Hyo... (⁠⌐⁠■⁠-⁠■⁠) How’s everyone doing with their projects!?

I've seen some really cool entries so far, and I'm already excited to test them all. I haven't made any diary entries 'cause I didn't know this was a thing haha, but I’d like to share a summary of today's progress and setbacks. (⁠٥⁠↼⁠_⁠↼⁠)

Since yesterday, I've been working on the gameplay of our game, including interactions with the NPCs and their three states 7u7. Everything was going great—I only needed to "synchronize" the player's light with the Influence bar to complete the gameplay and move on to bug fixes and quality-of-life improvements, like some simple text elements (you’ll see them soon, I hope).

But we ran into a problem. Until now, I had been working from a laptop, dealing with things beyond my control, like blackouts, unstable internet, and other issues. But now, I no longer have the laptop, so I completely depend on electricity to use my desktop PC. (Not to get political, but this is due to the dictatorship that rules the country—incapable of providing even the most basic necessities in the 21st century. ಠ⁠_⁠｣⁠ಠ)

I wanted to make this entry to let you all know that if we can’t finish the game, it won’t be because of time, creativity, or determination—but due to external circumstances.

See you tomorrow with another update!

ミ⁠●⁠﹏⁠☉⁠ミ

Hello again! How are you doing tonight!? (⁠｡⁠•̀⁠ᴗ⁠-⁠)⁠✧

I read your comments on the last (and first) entry, and I wanted to say thank you for the attention :'3. It really means a lot to me. Now, moving on to today's entry!

Even though there's not much time left, I think I can manage to at least provide a simple working prototype of the planned gameplay. I might stay up all night to try and finish the main mechanic (⁠⌐⁠■⁠-⁠■⁠)

Today, I finished the entire player light and Influence system. These two are proportional in gameplay—if one goes up, the other goes up, and if one goes down, the other follows. I wanted to add some sounds to this, like a heartbeat for when your energy is dropping and tense music for when the light is fading away, but I might not be able to include them. Maybe just the background music (⁠ ⁠/⁠^⁠ω⁠^⁠)⁠/⁠♪⁠♪

The light system has the option to be calculated in real time (giving a smoother and prettier look when fading or growing) or baked for potato PCs like mine :D. The baked version pre-renders all the frames of the light using an async loading screen and then saves them in a dictionary for easy use if enabled.

I was able to make this progress thanks to a power generator, since I’ve been without electricity since yesterday ಥ⁠‿⁠ಥ

There are still some things left to polish before moving on to packaging and testing, but I think I can make it!

See you in a few hours, hopefully, final entry! 

Well, Hello!

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! 

About the game

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

Objective

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.)

Issues

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^⁠)⁠/⁠♪⁠♪

Artwork that didn't make it

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.