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EVERYTHING |OT| Man suffers only 'cause he takes seriously what the gods made for fun

Kyonashi

Member
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Polygon - 9/10
Polygon said:
This is an exceptional piece of fantasy fiction, a metamorphosis machine, a toy, a game like no other. It's a work of deep imagination, humor and thoughtfulness. Everything held me captive for many hours, and will continue to do so. It's brave, bizarre, compelling and beautiful.
PSN Stores - 9/10
PSN Stores said:
Everything strips out what typically drives us towards the types of games we play. There’s no objective, rules, or scores; there’s just Everything. It presents a toy-box that’s there to simply be fun to play with and, potentially, something that’ll get you thinking about your own life and how you fit into this bizarre universe that we’ve all found ourselves in. It’s not without faults, some parts of the tutorial segments can be unclear or a bit slow for my liking, but none of that detracts from the wild journey I went on. Everything is odd, thought provoking, and quite unlike anything else I’ve ever played.
Vandal Online - 8.6/10
Vandal Online said:
An essay on philosophy takes the shape of a video game. It will make you think, question and see the world with different eyes, but apart from that, it will also make you explore and discover with gameplay mechanics beyond the mere interactive experience.
PushSquare - 8/10
PushSquare said:
Everything is not for everyone, and thus it's a hard game to score. This existential experience is not quite as pretentious as it appears to be, but it will still leave you mindful of your worth to the world – and the universe as a whole. Honestly, if you've ever found yourself enchanted by the sheer scale of space itself, then this game does an incredible job of communicating that through rudimentary interactivity alone.
PlayStation Lifestyle - 8/10
PlayStation Lifestyle said:
No matter if I was playing or watching, every hour I spent with Everything was an interesting one. Much like life itself, there were moments of beauty and laughter, but also sadness. It's undoubtedly a strange creation, but no other game can allow players to listen to Alan Watts discuss the interplay of difference while watching 10 outhouses perform a dance that results in a baby outhouse somehow being born. There's something special about these moments, and it's why Everything will be on my television screen for a long time to come.
PlayStation Universe - 7/10
PlayStation Universe said:
Everything provides a mellow environment to explore, with the perfect auditory compliments for your journey. The experience may be lost on some, but that's okay. Others will thoroughly enjoy getting lost in the experience, despite minor frustrations like the needle-in-a-haystack search.
Destructoid - 7/10
Destructoid said:
Everything feels to me like a mellow, less aggressive take on Katamari Damacy or Noby Noby Boy, a curious, reflective novelty that, for players in the right kind of mindset, can spark something profound.
God Is A Geek - 7/10
God Is A Geek said:
The sheer scope of Everything is an incredible achievement, and it does offer at least a few hours of entertainment, before it inevitably becomes a bit stale.
Cubed3 - 6/10
Cubed3 said:
Everything will no doubt be included in the "Is it or is it not a game?" debate, but it is an interesting space to explore. It's exactly as odd as it sounds, and many may walk away from it begrudgingly. If you stick it out, though, you may find something here that really scratches an itch you never knew you had. The problem is: how long can it be scratched before the itch goes away?
Gamespot - 6/10
Gamespot said:
There is no unifying theory of Everything. If the point is to invoke a sense of existentialist zen, it accomplishes that, but it subsequently undercuts the accomplishment with a sense of lame, abstract humor. If the point is to invent a wild playground where everything that exists has a self-centered consciousness all its own, it’s that as well--in which case, it's almost taking Alan Watts' ideas to Looney Tunes levels of ridiculousness. When those two elements are at odds, the game seems to lose all meaning.

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Gameplay Trailer

Launch Trailer

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GAMES


FILMS (click to view)



More on Youtube
Official Site
 

Toma

Let me show you through these halls, my friend, where treasures of indie gaming await...
And bought. Curiosity got the better of me.
 
thanks for the OT, really looking forward to this "game"

the art style and the theme going from tiny (microscopic) to large really reminds me of Katamari Damacy. and to a lesser extend Noby Noby Boy
 

Kyonashi

Member
If you're at all interested in this game, don't sleep on OReillys other work! I included them in the OP for a reason, I've been a fan of his work for a few years now and was lucky enough to see a retrospective of his work in LA, there's some really great, weird, and funny stuff in there.

If you like Don Hertzfeldt or Adult Swim stuff (OReilly did some bumpers for them), take a look. Oh and he also did the Genki stuff for Saints Row the Third!?

Yeah I'm basically just afraid a lot of people will skip over this one when I believe games like this are super interesting and have a lot of worth. Very much a continuation on from the weird "B-game" scene like Katamari on PS2 that has now evolved into the digital-only scene.
 
I played through this for like, an hour or more last night. It's really absorbing and entrancing.

Needless to say, this is a game that benefits from getting high as shit beforehand.
 

Toma

Let me show you through these halls, my friend, where treasures of indie gaming await...
Just figured out its a pretty cool animated screensaver as well, as there is an autoplay function that you can configure.
 

Hanmik

Member
For those of you playing, how prevalent is Watts' commentary? That's the main attraction for me.

You will find his "thoughts" all around the universe. And they are clearly the best part of the game.

Walking around as a Tie, reading the thoughts of a fence, listening to Allan Watts beautiful voice, and then shifting to a higher plane... simply amazing...

but ... sadly (just like life) it gets a bit boring after a couple of hours... but I enjoyed watching it as a documentary after I unlocked
documentary mode
.
 

Toma

Let me show you through these halls, my friend, where treasures of indie gaming await...
How can I return to the beginning spaceship thing?
 

danowat

Banned
Despite reading a couple of reviews, I've still not really got much ideal what this is.

Is it a bit like "life" that I used to play on the Spectrum 48k in the 80's?
 

Kyonashi

Member
Despite reading a couple of reviews, I've still not really got much ideal what this is.

Is it a bit like "life" that I used to play on the Spectrum 48k in the 80's?

I recommend watching this trailer from the OP. And don't think of it like a set of goals, or a thing to be completed. It's supposed to be the kind of game you can just mess around with and lose yourself in.
 

Toma

Let me show you through these halls, my friend, where treasures of indie gaming await...
Its mostly a toy, yeah. Makes for some interesting screenshots.
 
Eurogamer's take.

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2...-that-has-ever-been-committed-to-a-video-game

In part, that's because, in the post-Brexit vote, Trump era, Watts' message of oneness and unification feels urgent and radical. "If we do not feel connected, as though we are identical with the universe, rather than apart from it, then we will commit collective suicide," Watts, says. Speaking in the mid-20th century, for Watts that looming threat was the Atom bomb. In the early 21st Century context, that particular inextinguishable threat remains, but it's combined with a new catastrophe, climate change, a sickness brought on by the industrialisation of individualism. Everything's simple yet revelatory trick is to show how all things are connected, through space and time, through that fundamental power of all video games: the capacity to inhabit the form of another.

If you feel sceptical about your ability to feel empathy with a raspberry, or to experience solidarity with a strand of hair, or to be moved by performing a dance with a shoal of fish, you may be surprised. Everything casts a powerful spell through its combination of speech, music and reality expanding interaction. It may present a deeply simplified version of our world (it was, after all, made by a tiny team) but Everything is an astonishing work, one that broadens the definition of what a video game can be, as well as, if one is willing to submit to that spell being cast, what a video game can achieve in the mind of its player.
 

Toma

Let me show you through these halls, my friend, where treasures of indie gaming await...
I have it running for 2 hours now, this thing is marvellous as a backdrop while working.
 

Guileless

Temp Banned for Remedial Purposes
Will get my $15, aside from people trying to make Alan Watts into an anti-Brexit campaigner.
 

HonMirin

Member
Wow... This looks amazing. What's documentary mode? I would love to listen to a long ass lecture like what's in the trailer and just zone out to the game.
 

poncle

Member
I really liked the trailer, but gave me the impression that the actual game wouldn't actually add that much to the experience. Will get it next weekend!
 

AESplusF

Member
I've been waiting for this for a while now but I think I'll just wait until the PC release, it'll be nice to have in the background while doing work.

I'm really glad that David O'Reilly is as interested as he is in making games, his films have been inspiring me for years.
 

Foffy

Banned
How amazing it must be for those who get exposed to Alan Watts' prescient ways of language and understanding with a game like this. I knew the title next to the OP sounded familiar!

Will get my $15, aside from people trying to make Alan Watts into an anti-Brexit campaigner.

I believe Eurogamer's point about the political climate we're in is that many of us are caught in the illusions of separateness, division, and isolation that create great anxiety, and people like Alan Watts dedicated their entire lives to showing the "hoax" of that, to show reality really as "oneness" however slimy that word is used. Neonationalism doubles down on the dualisms and divisions, and to quote one of Watts' friends and intellectual powerhouses Jiddu Krishnamurti, where there is any division, there must be conflict. The current social landscape is an entire arena of divisions, and where there are divisions, conflict is made, and thus suffering.

Of course, the alternative to this is a type of pseudo-Anarchism, which we likely need, but our own egos and tribalistic thinkings are in the way. I believe this is what Watts advocated too: anarchism from the view we're all one and really on this rockball together. Carl Sagan has advocated the same, and both have probably had a far better way with language to emphasize it than any of us here can. ;)

How far we are from digesting this truth...
 

mclem

Member
They should port this to PS3. Or maybe make a device like the NES Classic, a cut-down PS3 designed just for this game, that they can sell cheaply. They've already got the adverts for it.

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megalowho

Member
Didn't realize this project was from the person behind Mountain. I can get behind interactive toys with a side of philosophy. Think I'll wait for the PC release, but good to know it accomplishes what it sets out to do.
 

zabuni

Member
How do you empty your mind? It says to hold O with the mind open, but that doesn't seem to do anything.
 

Guileless

Temp Banned for Remedial Purposes
How amazing it must be for those who get exposed to Alan Watts' prescient ways of language and understanding with a game like this. I knew the title next to the OP sounded familiar!



I believe Eurogamer's point about the political climate we're in is that many of us are caught in the illusions of separateness, division, and isolation that create great anxiety, and people like Alan Watts dedicated their entire lives to showing the "hoax" of that, to show reality really as "oneness" however slimy that word is used. Neonationalism doubles down on the dualisms and divisions, and to quote one of Watts' friends and intellectual powerhouses Jiddu Krishnamurti, where there is any division, there must be conflict. The current social landscape is an entire arena of divisions, and where there are divisions, conflict is made, and thus suffering.

Of course, the alternative to this is a type of pseudo-Anarchism, which we likely need, but our own egos and tribalistic thinkings are in the way. I believe this is what Watts advocated too: anarchism from the view we're all one and really on this rockball together. Carl Sagan has advocated the same, and both have probably had a far better way with language to emphasize it than any of us here can. ;)

How far we are from digesting this truth...

I get Eurogamer's point, I think it is wrongheaded and simplistic reading of Watts. What does Watt's Eastern cosmology and metaphysics have to do with Brexit really? You can make a good argument that Watts would be horrified by the EU circa 2017, and so any amorphous appeal to "unity" as against "division" is beside the point. I don't think Watts would advocate "unity" in a system that prioritizes bond markets over human beings.

All that said, I look forward to playing this, and I agree with you 100% that any exposure people get to Watts is good.
 

weblaus

Member
I'm not quite sure how I should feel about the fact that the Polygon review essentially spoilers the only two things that would qualify as being even remotely like fitting in a traditionalk story-based game (i.e. the opart about the "puzzles).

While it probably doesn't really hurt the experience of experiencing (heh) Everything, I really wonder why the writer couldn't just leave that stuff out of his otherwise glowing review (which is mostly on point)
 

Kyonashi

Member
Cant wait to play tonight!

I was hoping the OT title would be "See the Mountain over there; You can be it"

Maybe OT2 :)

Ha that would have been a good one. I decided the Watts quote fit too well to not have it though because I was expecting a lot of 'is this really a game' serious-talk, which I saw the quote in direct opposition to. I doubt this will reach the page limit necessary for an OT2 unfortunately!
 
im a lifelong fan of Alan Watts. "Behold the Spirit" and "The Way of Zen" in particular have been life-changing. he has an uncanny ability to comprehend spiritual concepts from the East that have no direct English translation and he can demonstrate very complex and abstract thoughts by using everyday language.

that said, it seems like bite-sized quotes randomly dolled out during an interactive screensaver would be the worst possible place to expose yourself to his writings. i imagine there are slapped-together youtube slideshows of rainbows and chakra charts that would be as enlightening.

funny to see Katamari mentioned. that game already is a Zen experience.
 

Hanmik

Member
How do you empty your mind? It says to hold O with the mind open, but that doesn't seem to do anything.

Go deeper.

go down on the planet that is there.. And then go as deep as you can. Then you will gain the ability to epmty your mind.
 
Downloading now.

Well done to the marketing and publishing (Double Fine) team. Game is the first thing on the games page you see today, so didn't have to search manually like with most indie titles. The trailers are awesome, too.
 

Kyonashi

Member
im a lifelong fan of Alan Watts. "Behold the Spirit" and "The Way of Zen" in particular have been life-changing. he has an uncanny ability to comprehend spiritual concepts from the East that have no direct English translation and he can demonstrate very complex and abstract thoughts by using everyday language.

that said, it seems like bite-sized quotes randomly dolled out during an interactive screensaver would be the worst possible place to expose yourself to his writings. i imagine there are slapped-together youtube slideshows of rainbows and chakra charts that would be as enlightening.

funny to see Katamari mentioned. that game already is a Zen experience.

Interestingly the gameplay trailer seemed to be an unbroken talk rather than snippets and chunks of speech, I imagine the game has unedited talks of his?

EDIT: It does seem to be voice clips similar to The Witness, which you can cue in a playlist and have constant narration playing. I've enjoyed hearing the same clips multiple times because sometimes by happenstance his words sync up with what's happening in game and that's really cool.
 
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