Everything

One day, you learn about NDEs, and you start to get the feeling that there’s so much more to reality. Then you keep searching, and learning, and you think you are finally grasping something about your own essence. Suddenly, you look up quantum physics and begin to realize what lies beneath us, and what lies beyond us. How microscopic dynamics have their macroscopic replica, how it all rhymes in an absolute harmony. Then you meditate. You have your own revelation, and piece it all together. There are separate realities, yet they are all the same. Time seems infinite, yet there is only now. An immesurable amount of particles, entities and dimensions, yet all of them are connected through space and time. Each and every one of them with their own level of consciousness. And you are here, a unique fractal of the greater Everything. You know all, and all is you. Then it just… makes sense.

It felt like playing through somebody’s epiphany. This game is f*ing bonkers.

Pretentious art game with the rather bizarre decision to not animate animals walking and instead just having them do somersaults. If you like art games this is good but its not for everyone.

You have to experience it for yourself, roll a doobskin, set the game's settings to full autonomy, gets some snacks, make sure you have headphones, take control when you really feel it is needed, be patient, enjoy the ride and vibe. Really good game.

playing this game feels exactly like it wants you to. It tells me that I am everything and that it's important to view everything from everything's point of view. and I look at all the things that move and dance and sing to me and I want to be everything. There is so much more I want to be; Everything.

This game is like a fever dream.
I would definitely pay full price for it, but at the time of getting it it was 99% off, which I found hilarious because it basically said "Everything on steam is having a 99% discount" or something like that, its been a longg time.
It's fun, silly, I rarely am aware of what I'm doing but that's more on me than anything
I should add this game's main thing is the philosophy but well, I just like rolling around every few months.

Today, I was reading some very disheartening news, stories, and reactions to the current state of the games industry. It got me thinking, "what would a game be like if it were to just completely reject the standard notions of what a game is, and focus purely on communicating an idea that could not be communicated in any other way in quite the same way?" kind of like, say, anti-art / dadaism did back in the early-to-mid 20th century. I thought, "what if there was an 'anti-game' genre?" and, it turns out, I am not the first person to have this thought. That people were thinking about this kind of stuff like 10 years ago. And I vaguely recall these discussions going around the game dev twitters and parties back around that time when I was an indie game dev myself. Somewhere in these discussions is mentioned a game called "Mountain" which is, well, exactly what it says on the tin. It's $1, and you get a little mountain to kind of play around with. Pretty cute. Not the best thing I've ever played, but for $1, what should one expect, really? It's a worthwhile $1 game. No real objectives or anything. So, maybe "game" is being used a little more loosely here, but hey - that's kind of interesting in and of itself, if you like to think about that sort of thing. Which I happen to.
It did include a very smartly placed little advertisement for this game "Everything", which came about 3-4 years later. Which I also remember being a hot topic in the indie circles for a time. Being a game dev, I was super busy with work, and unfortunately also missed this game at that time (and being an indie game dev at the time, I was also perpetually broke). So, now, here I am, 2024. Six years of long story later. Bummed out on the current state of the games industry. Looking for something completely different.
Right, Everything. I remember hearing about that game. I should give that a go.
So I did. Played it for over an hour. Loved it. Amazing. And I didn't even feel like I had to sit here playing it for hours and hours and hours. Like, because it presents itself as being (nearly) boundless and it saves your progress as you exit (and it's not like some games are where they're like "oh please don't leaave!" forget that, they're just like "oh, you want to exit?"), it's like I feel I can walk away from it any time i want or stay with it for as long as i want. I admit I am a bit of a sucker for Alan Watts. I could listen to that guy talk all day. This game providing this nice little backdrop for him talking philosophy is just <chefs kiss>.
as far as the jankiness, it's very up-front and unapologetic about it, which frankly I feel like I can forgive and almost respect because of how clean and well-done the rest of it is.
i wanted to go outside and think about life after playing this game.

I came back to this game and decided to play it while under the influence of Mushrooms... this is the most beautiful game ever, I've never felt so many emotions and just the sounds when really tiny are so satisfying and Alan Watts tidbits are the icing on the cake as someone who loves philosophy. Even without hallucinagens this game is amazing and is well worth the price.