The Colony
A downloadable game for Windows and macOS
!!! NOTICE: PATCHED VERSION ONLINE
The most serious bugs, a missing call bell in the hotel, the painter not talking etc. in the Windows build were fixed. Re-Download to get the fixed version. You don't need to re-download if you use the Mac version. Also, mouse sensitivity was dialed back for operation by human player.
You are Ballhaus, Palmer Corp. operative. Travel to the agricultural colony A.G/7 to investigate the death of a wife of the administrator. The Dampfer robots are acting up and seem to have developed a passion for dance.
!!! Warning: This is a prototype. There will be bugs, clunkyness, unpolishtivity, questionable game design and other good stuff. !!!
Some hints:
- Find the gun in the Dampfer shack
- Manipulate the plants to provoke an accident
- In alarm state, the main colony contor goes into lockdown
- Some clues are auditive -> use (stereo) sound
Controls
| Mouse | Look |
| WASD | Walk |
| E | Interact |
| B | Binoculars |
| C | Cluesphere |
About the project
Bachelor thesis in Illustration. Textures are drawn with ink, arranged and printed with a risograph. They are then scanned and applied to the 3D models.
MORE MORE MORE
If you like this thing here, check out Mundaun. --> Mundaun Website
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Comments
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ha! I knew this was made by you from the first screenshot I saw! This style is so inspiring!
Holy cow, I'm in love with this game! Super impressive, especially for a prototype. Simply gorgeous, interesting story, immaculate vibes. Thank you for making this!
I talked about this game in my video this week, if anyone is interested:
hello hi,
is it possible to get a build for macOS monterey (m1) ?
would love to play!
warmest regards,
Seconded.
It was interesting.
thanks!
Really cool proof of concept. Very interested in what this could be if you ever expand it into a full game.
PS. Love the Barton Fink bit!
Thank you :)
So very happy you caught the Barton Fink reference! haha oh dear
I really don`t get the ending. I had 12 of 13 clues in the first run, then stumbled into the locked chamber of the wife of the administrator and the game ended. What exactly did I miss all?
A creepy experience that drops you into a kaleidoscopic world of cosmic claustrophobia and malice.
Loved the prototype, especially the beautiful art but I believe I came across a bug, the the Dampfers weren't emitting the fire effect or damaging me, the damage effect showed up on the screen but never killed me out of the three times I played through the game. Other than that I loved the prototype and can't wait to experience your other title/s!
First Dampfer encounter @5:44
this game activated my fight-or-flight response so badly i was trembling for an hour after (and it's very hard to unsettle me), so well done! (seriously though this is a really good game)
Very interesting visual style, good job! :D
Very interesting game. Keep up the great work.
Haha. Thanks for playing man!
AMAZING game !!!like my best ones ALIEN SHOOTER, LEFT DEAD
New world
This is wild! love the visuals! the whole thing feels haunted as hell. Very Philip K Dick vs Borges vs Raymond Chandler kinda vibes. Definitely gonna have to play through a few more times just to look at everything again.
Thank you! It makes me very happy that you picked all that up. PKD is indeed a major inspiration.
if you have an issue with the camera remove your ps4 controllers
This game seems promising, but everytime I get even close to some of the NPC's they hunt and somehow kill me.
Is there a way to stop that from happening?
You can shoot those glue pellets you pick up at them. It stops them for a little while allowing you to pass.
Veeeery interesting and unique visuals. It's like if Omikron fell into a vat of acid then was filtered through a kaleidoscope.
We had a couple issues with the controls tabbing out of the game, but it was otherwise a really cool and trippy experience.
Hey! Glad you liked it! Love your description :)
Really cool game. Love the style and mood. Two complaints: 1) Sometimes text is skipped too quickly and I couldn't read it. 2) Death gets you back to tutorial flight scene. It's better to skip it and respawn player at landing site.
I have an issue about the cursor :
I have multiple screen, and the game doesn't contrain the cursor, so when I look around, it goes wandering onto other screens and whenever I need to click, I'm taking the risk to unfocus the game.
This game was such a trip. The world has so much depth and you only gave us the surface of it! I NEED TO KNOW MORE
Thank you Mr Bobbly! Well, there would certainly be much to build upon in a possible future project in this same vein.
Wish I could play the game cause it looks very different and cool but this weird thing keeps happening, where the mouse will immediately scroll up to the ceiling no matter where I seem to look? :'-o
Sorry to hear that. It's odd, I haven't heard of that particular problem before.
Okay, I got it fixed! My computer just decided to start acting wonky cause I had my ps4 controller still plugged in? Anyway, finally got to play the game and I'm glad to say that I love it! You did an amazing job with the designs and the overall flow of the game! 👌
Yay! Glad it wasn't a horrid bug in the game. Very happy that you enjoyed it!
Really interesting and unique, but little bit buggy. By the way, how many endings here?
Thanks! Yeah it is a bit buggy ;) it is an unfinished prototype... There is only one ending.
Oooh this something different! In a good way, of course. I really enjoyed the style, definitely not something you see every day!
It took me a couple of attempts before I started piecing things together (and being able to survive the looming death all around me), but when I finally got to the end (or an end, at least), it blew my mind! So many questions! What a ride!
So, the style is delicious, the characters are delightfully quirky and the puzzles / aesthetics are deviously challenging. Great job all round, keep up the awesome work! =)
Thank you very much! :)
Nice ! I really like the aesthetics and the ambiance. And navigating into a 3 dimensional silkscreen illustration is pretty stylish.
I am looking forward to try your Mundaun's project, it looks great and intriguing too.
Keep up the good work !
Thanks! It's riso print if you want to be very exact ;)
Welcome to The colony, can you solve the murder or will the murder solve you?
Hidden in a dome away from the outside lies a small village riddled with mystery and MURDER?
Very unique experience. Lots of awesome texture work. I saw that you made this for your thesis in Illustration and the quality definitely shows. I was able to complete it, but didn't find all of the clues. I definitely encountered a few bugs like text boxes flashing or disappearing randomly, NPCs not continuing their dialogue or moving, etc. There were also some weird moments like one of the harvester guys "dying" and getting flung a hundred feet or so. Not sure if that was a bug or not.
Overall I really enjoyed exploring the little world you made. Mundaun looks very promising as well. I'd love to give that a shot when it comes out. Good luck with it!
Hey! Thanks for the kind words. I definitely focused my main attention on the visual aspects while working on this as a ba thesis, so the other aspects are not quite up to snuff. I love that you came up with The Wicker Space Man as a description. That old film always comes back to me. Also, glad you like Mundaun! Follow on @MundaunGame to stay tuned! Cheers
I'm intrigued
and want more. Fix everything, make the whole game, then get in touch with my secretary who isn't real at the moment, but could be. Eventually. Till then sir, I concur.
Cheers! Yeah, i'll fix the worst soon. Then I will finish www.mundaun-game.ch . Then, I might start over on The Colony, all new and improved but with the same feel to it!
this game could use a mouse sensitivity adjustment
I've never been so confused in a game but at the same time intrigued!
Thank you so much! Twin Peaks in space, what a compliment :)
Well this game managed to creep me out and bother me, if that was your goal congrats! Here is my experience with it~
I would like to play it if there weren't everything orange
I'll have a version without orange up soon to provide a better refuge from reality in these trying times.
This game is enthralling! I have never seen an art style quite like this!
I'd love to see it finished, or at least less janky. I couldn't get very far, even when trying to do the main path and not deviating. Things just seemed to not be triggering (hotel guy being the main thing).
Really cool! Congrats! And this is a thesis for....illustration? Wow things sure have changed since I was in art school!
Thank you! Yeah, the hotel guy should give you the room key. Sadly the whole thing is on a pretty shaky codebase, so to make it ship-shape now would be quite the time consuming thing.
It was an unusual thesis for illustration. My BA course is very open-minded which is great.
Thanks. Yeah, this thing is 5 years old and more of an unfinished experiment. Have been working on my first full-length title since then. Check it out: http://mundaun-game.ch/
So, I think in general, I just didn't understand what the game was trying to communicate. Pretty sure something broke my second time through, but I can't even say that for sure. It just left me confused and unwilling to try again due to it's pace, frustrations and obscurity.
I beat you to a game for once 😂 it’s definitely broken but this game shines in visuals alone. It’s more art than game.
Haha, yeah, I had a series ending and a release day video lined up, so I was a little behind in getting to this. But, while the technique to create the visuals is definitely an interesting one, I still found them to be pretty unappealing. It might have been because of the models but for a game that seems to be leaning on its art, its pretty underwhelming. That may be a very subjective view though.
I made a game review of The Colony. At a glance you can see what this game is like and if you might enjoy it. I call these videos Game Glances. No Face Cam ... No BS! Just honest unspoiled reviews.
Is this game full of bugs.. Yes.
Did I care? ... No. I actually loved this game on its visuals and atmosphere alone. The weirder the better.
Thanks for the great video sir! Looks like you were particularly unlucky bugs-wise. The painter should have painted your portrait ;)
oh snap! That would have been cool! I also feel like a found more than 8 clues as well... but as a concept of a game, you nailed it. And on the concept of an artistic experience, you double nailed it. Keep it up. I’m planning on checking out your other game as well.
hello, i found a glitch. if you stand too closely to the fruit harvesting robots while they bend down, they will rocket you upwards into the sky. im not sure if this on purpose or not, but i thought i would report it. LMFAO.
Cheers for the heads-up. Yeah... let's say that is on... purpose?
So if it wasn't obvious already, I completely lost track of the main point of this game about halfway through. I know I was supposed to be investigating and looking for clues, but I was just in awe by the sounds, visuals and acid trips throughout this work of art. This game was gorgeous. I know it's a prototype and has some bugs, and I'm pretty sure I ran into one with the big building. But otherwise, it was fun. It had some interesting features and stuff to do that would keep players entertained. Oh! The mouse sensitivity! It'd be cool to have some sort of option for adjusting it. It was SUPER high for me. Anyways, this game was awesome! Thanks for making this!!
Hey man. Thanks for playing. Glad you enjoyed it :) As for the mouse sensitivity, I thought it was just me that thought it was a bit high and that all the kids these days play like this ;)
Haha I like mine a tad slower. Now that I think of it, a lot of people do play with the sensitivity insanely high lol. Adding something to help adjust it would never hurt :D
I was mostly confused on what my objective was, but I really really thoroughly enjoyed the mood and atmosphere. Great job :)
Just popping in to say that sadly the game seems buggy af.
However, you managed to create a truly unique and creepy art style with simple means, and i like that a lot!
Hey! Glad you liked the aesthetic! You have been warned about the bugs though ;)
If only I read it was a prototype since of how many bugs I ran into xD Nonetheless, I did as much as I felt I could and had fun.
Yeah, seems like you got to the end :) thanks for playing!