a warehouse-turned-fleamarket. It seemed really big even though I only remember a few rooms.”
Having the full description didn’t really help me understand what was going on, and neither did watching the letsplay, but at least it confirms that this is indeed just based on a dream.
Really, it seems like nobody who’s playing this game has any idea what’s going on.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-eJ0S8QLpfs
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qnLahTYRi9g
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yvNS_vaTKDY
Oooh, but after watching that third one, at least I know what the word “Alchemy” refers to. (Put one tape in each of the long slots in the brain room to synthesize a new tape!
Okay, I’m gonna try this ONE more time. Hopefully I can get some smidgen of the author’s original intent out of it this time, now that I actually know the controls and game verbs. Wish me luck!
Good news! I have learned to use the rules of this game to their full potential!
https://i1351.photobucket.com/albums/p788/WarpZone32/TapeDreamThisIsStupid_zps594a5505.png
I feel as though I have grown as an adventurer on this journey, a voyage of self-discovery which I shared with half a dozen equally-bemused internet strangers.
what is this I don’t even sums it up pretty well, but I don’t regret it for a second. It was a helluva trip.
Dream on, gargonherd. Dream on.
And if next time, the crazy improv god-voices are comprehensible, the walking turkey drumstick poses an actual threat, or I can discern any correlation whatsoever between the objects in the game world, my inputs, and the final outcome, we’ll consider those optional extras!
you did it 😉
your good friend, gorgon nerd