Pieces Apart
A downloadable game for Windows
An interactive story exploring what it's like to live with dissociative issues: feelings of depersonalization, derealization, feeling broken up into separate pieces.
This game will take place over multiple game windows. The game will ask you to open up a new window, done by starting up a new game in a new window. Keep the main game running; communication will take place across the various windows and will progress the story.
This was an experimental project, inspired by the Major jam 6: Life, with the limitation "multiple applications". Because it makes use of (local) networking, I hope it works on other PC's as expected.
Warning: this game deals with some heavier psychological topics.
Credits
Music: Give Me Some Time by Akella
Fonts: Ahellya by Dmitry Barsukov, DotNess by Vanessa Bays
Download
Install instructions
Right-click and select Extract All
Run Pieces Apart.exe
Comments
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INSANELY clever execution of the concept. Really, it is super admirable to see how the game manages to work across and synchronise two windows at once. I'm in genuine awe. It is super reflective of the topic at hand, and I relate to some parts, too. The sole criticism I would have is the fact that the path forward after talking to all the parts isn't all that clear in-game. I feel like there should be some sort of hint on how to progress, and not for it to rely on supplementary sources(in this case, game comments)
such cozy game! i really liked it!
very neat concept!! Been rotisserie-ing the thought of how to convey multiple perspectives and thus was such an effective way of doing that—and echoing the changing music but also the changes in artstyle and perspective were so cool.
I gotta ask if it continues after you talk to all parts? was unsure if I missed something or it ended there.
Figured it out, I think! guide (spoilers?):
need to go mother -> anxious -> child -> mother -> detached
I can't believe no one else has commented here yet! I just wanted to say that I really enjoyed this. The narrative is thoughtful and tender, the art is lovely to look at, I adore the shift in music depending on which part is being spoken to, and the multiple windows thing is just really fascinating. I wish I were clever enough to include a mechanic like that in one of my games, but I have literally no idea where I'd even begin >.< haha.
Anyways, as someone who struggles with various mental health problems, I could relate to a fair amount of this story, especially the poor anxious part, which more often than not is the part I tend to see as the one which dominates within me >.< Thank you for making this :3