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[Seriyu]

What is this?

Some of you may remember the gingiva topic I made a little while back. Middens is the (mostly) spiritual prequel to Gingiva. So, in other words, it's an exploration game, ala Yume Nikki, .flow, that sort've thing, with a combat element. And another gimmick. Namely every single NPC in the game can be killed or attacked. With consequences in some cases, if you kill a save point man, you can't save there anymore, if you kill a bus driver you can't use any features relating to the bus anymore. Some will just die upon being shot, some will actively fight you after being shot. Similarly these NPCs have dialogue, directly taken from the last words of convicted criminals in many cases. Many of these NPCs are referred to as figments of the rift, and do not exist in the literal sense. I think. The game is a little opaque to say the least.

But naturally, there's a gimmick. In this case your weapon and traveling companion is a sentient gun by the name of genie. You see, you are traveling through dangerous metaphorical waters. The Rift. An enormous void in space that is slowly consuming the worlds around it. And genie, while not a native, is something of an expert on the rift, or so they say. Their preferred method, them being a gun, is naturally to shoot first and ask questions later. But it's ultimately your decision to make on whether or not to kill things. And it is my firm belief that the game is best played entirely spontaneously, so I will give no advice on the matter. It's very difficult to mess up permanently as long as you use common sense. There are two endings, I believe, one that is very easy to get that you will no doubt stumble on eventually, and another that I have litterally no leads on and continue to search for. Maybe you'll find it before me! Who can say. I would ask that you spoiler tag the method to find the true ending if you know it, as I know at least a single B12er has played middens, at the very least.

In any case, let's be perfectly honest, the rift is much larger then you are, and likely there is nothing that can be done to stop it. So have a time in there, give things some thought, and see what you can find. Maybe you'll find a way out of that hole.

Link.

[Seriyu]

Note, yes I'm an idiot and forgot the download link. Gimme a minute.

Linked!

[nenjin]

Spoiler: For those that need a slightly drier introduction (click to show/hide)

It's an RPG Maker 2d Final Fantasy. You walk around, talk to things, have battles ala Final Fantasy, level up, have an inventory, have gear, ect.... That covers the "what form does it take?" question.

The rest? A complete and total acid trip. Whacky, hallucination inducing backgrounds, strange landscapes, bizarre creatures, shapes. Everyone's dialog is a single line or several lines of, well, stuff. Thoughts. Emotions. Ramblings. Madness. Hipster References. (There seem to be more than 1 of those....) Music that goes from eerie, to catchy, to irritating.

Screens are any combination of backgrounds with strobing/scrolling/flashing/pulsing stuff, or rendered backgrounds with their own oddities going on. There is no logical connection between screens A and B, you go from one weird, fucked up thing to another weird, fucked up thing.

I didn't kill anything that didn't make me kill it, which I think isn't the point of the game. Then again, I'm not really sure what the point of it is except to wander this bizarre hallucinatory world, hear things say stuff and occasionally have a lackluster battle.

All that said, I played over an hour and was kinda feelin' it. The whole, you know, thing. But my controls kept borking up mid-game, and I'd have to restart my computer because restarting the game didn't seem to fix it, and that just got plain annoying.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Especially when I'm wandering totally at random with no real save points or any points of reference. I'm pretty sure I went off the beaten path rather quickly, as save guys were pretty regular until, I started seeing not-save-guys. I may sound a little crass on my take of it, but in truth I was kinda drawn to the weirdness of it. Just not enough to persist through inevitable controls becoming unresponsive/locked.

[Seriyu]

I want to say the bug has been fixed, but I'm unsure. I think he fixed an issue relating to controls sticking on middens, but it may have been gingiva. Yeah, I can't find any proof of it one way or the other. Best to assume I misremembered.

Thank you for the drier introduction, I really really love the game and it kind've leaked into the description!

[nenjin]

I will say:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

It does have that compulsive "just one more screen" effect, if you have a taste for the tableau weird. But moments of confusion (like when the Love Bus arrives) kinda turn to frustration in a game like this. Find me a fix and I'll play more

[Capntastic]

http://www.brodzkybooks.com/middens-an-interview/

I interviewed the guy a while back, before Moments of Silence/Gingiva came out.  He's pretty neat and puts a lot of thought into his games.

I also have a framed print of Train of the Dead.

[Seriyu]

http://www.brodzkybooks.com/middens-an-interview/

I interviewed the guy a while back, before Moments of Silence/Gingiva came out.  He's pretty neat and puts a lot of thought into his games.

I also have a framed print of Train of the Dead.

I'd actually read that interview back when I started playing, I quite enjoyed it! Good to have it around.

I will say:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

It does have that compulsive "just one more screen" effect, if you have a taste for the tableau weird. But moments of confusion (like when the Love Bus arrives) kinda turn to frustration in a game like this. Find me a fix and I'll play more

I've found 2 potential fixes, one involves unplugging any controllers you have plugged in while playing middens. They can apparently interefere with older RPG maker versions. If that wasn't an issue the only other thing I've found is this. It's a link to an RPG maker thread, and the final post has someone linking a file that supposedly resets keyboard inputs. I completely understand if downloading random .exe files off the internet doesn't strike you as something you want to do, however!

[ptb_ptb]

I've found 2 potential fixes, one involves unplugging any controllers you have plugged in while playing middens.

Ah. I found something like that on another game a while back. Apparently because my controller is crappy and old (it is).

[Seriyu]

Yeah, basically any RPG maker game is subject to it, so if you've played yume nikki/OFF/.flow that sorta thing it also applies to them.

[Akura]

I played about half an hour of this, and I have to say HOLY JESUS CRAP MY BRAIN!

There, I said it.

[Seriyu]

Keep going! Talk to things! Find things! I can safely say that the world seems rather intensely large, and despite playing it on and off for several months I don't think I've seen all of it.

Recently I actually thought I found the secret ending, as there was a rather ominous looking factory setting with little "no gun" signs on the walls (plot fact: Genie was created as a weapon that had sentience in their world of origin, so that the weapon itself could decide if something needed to be shot or not; naturally, genie, being a gun, rather tends to see the world as a series of targets as a result, so my train of thought was that this was a segment of genie's original world, implying plot significance on some level), and it ended with a boss fight and a strange console and door. It lead.... to nothing inparticular.

The search continues.

[Gatleos]

4. Do you feel that some of the ‘clunkiness’ of the system aids in telling the specific sort of narrative you want to achieve with Middens?  Examples being the conscious decision to equip the revolver or use the guitar through the menu, rather than accessing them with easy to reach hotkeys.

That Middens contains such issues is a signal that a human faceted it—not a corporation. If I fashion a pot my hand slips, and if I dab paint the paint drips. Imperfection is intrinsic part of pathos of all natural created expressions. In the East there is an aesthetic concept known as Wabi-Sabi which pertains to the beauty and acceptance of imperfect things. It is an idea that arises out of observation of life and its obvious imperfections.

Since my intentions are more expressive than technical such minor conveniences were simply never on my palette of interests or priorities when creating Middens.

Wow. Now I kind of wish I hadn't read the interview, it soured me on the game just a little bit. "I didn't fix this easily-fixable usability issue because I don't want to be the man, maaaaan"

The game itself looks very interesting though, I'll probably try it.

[Seriyu]

If I'm honest, I never had any issue with re-equipping the gun. I'm not sure what causes it to be un equipped, if I'm honest. It's possible there was a change between the interview and when I played it.

It's also important to note I didn't really go on a shooting frenzy either, so that may have been swinging things a bit.

[Seriyu]

That's odd, it's actually a fairly small game, Bout half a GB, not toooo huge. I'm surprised it's that big frankly.

It may be the website that's hosting it.