A Conversation

This a game designed to communicate my personal experience of having a conversation

Instructions:

• WASD to move, J to parry, K to focus movement.
  • (Or Arrow Keys to move, X to parry, Z to focus movement)
• Stay in the blue beam to build shield against the full screen attack.
  • Stay in the beam after shield full to build bonus attack power.
• Collect P to build up attack power.
• Avoid yellow shots.
• Parry blue bullets to attack.

How the heck is this a conversation??

• well, remember, I intended this to convey my personal experience of holding a conversation. And I'm someone who is neurodivergent on top of having severe social anxiety and rejection sensitivity. So yes, unless you resonate with those traits, the experience might not resonate with you. That's why this game is art. It's trying to communicate a unique personal experience to others.
• The red bar is not Shelby's health. Rather, it is more akin to a tracker of how much more conversation she needs to be satisfied.
• Staying in the blue beam is actively listening to what the other person has to say.
  • The shield proves you were listening, and so protects you from the unavoidable "Are you even listening?" screen flash attack.
  • When the shield is overfull, the extra attention you've paid improves how satisfied Shelby is by your response.
• Collecting P's is the main way you prepare your contributions to the conversation.
  • You generally have to leave the beam and stop listening, in order to let your mind wander and to collect your your thoughts into a response.
  • Some P's look normal at first glance, but if you look closely have something wrong with them. You'll probably only catch it if you take the time to look at them closely, but it's important to do so, because if you bring them up you'll only wind up doing damage to yourself out of embarrassment.
• Shots from Shelby are unintentionally upsetting things she says. Whether it's things she says that offend you, upset you, con or touch on some topic you're sensitive to. Nothing intentionally attacking you, but still deals you psychic damage for whatever reason. These are ideas that you need to dodge thinking about and avoid engaging with because doing so would be detrimental to your mental health.
  • Rain Shots are hardly thought about, tangential ideas tossed out for no specific reason. Unrelated, but upsetting.
  • Spear Shots are upsetting ideas that come about from the topic. They are harder to dodge, and often cause you to have to stop listening for a moment.
  • Parry-able Shots are opportunities for you to get in a word, and respond with all the thought's you've built up while listening.
• The entire conversation is this process of juggling listening, letting your mind wander to come up with interesting responses, and twisting yourself around trying to ignore all the little unthoughtful remarks that would make you either cry or get into a fight.
  • At worst, you get so upset that you end up having an emotional shutdown that can last for hours to days, and at best you're tense the whole time and leave exhausted. Even when it's a conversation you enjoy with a friend

So if you ever wonder why it takes me days to weeks to respond to a conversation, it's because this is what every conversation feels like to me. Even fun conversations take a lot of energy, and I have to wait for a day where I have plenty of energy reserves to catch up with everyone.

Credits

Made in GameMaker Studio 1.3 over the span of like 3 weeks or so.

Music and sound effects from: https://chrislsound.itch.io/cyberpunk-stealth and https://chrislsound.itch.io/ambient-puzzle  and https://chrislsound.itch.io/sci-fi-sfx-pack/download/f5svebkpk_aH5x9QsPfx_MXSwMD...

Explosion VFX from https://like100bears.itch.io/bearfx-explosions

Art from scratch in Photoshop CS and Krita.