Awaking– How to play

Walkercito on 2025/03/29 22:45 of QvaX Team
— edited on 2025/03/29 23:42

Although it's not finished or even playable due to the circumstances I mentioned in last entries, here's the how to play and what you should expect ミ⁠●⁠﹏⁠☉⁠ミ.

First, you need to get the game running, for that you need to install the package manager I'm using (uv) or you can directly install the following dependencies using `pip`

pygame-ce 2.5.3

pytmx 3.32

asyncio

If you want to use uv, you can install it with the following command:

# Windows (PowerShell)

irm https://astral.sh/uv/install.ps1 | iex

# Linux/MacOS

curl -LsSf https://astral.sh/uv/install.sh | sh

After that you should be able to use `uv sync`, so, try it:

uv sync

That command should install the the dependencies and to start running you put:

uv run main.py

Remember that all of this HAS to be done inside of the project's folder! 

Awaking is a 5-minute minimalist experience where you play as a character who must choose between breaking the current (helping others break free from addiction) or going with the flow (accepting the status quo). Your decisions determine which of the two alternate endings you'll reach, reflecting the game jam's downstream theme through simple yet meaningful narrative.

• [W/A/S/D]  -> To move in four directions
•        [E]          -> To interact with an NPC when the indicator above and them appears
•      [ESC]       -> To open settings inside the game
•    [Mouse]    -> Only for the main menu and settings

Two bars track your struggle in the bottom-left corner:

• Influence (Blue): Your power to change minds
• Energy (Golden): The stamina to keep fighting

The city flows like a river of glowing screens. You move against the current, offering weathered books to strangers drowning in digital light. Some shrug you off—their rejection drains your resolve. Others hesitate, and in that moment, you pour your energy into persuasion. Even standing still has consequences; the tide erodes your will differently when you choose not to act.

Three types of people drift through this neon stream: the willing, the resistant, and those too far gone. Learn their rhythms—your success depends on reading the subtle currents in their eyes.

(Mechanically: Each NPC interaction dynamically affects your Influence and Energy bars. Manage both resources carefully to reach the ending you desire.)

Even though the game is full of beautiful animations and love thanks to CanIIAweekee, the circumstances of our environment didn't allow us to make the game playable.

Right now, if you don't have a *decent* PC, the game runs at 2-7 FPS, even with baked lights enabled. I could improve performance using numpy, but I wasn't able to commit the changes due to a blackout. Moving on from this first issue... (⁠ー⁠_⁠ー⁠゛⁠)

The lack of music and sound effects is not intentional. We planned to use a heartbeat sound when Influence and Energy were draining to emphasize the fading light. A menu background track, a soft piano theme with wind sounds for gameplay, and sound effects for NPC rejection were also prepared, but, unfortunately, we couldn't add them due to the same issue. The credits screen, as you might have noticed, is also incomplete for the same reason.

Regarding the endings, we considered two possibilities. One occurs when the player does nothing or is constantly rejected, causing their energy to reach zero. In this case, they would lose their color and turn black in a cinematic sequence. The second ending happens when the player surpasses the 87% threshold. At that point, all NPCs begin rejecting help, leading to a loss of Influence and Energy. As Influence decreases, the player's light fades with them, and in near-total darkness, their heartbeat grows louder. When they reach zero, a cinematic sequence would show the NPCs they helped returning the favor. Unfortunately, right now, it just transitions to a white screen. (⁠٥⁠↼⁠_⁠↼⁠)

Thank you all for your comments, and a huge thanks to the PyWeek team for organizing such an amazing event! Despite the difficulties, it was really fun to participate!! (⁠ ⁠/⁠^⁠ω⁠^⁠)⁠/⁠♪⁠♪

Bad Ending– Frame 01

Bad Ending– Frame 02

Bad Ending – Frame 03

Bad Ending – Frame 04

Bad Ending – Frame 05

———————

This is the planned logo and app icon. Couldn't be implemented.