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Vacant Utopia's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| ANTI-CAPITALIST POWER | #40 | 3.062 | 3.750 |
Ranked from 4 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
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Comments
Very well written.
Thank you so much for playing the game! I do not frequent YouTube, but I am glad you got it out there :3
Was there a part you found particularly provocative?
Hello! I liked the atmosphere of the game. The game itself is well polished even if it's just the demo. The part about machines building other machines and buildings since who-knows-when made me think about BLAME! a little. And all the talk about their modern Utopia of Ian Banks novels' with his description of Culture. I didn't feel like the dialogues optiond had much impact though, is it just me ? Do you plan on making a game with different endings after the jam ?
I felt like the debate during this game was more like "is that kind of Utopia really what we want?" more than a criticism of capitalism, but it was interesting anyway. The dialogues are quite complex so maybe I misunderstood some points (I'm not an English native speaker so that's probably part of the issue). While I think it can be part of the charm, maybe it could be slightly more accessible? Just my opinion though :)
Thank you so much for the kind response, Belillart <3
You are right that the game focuses pretty much on Utopia and what we want in the future, inspired by Banks and Le Guin's Dispossessed (which I love); and although it may not be that linked to capitalism per se, I think envisioning alternatives is pretty much part of fucking capitalism. And I'd argue these alternatives must not degenerate into new structures of oppression and hierarchies of power.
It's indeed about blame, about responsibility too, and about free will, if such a thing exists! But it is still a bit of a draft, and I would love to include a variety of branching options, but haven't been able (yet).
This ties into accessibility, as the plot I am writing does not begin where Vacant Utopia does, so I did an In Medias Res and jumped into debates without much context, hopefully future updates can add a bit more information to players!
See if I can try Mindfarer, always enjoy visual novels that try to criticise Big tech — keep up the great work :-)
This three-tier layout is one of the most creative uses of ren py i've ever seen, though i havent seen much tbh. The audio and artstyle build a really stunning atmosphere.
Just that would already have been enough but the story is very interesting. I wasnt expecting deep themes like what are present obligations to past people and so on.
The sentence "judging past people by today's standards is like anthropomorphizing animals" will stay with me for a long time <3
Thank you so much for your reply, Yoann! The game was quite inspired by Domino Club titles, and the themes were really a mix of many references, but mainly Aldous Huxley's Brave New World and Le Guin's The Dispossessed.
Your comment filled me with optimism, I enjoyed your game very much too and think we need more provocative titles out there, I wish you best of luck with future titles (earned yourself a follower, hehe, we must find allies in these uncertain times) :-)
Atmosferic, thought provoking and futuristic, love it! hope for a full game!
Thank you so much for playing the game Sguit! Hopefully I can get some time over the year to continue it uwu