Design Statement
As people who are not always great with emotions, we approached this theme from our personal perspective...which is to try to explore and understand emotions themselves.

We were drawn to the music-box vibes of the theme track, which gave us the idea of a widget or tool to help people learn about emotions. Notes from the theme can be heard in game if you listen closely. The whimsical art style ultimately led to something a bit more abstract, and hopefully a lot more fun!

The underlying logic of NOMO is based on the “Wheel of Emotions” developed by psychologist Robert Plutchik. This model defines eight primary emotions and describes ways emotions relate to one another, vary in intensity, and combine to form complex feelings. We hope that players can have fun, learn a bit, and maybe even relate to some of the emotions encountered in NOMO.

Game Instructions (launch steps, controls, and gameplay overview)
Startup:
Play in browser on the itch.io page.
Turn your sound on.
For best experience, use the fullscreen button on the player and a desktop browser with a mouse.

Controls (mouse only):
Click and drag emotions to move them.
Drop one onto another to mix emotions!
Shake your mouse while dragging to split an emotion into its parts.
Throw an emotion off the edge of the screen to clear it away.
Click an emotion to hear it speak.
Once the tutorial is done, clicking an emotion calls for others to spawn.

Corner icons:
The question mark or exclamation mark icon opens an index of every emotion you’ve discovered.
The other icons lead to new rooms or take you back to previous ones.

Use the tools available to you to unlock all emotions and complete your index!

Endgame (SPOILERS):
On the intro title and idle screens (black background with a character in the center), you can enter a secret code that unlocks the full index and a special ability. The code is given to players who complete the game!

Gameplay walkthrough video
https://vimeo.com/1244808096/a2b2ed591d?share=copy&fl=cl&fe=ci

Did your project use any AI tools or assets? If yes, please specify.
Coding assistance via Claude and Chat GPT.
Generated python scripts to synthesize audio from sine waves.
Every aspect of this project was created with great care and attention!