Jung's Labyrinth

This game had potential but it turned out to be only a jackpot of random Jung's quotes out of context. The labirynth itself is just an annoying break from reading the quotes. I requested a refund.

When I was around 15 years old I had a dream in which I was Garrett from the Thief series, standing on a hill overlooking a vast labyrinth, all shadowy as it was night time. I descended into the labyrinth, and spent some time traversing its dark corners until I finally reached a door that led me to the room of a teenage girl. The girl wasn't there, but every detail in the room spoke volumes about who she was, and it was full of fun metaphors such as her computer screen standing in the middle of a makeup table, surrounded by makeup products (beauty and smarts). It was an archetypical representation of my ideal woman, just as I was transitioning from the girls have cooties stage to girls have boobies stage, and I still remember the dream almost 20 years since. It's the similarity between that dream and this game that had kept me playing what is an otherwise terrible game, The game is basically a tedious walking simulator in which you run around a large labyrinth where everything looks the same, searching for doors that lead you to encounters with Jungian archetypes. That's the core gameplay, and it's just not fun, at all. In fact, it's the kind of game I would let someone play if I wanted to turn them off of playing games. Don't let the screenshots fool you. Looking at the screenshots you might think that there's varied and interesting content in the game, but all of those interesting looking screenshots are the rooms where the archetypes reside, and you spend maybe 5% of the game in them. The rest of the time you're in the labyrinths, spending 10s of minutes turning the same corners again and again because everything looks the same, and the labyrinth is too big to memorize. And even in that 5% of the time when you're in a room with an archetype, you don't really do anything in the room except listen to a dialogue with the archetype and leave. It's not like there are puzzles in the rooms or things to interact with, you just listen to some dialogue and leave. The graphics aren't great, to put it mildly. Some of it looks like it was made by someone who didn't know how to properly use shaders. The characters you encounter don't move their mouths when they talk, and the camera clips through the wall. I can tell that this was a labor of love, but it's just an aweful game.

[i] My Experience [/i] Despite a career in the psychology field, I was never exposed to Jung in grad school. So when I saw this game, I thought it would be an engaging way to learn about Jungian concepts. Initially, I was intrigued. The first maze was not particularly complex, and I found the archetypes I encountered to be compelling. I can see "The Warrior" in myself in my most productive and confident moments, and I've seen "The Caregiver" in both my mother and in the nursing students that I worked with at a previous job. I felt a little bit of tedium and exasperation in navigating the maze, but it was still slight enough that I was willing to push through. However, the second maze was not only more complex, but also introduced various traps and enemies. I still found the archetypes themselves interesting (when I encountered them), but the pace of these encounters slowed down markedly. I was spending a lot more time wandering around the maze and I got the acute sense that I was wasting my time. I'm sure that the "challenge" of exploring the maze was meant to represent the challenge of exploring your own "shadow," but I couldn't help but feel like there might be a more direct and intuitive way to undertake this journey.

Sorta cool abandoned project. Probably should never have been released in current state. Controls are broken for the most part. No keybinding( NONE) and awkward default layout. They almost work well enough as there isn't much action but it's unnecessarily distracting. Low polish in general. Overall presentation, visually, map layout. Not done. Though you can see what was being attempted. Experience of the user an afterthought. Not done!

labyrinths become harder as you go deep. labyrinths made me nervous but game has amazing visuals, symbolism , it teaches you a lot about Jung

Basado en los puntos de vista de Carl Gustav Jung, este walking simulator explora los diferentes temas del llamado proceso de individuación (diferenciación, constitución y particularización de la propia esencia), junto con la imaginación activa a modo de metáforas. Todo empieza con el protagonista recibiendo como regalo un peyote, que es un cactus que contiene mescalina (un alucinógeno) con el fin de hacer un viaje místico hacia su mundo interior. En esa experiencia, pasamos a través de tres laberintos, que llevan los nombres de los tres procesos fundamentales de la alquimia: el primero, Nigredo, representa la transmutación de la materia, y es donde comienzan nuestras charlas con los distintos arquetipos para una mejor comprensión de nosotros mismos. El segundo es Albedo, donde los peligros se hacen presentes, que representa la depuración del material y también la introspección. Por último, tenemos a Rubedo, repleto de trampas y adversidades, con el Ánima persiguiéndote e invitándote a unirte a ella (no lo hagas). A lo largo del descenso a la propia psique, que son representados en estos tres lugares, iremos encontrando notas de voz que nos iluminan sobre las teorías del psicólogo suizo; y como toda aventura, el progreso del juego se basa en el clásico esquema del "Camino del héroe". Finalmente, luego de la integración de los doce arquetipos, de afrontar tus sombras y demás vicisitudes, estás en el sendero hacia tu verdadero Ser. Ya con todas tus distintas partes reconciliadas, la auto realización: el proceso natural e instintivo hacia la propia maduración y la paz interior. Si te gusta la psicología y explorar distintas maneras de encarar la mente humana, lo vas a disfrutar muchísimo. No como juego, sino como una manera de comprender un poco mejor tu propia realidad gracias a lo bien representado que está todo. En lo personal, conocí a Jung hace muchos años atrás por una canción de la banda Tool llamada "Forty Six & 2", donde habla de despojarse de los viejos métodos, aceptar las propias sombras (las cosas que nos avergüenzan de nuestra personalidad y que le ocultamos al mundo) y evolucionar. Es por eso que este juego tiene un "extra" para mi porque me gusta la temática, pero no significa que a todo el mundo le impacte de la misma manera. Viví tu propia experiencia.

On one hand I expected a bigger, more elaborated project, so I was a little disappointed. But then I found out that the game has been basically made whole by one person. Some things frustrated me (oh great, another ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ spider), but in general I must say I did enjoy it and I am going to play this game again. I think it should be considered less of a typical game, and more of a just experience, where you get a moment to check yourself, and consider your Self, the people around you, your interactions with others. Ultimately this is all about Jung, I think especially people who had no previous experience with his psychology have a unique opportunity to get absolutely hooked with it. I've had decent experience with it already but still enjoyed the way the developer presented the archetypes. Instead of the dry knowledge you get to hear an internal dialogue of the character with each of the archetypes that portrays the way they manifest in his life. The game is not long, and not the cheapest, but if you can spare a few bucks to support the creator and in return receive an hour of self-reflection (assuming you are more competent than me when it comes to navigating through a maze, which I find hard to believe anyone can not be), I say go for it, because it is ultimately a good deal.

It was a hard choice on whether to recommend this game or not. I went ahead and did because it's not bad really and I can tell the developer put a lot of work into it. It has many flaws but over all is a great concept! It's also a rather short lived experience and doesn't take long to finish. I hate to say it, but it's not really worth full price and...it wasn't really worth the discounted price (which I paid). The Labyrinths are rather tedious and I think it could be more interesting, but my main problem was that I had motion sickness quite a bit at first. It took a few sessions before I adjusted. This is even worse later in the shadow form. So be warned of that if your prone to it.

This game, in itself, is beautiful and thought-provoking. Archetypes are relatively new to me, so discovering this game was like coming across a gem in the wild. I didn't (but I think I should have) take a copious amount of notes playing this, yet I learned so much more than I excepted. Both, psychology and literature are something I have a slew of passion for; it was almost a guarantee I would enjoy the game, so I might be a bit biased with the review. I have a major literature -themed test coming up, let's hope I can put my new knowledge to use. Face your inner subconscious, ego, and the shadow to find your true self. In general, this game is a pleasant experience. This is a novel and educating take on the 12 Jungian archetypes. You may, also, find an archetype you, yourself most relate to. The story; dialogue, characters, and such, are genuinely done well. The atmosphere is great, nothing too special. Though, I think it takes a specific type of creativity and inspiration to fully experience and understand this game. If you are completely new to archetypes, please listen to all of the dialogue. Also, the game had a significant negative side; HOW THE ♥♥♥♥ ARE YOU SUPPOSED TO NAVIGATE THE LABYRINTH AS THE SPIDER??!?!?? THIS IS C-O-M-P-L-E-T-E-L-Y DEVASTATING!!!!!!!!!!!!! 🤬🤬🤬 I totally understand how some people didn't enjoy this as much. I spent countless minutes suffering walking through it, in complete darkness (you can't turn the brightness up.) So yeah, if you are a passionate "literaturist" and a "psychologist" I suggest you play the game.

Lays a rather good, thought provoking baseline for the exploration of Jungian Archetypes, however I can't help but feel as if it had potential to lay this out in a much deeper and interactive way. I was left wanting a lot more from it. The linear nature of the gameplay didn't really lend itself to the far reaching nature of the mind. I wish it had a feeling of emptiness and discovery in an expansive environment instead. As for the dialogue - it did enough to convey the concepts but again, felt rather one dimensional. What could have remedied this would have been the addition of dialogue options perhaps. The price is rather steep too. On a brighter note - the music score delivered and served the experience, there were many clever metaphors throughout and I really enjoyed each environment behind each door. Not bad, great concept, average implementation.