The Message from Deep Space

Nowhere close to the end, but I'm loving the game. It's tough but fair

I'm about 14 hours in (plus a few idle in the background) and man if this isn't all but build specifically for me. What an excellent concept and super well executed.

I should have gone to sleep hours ago, but I became so invested in solving the patterns and defining more words in my dictionary. When I think I have learned something the aliens introduce me to a new concept that requires me to revisit my words. I cannot put this game down, seriously just check it out. I'm 4 hours in, but this game already hit so many of my checkmarks.

Stunningly thoughtful game. It occasionally lacks a bit of polish but only in minor ways and this is almost certainly a simple consequence of the resource limitations inherent in an indie title of this caliber. If you enjoyed learning (or want to learn) the foundations of math and science in school, this game is absolutely worth your time and money. It can be quite challenging, particularly in the beginning and ~85% of the way through, but it is also very rewarding.

Ask friend: "Are you good at math?" Proceed to get stumped at a transmission that prompted you to ask in the first place. Agree to just start over a new run so you can both go through the game together, seeing as you are still pretty early on into the game, and all. Start out adding to the dictionary with an air of seriousness. Go through everything with logic, generally basic calculations, etc. "ADD, .DEC, MIN, MUL, DIV, VAR, ..." "Let's call this one..." Start derailing the definitions. "SEAL, FLOUR, LIES, FRIES, MOVIES, SKITTLE, BALD, ..." Get dialogues like : "They're just lumpin' a bunch of BURGERS's together." Get amazing comms like : "Okay, so they're SAUCE... and we're PASTA..." Go through each transmission while using the butchered dictionary with a straight face. yep. this has become my life for the past week. good game

The puzzles aren't overly difficult (although you may want to be sure that you remember your high school level physics, chemistry, math, logic, and a bit of grammar), but the difficulty is just right to make the narrative very satisfying to uncover. I really enjoyed my time with this game, it even made me feel a few feelings. Now this may be a fairly niche thing to mention, but I'm very particular about the narrative content of the media I engage with. To put it bluntly, I've got political "PTSD" and I can hardly play or watch anything these days without being annoyed by the inclusion of half-baked political propaganda of one flavour or another, whether I agree with it or not. I found this game very refreshing because, without spoiling anything, the narrative touches alien cultural issues that are truly alien and have no connection to any contentious human cultural issues you might be sick and tired of hearing about. This game really is about learning about aliens and not a thinly veiled excuse for the writers to tell people what they should think. I'm very grateful that some truly creative people are out here making such unique and interesting games, who are actually dedicated to exploring the extremes of what it could mean to live as a species that is significantly unlike us. Great work, bravo, I look forward to whatever this developer may create next.

The hook is awesome, and even though at times it can be confusing what response is expected, the game is an incredible journey and I can't wait to see more.