The End of Gameplay has taken what I suppose I believe to be its final form. Where before it (& I) invited feedback, there is a feeling now that it is beyond reproach. I don't listen to this feeling without doubt: If something had to be changed, I would change it, and I do worry that creating something with such a feeling of 'completeness' is blinding me to ways I could yet improve it as an object.

There are some minor snags; for instance, can you close the game without losing your progress? (Yes you can, but the game doesn't make it clear and that ambiguity in particular is not desirable to me.) I should fix this, but I'm not drawn to fixing it. It feels peripheral at best, a small kindness rather than a way to save a ruined experience. It does what I need it to do--it does everything, I think, that I need it to do.

Consume Me recently won three awards at the IGF:
WINGS,
Nuovo,
and Grand Prize.

I had a chance to play it on the expo floor. I can't speak about too much more than this, but I feel the need to record some vague impressions of playing the game. I'm going to do it in a private kinopio for now, and possibly transcribe those thoughts to this thread later on. (Or maybe I'll forget.)

Anyway, here is the link to the private kinopio, for my own reference:

https://kinopio.club/consume-me-close-reading-nadUFYCkTqMxNWRYkExHt

[AB]

I'm re-reading game poems post-"kill gameplay"; I have just finished attending GDC and I'm on my way back home from a very inspiring trip, and I wonder: are there any new insights for me here, or do I have any new insights for it or for myself on this topic?

My suspicion is that my reaction will be basically the same. But, I'll give it a shot and reference my first reading notes where applicable.

[AB]

Chapter 22, The Old Year

Rei gets sick and the family he's friends with takes him in.
There's a line that i really wanted to catch... but the whole manga up to this point is sweet and lonely in such a way.
Anyway, the line.

QuoteI'd been so caught up in my own loneliness // that I didn't notice I wasn't the only one alone.

re: Chica Umino's
"March Comes In Like a Lion"

"don't compromise." is that really how i want to end this? no--let me bring it back to the beginning, to projects that stop dead in my heart.

coping... this lens of "coping," i'm not done with it, not done explaining it, or exploring it. coping.

sometimes a project stops dead in my heart, oftentimes when it gets hard. but what is hard? sometimes i work hard to get through blocks, and this hard work is almost effortless. but still, i call it hard because it takes a lot of time, a lot of effort, and involves failing many times.

other times the projects are hard, minisculely hard, but i begin to wonder and doubt! why am i doing this? why am i doing this?

these are the projects that die, the ones that have lost their purpose for me. i wonder if the forms of difficulty that are common causes might be united under the banner of disrupting this function, "coping."

sometimes a project stops being good for coping. i can't put my feelings into it... it doesn't help resolve those feelings. it's no longer a site for reflection.

i make things for a reason.