Alt+Escape: I Can Hold My Breath Forever

[hopeneverdies]

That's a bit cruel. Can't you just have him sketched and halved? *rimshot* *is shot*

Yes you should be shot, since a rimshot is hitting the rim of a drum. I think you mean ba dum tish.

Anyways, that ending came out of nowhere for me since I thought

Spoiler

his friend had died a long time before.

Someone in the comments actually took points off because the graphics were bad, even though it's a personal choice and adds to the effect.

 

[UnkeptBiscuit]

Someone in the comments actually took points off because the graphics were bad, even though it's a personal choice and adds to the effect.

It is a personal choice, as is whether or not he its employment. He has every right to dock points for that.
And I also could not make heads or tails of the ending.

 

[Eric the Orange]

I was confused more than anything by this game. the game play is short and rather meh. And the "artistic message" is lost on me it seems, cause I cant seem to figure out what the message is supposed to be.

 

[Aptspire]

Great ending
I get what the note meant

 

[MasterSplinter]

Spoiler

I'd like to be
Under the sea
In an octopus' garden
with you
In an octopus' garden
with you
In an octopus' garden
with you

Great game!
I don't know if that was what the Beatles had in mind, but I think it's pretty close.
Although I can't figure out how he learned to write or where did he got the pencils from.

Also, there were other very interesting games in the place this came from I specially liked the 10 second war(specially meaning the "only other game I tried"), before it broke down on me.

 

[Aurora219]

That was interesting. Not exactly challenging or anything, but touching.

 

[twaddle]

nice game....back to C++ practice....it's gonna be a long night T_T

 

[Mr. Purple]

<color=purple> That was rather fun.
I kinda missed what the last note said tho. I jumped right past it and finished the game...

 

[banthesun]

Nice but kind of meh. It didn't really seem to have a point to me.

 

[Z(ombie)fan]

this game is so good, im not sure has the right to exist.

thats right, this game has opened a paradox in my brain O_O

 

[Generator]

It was very interesting, and left me feeling tense the whole way through. Good game, and quite a surprising ending.

 

[Nexus424]

Strange game. I wanna say I understand the ending but at the same time, I'm not sure.

 

[Hollywood Knights]

Good game, I think the notes make it. The way it's revealed how much time has elapsed was really clever, as was the slow revealtion of the nature of your friend.

 

[Adrynck]

weird game... but I like it

 

[Eric the Orange]

Funk, you always find the most touching and heartfelt games. Keep it up, I love these "artsy" games.

You seem to be one of the few people here that seems to understand what the "message" this game was trying to get across. So would you please enlighten me to what it is?

 

[Gxas]

Funk, you always find the most touching and heartfelt games. Keep it up, I love these "artsy" games.

You seem to be one of the few people here that seems to understand what the "message" this game was trying to get across. So would you please enlighten me to what it is?

Well, when I started playing through, I got the feeling that the character was searching for a pet or something. A fish or something of the like. Now, the letters made that seem wrong, but it is a game, after all, and stranger things have happened than fish writing notes. Near the end, though, I felt it was more of this friend searching for another person. A friend who had committed suicide, or drowned in the lake somehow. The character's search for this friend was either a last-ditch effort in seeing his friend once more, or finding a peaceful resting place next to his deceased friend in order to be with him forever in the afterlife.

I also enjoyed this comment on the meaning of the game by someone who played it. I feel as though it is a very accurate representation of what the creator had in mind. Though, we never will know for sure.

I found the last letter (what I hope to be the last letter) extremely touching. The sweet, childish hope of it... "My dearest friend, When we were children I dove into this pond. Now we are both very old, and tired of exploring. I shall wait for you in the water, but you do not need to hurry; I can hold my breath forever!"
I nearly cried, especially when I saw his skeletal, octopus-like form, floating and glowing... He was no longer the dear childhood friend who jumped into a pond. He was one of them, and I would never get my friend back. All I could do was collect the letters he left for me, and treasure them, and hope that some day someone else would find them, and think of us... Or perhaps that, somewhere, deep in his mind, my friend still knew me. Perhaps he even knew that I had gone looking for him, and that he had waited for me for many of his years.
But deep down I know that he does not. The day my dear childhood friend jumped into the pond we once fished in was the day I lost him, and the day I followed was the day I lost myself.
Towards the end, I forgot what sunlight looked like; the only light I knew was the soft glow of the fish, and of my friend of long ago; the only memory I kept was that of a letter from one I dearly loved, and missed.
I will never forget my friend. But he forgot me a long time ago.

 

[Eric the Orange]

snip

Ah, thanks for the clarification. I am notoriously bad at picking out themes or meaning in art.

 

[Copter400]

Personally, I think there's a bit of fridge horror in the ending.

Spoiler

If he's been spending years just getting to the end of the caves, it means you have too.

 

[CaptainLudicrous]

It was an interesting experience, not too hard, but still engaging. I had to to look up the ending though, I didn't get what happened.

 

[TheColdHeart]

I enjoyed it, the notes lead you to thinking different things until the end. It was a nice way to spend 5 minutes. It reminded me of that game where you swap the words in the sentence and different things happened until you were 'free'.