Antipsychotic

This is very polished and the sound design is clean, immersive, and really well done. I enjoyed the colorful visuals and the interactive nature of the installation. I am definitely excited to see more experimental games like this. If you like what you see, support the dev here by picking up the game or the soundtrack. https://youtu.be/PJPveMmZYqk

I'm not about to complain about a small experimental game being 'too short' when it's functionally more like buying a ticket to a virtual museum/art installation. Wanted to open with that since it's something people tend to be negative about for no reason, and I think even games I don't like deserve to be criticized fairly. With that in mind, let me critique the installation. It's a small grotto of neon plants and objects in the middle of a seemingly infinite black lake. If you stand in specific spots, you will either hear a looping music track or hear a spoken-word bit. Music tracks seem very deliberately placed to allow you to enjoy particular imagery while you listen, but the spoken-word parts are delivered through speaker-looking visualizers that stick out no matter where they're placed. There's also an alien tripod creature walking around for... reasons, and you can also walk through 5 columns of floating crystals that give you the ability to throw them? and when you've collected all 5 you can press F to teleport to the credits. The reason that I can't recommend this is because it left me feeling... flat. I'm sure the artist meant to express something personal with it, but it doesn't come through. The visuals and music are too far in one direction, a sort of 'dark whimsy' where the imagery doesn't really seem to... evoke anything related to bipolar disorder? The music is good, but it's just fun experimental synth. Now, normally 'i don't understand this' is a bad critique of modern art, but the issue here is that 'subtle' doesn't seem to have been the goal, since all the spoken word content is completely on the nose. It's either one of those rhythm-less couplets written by someone who doesn't seem to be all that poetic; stuff on the level of "When I'm depressed it really sucks/ but being manic totally f**cks". Or literally just giving an explanation of the emotional color wheel while standing on a giant emotional color wheel. This feels mean to write because of how this game was clearly not something cynical, but if you're going to make representational art you open yourself to art critics. And I do think it's more important to *do* art criticism for 'notgames' and 'interactive albums' like this, instead of just going "dis not real game it don't have gameplay where's my gun." But taking it seriously in that way comes with the risk of finding it lacking.