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A week or so ago, I got nice and drunk while playing Battlefield 1 and floating the internet on my other computer monitor. I blew up some tanks, had a good time and went to bed. I checked my email the next day and found out that I apparently ordered some Night in the Woods t-shirts off Redbubble.com that I was completely unaware of. Yay surprise presents! Figured I'd share   and my favorite: 
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Apr 8, 2017 22:29
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I'd need to be drunk to buy NitW merch but I think if I was this is the kind of stuff I'd buy. Really like that first shirt.
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Apr 8, 2017 22:51
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Those look nice and all but maybe wait until the official merch is out and you can support the devs instead of some randos swiping their IP
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Apr 8, 2017 23:01
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There's already some official shirts and stuff out: http://nitw.bigcartel.com/ (I have the Donut Wolf shirt, it's pretty great.) Plus, there's supposed to be another wave of new merch coming.
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Apr 8, 2017 23:03
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Yeah, they've been saying for a while that there's a bunch of stuff coming so I'm holding out for that
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Apr 8, 2017 23:04
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kidcoelacanth posted:Those look nice and all but maybe wait until the official merch is out and you can support the devs instead of some randos swiping their IP This is completely true. That said, I have no waking memory of buying these and I do like the designs. Also, I convinced some friends to buy the game so I feel like I'm helping as best I can. I'm glad to hear there is some more official stuff coming. Crazy Ferret fucked around with this message at 02:48 on Apr 9, 2017 |
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Apr 8, 2017 23:19
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So I blew though this in a couple days and it was v good! Not too much I have to say about it that hasn't already been touched on, including goggling at the terrific / awful timing of its release, but I do want to bring up the janitor. Earlier in the thread people were dismissing him as just a janitor but he definitely knows way more than he should, plus he keeps turning up in situations he doesn't have much business being in. Someone pointed out that the weird teens mention three conceptions of God: caring but absent, present but uncaring, and ravenous and roaming. Present but uncaring sums up Catgod nicely, and what is Black Goat but ravenous, so which entity is the caring but absent god? Maybe the janitor, who is after all a bird like all the religious iconography is. I mean I think it's intentionally fairly ambiguous but it would explain why Catgod never met the God the little people kept describing to it: he's a sneaky, subtle bastard who mostly just cleans up messes and rigs vending machines, which you can interpret as a metaphor if you like.
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Apr 9, 2017 06:25
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Quorum posted:So I blew though this in a couple days and it was v good! Not too much I have to say about it that hasn't already been touched on, including goggling at the terrific / awful timing of its release, but I do want to bring up the janitor. The Janitor is probably not just a janitor, yeah, but it's still kept ambiguous like all the game's supernatural elements. A few more interesting things about him is that he introduces himself as "the forest god" in the Harfest play, jokingly says he's "as old as these trees" in the game's epilogue, and the cemetery appears to have a statue in his likeness. When he appears at Mae's bedside he also claims to be "fixing a door" elsewhere, which matches with the Sky Cat constantly talking about tears in the sky - the Black Goat is ripping up the fabric between our reality and that of the things beyond, and one of these tears is probably the reason Mae is affected by its influence. The Sky Cat says that it's closing up its own tear because it's tired of all these silly little non-nihilistic critters talking to it. The janitor is probably helping to fix the hole in Mae.
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Apr 9, 2017 06:43
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If you haven't heard it already, there was a very interesting podcast put out recently where the host interviewed Scott Benson (1/3 of the dev team, I think he was mostly responsible for the art.) https://www.no-cartridge.net/?name=2017-04-06_ep13.mp3 Scott talks a lot about the background and themes present in the game, but I found the discussion of faith (and loss thereof) to be a very interesting insight into the game that I hadn't really spent much time on in my own ruminations.
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Apr 9, 2017 08:37
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The janitor is there to provoke the reader into falling into the same trap of constructing meaning from nothing as Mae and the townsfolk, when we should simply take his word for it. The game falls down pretty heavily on the side of existentialism. He's just the janitor.
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Apr 9, 2017 12:36
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exquisite tea posted:The janitor is there to provoke the reader into falling into the same trap of constructing meaning from nothing as Mae and the townsfolk, when we should simply take his word for it. The game falls down pretty heavily on the side of existentialism. He's just the janitor. I would not describe that as a "trap." The game is fairly existentialist, yes, but also suggests that constructing meaning from nothing is what makes us human, and indeed, Mae losing her ability to do so and just seeing the "shapes" is what marks her breakdown in college.
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Apr 9, 2017 15:28
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Yeah, a contrast I noticed is the constellations versus Mae's breakdown. Seeing things in shapes and finding meaning in them, versus seeing things as shapes without meaning.
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Apr 9, 2017 17:28
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Roland Jones posted:Yeah, a contrast I noticed is the constellations versus Mae's breakdown. Seeing things in shapes and finding meaning in them, versus seeing things as shapes without meaning.  , unironically.
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Apr 9, 2017 21:17
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Quorum posted:I would not describe that as a "trap." The game is fairly existentialist, yes, but also suggests that constructing meaning from nothing is what makes us human, and indeed, Mae losing her ability to do so and just seeing the "shapes" is what marks her breakdown in college. Well I think the message of the game, if there is one, is that while life is ultimately meaningless, it's still important and necessary not to lose our humanity. That's why I think a character like the janitor resists any supernatural interpretation, because that would be ascribing some grander kind of design to a dude who just fixes doors. He's one of the few characters in the story who actualizes his sense of purpose, which I guess is so uncommon in Mae's world that it could be construed as some kind of superpower.
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Apr 9, 2017 22:45
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Picked up the game recently without knowing much about it other than it being apparently quite good, so I was non-committal to begin with, playing 10 minutes here and 20 there, but once I got to properly sit down with it, my God. Fantastic stuff. I really enjoy how the writers employ ambiguity here. Especially with its supernatural elements. I feel that a lot of inexperienced writers making stories with elements also present in NITW go off half-cocked with the cosmic horror stuff and over-explain everything or abruptly shoves the spooky stuff into your face. But in NITW, whoever wrote it was confident enough in their abilities to leave a lot open to interpretation without feeling like a cop-out. It's very appropriate for the game. E: embarrassing, I forgot how spoiler tags work...
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Apr 9, 2017 23:18
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exquisite tea posted:Well I think the message of the game, if there is one, is that while life is ultimately meaningless, it's still important and necessary not to lose our humanity. That's why I think a character like the janitor resists any supernatural interpretation, because that would be ascribing some grander kind of design to a dude who just fixes doors. He's one of the few characters in the story who actualizes his sense of purpose, which I guess is so uncommon in Mae's world that it could be construed as some kind of superpower. I think this is a valid reading but for a game that embraces its supernatural leanings in a subtle way, its hard not to attach those characteristics to this kind of character. He is there at the very beginning of the game by being the very first person we meet who asserts his control over our reality with fixing the door so we can leave the train station and over our character with having to get a soda for him to continue the game. He calls himself a forest god during a play which you can choose to discard as a bit of fantasy but it fits as god who is caring but distant to borrow the game's language. Also, he is present when Mae gets "shot". It is as if he facilitates the transition from the church, a place of worship, to the hospital, a place of science so to speak, where he fixes doors. This also echoes the language of the cat god we meet just before this scene and how the god speaks of shutting a tear in the veil, which can be seen as "fixing a door". The bit at the end of the game where he knows Mae's name despite not having been told it as a bit too much of a hint of the supernatural to take for granted. In the end, I like the idea of the Janitor being something of the supernatural because its mirrors Mae's journal entry nicely. She says she could be a janitor and like the job and in a sense, as she has being "dealing" with the cultists accordingly. She is not so much killing them as cleaning them up though this is still couched in semantics. She may not have solved the problem that is Possum Springs, but she has made it a bit more honest by removing the Dad Murder Cult. By having her identify with this character, its shows a nice connection between Mae and the problems she has been having. I can't help but feel its a nice touch at the end of the story and wraps things up nicely. Crazy Ferret fucked around with this message at 01:22 on Apr 10, 2017 |
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Apr 10, 2017 01:03
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Here's an alternate explanation for the Janitor: his lines in the play are coincidence, him showing up at the hospital was him actually being worried about her and his statement of "she'll be fine, for today" is probably from overhearing the doctors talking, and he knows Mae's name because like half the town knows who Mae is. That said, the biggest support for him being some sort of supernatural thing is him loving vanishing into thin air at the start of the game.
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Apr 10, 2017 04:45
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Personally I see the Janitor as some sort of spirit who watches over the town, although wishing the best for it and it's inhabitants (caring) can't really do much physically (absent). As for like symbols and methaphors, I'm not entirely sure.
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Apr 10, 2017 07:05
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exquisite tea posted:Well I think the message of the game, if there is one, is that while life is ultimately meaningless, it's still important and necessary not to lose our humanity. That's why I think a character like the janitor resists any supernatural interpretation, because that would be ascribing some grander kind of design to a dude who just fixes doors. He's one of the few characters in the story who actualizes his sense of purpose, which I guess is so uncommon in Mae's world that it could be construed as some kind of superpower. man all it takes for you to have good opinions is to play a game. weird also i agree. i prefer the interpretation where the janitor is just a guy Verviticus fucked around with this message at 10:45 on Apr 10, 2017 |
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Apr 10, 2017 10:39
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Mikedawson posted:Personally I see the Janitor as some sort of spirit who watches over the town, although wishing the best for it and it's inhabitants (caring) can't really do much physically (absent). As for like symbols and methaphors, I'm not entirely sure. I mean, that's what the game is setting you up to think. But in the end he's just a Janitor. He fixes doors. Most people in the town go to Harfest, it's not weird that he is there. He is obviously set up to appear to be some sort of MIKE esque twin peaksy spirit guide to play with the players expectations and misdirect them.
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Apr 10, 2017 16:24
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People keep comparing this game to Oxenfree, so obviously the Janitor is actually a different player who played Night in the Woods and is giving cryptic answers to gently caress with you.
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Apr 10, 2017 18:19
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Tell me about how the top in inception did/didn't stop and the other answer is objectively wrong.
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Apr 10, 2017 18:30
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https://youtu.be/CSnod0zKEDA #prayforAngus
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Apr 12, 2017 02:10
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D-cwDJWLEMw high level NitW play
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Apr 13, 2017 20:41
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Such a good game. The ending really had me thinking about what happens next for the town and our characters. I mean superficially everything is fine and they're talking about moving on with their lives, but practically there's still huge unresolved tension in the immediate future. For one thing the cultists are almost certainly still alive, at least for the next day or so, trapped down in the mine. Isn't the knowledge that they're slowly dying going to bother any of our main characters? What about when the town starts panicking over the sudden mass disappearance? When people begin searching for their missing relatives? The end leaves a huge burden of knowledge on Mae, Bea, Gregg and Angus. They have literally zero proof the cultists did what they said they did. Talking to the authorities would just result in the mine being opened, a bunch of bodies found, and potentially give the Black Goat another chance to affect people. I had Mae say they should tell Casey's parents what happened to him, but thinking about it I can't think of any possible way they can without potentially implicating themselves in the death of all the cultists. I still love the ending, it just makes me tense to imagine the future for the characters knowing what they know and not being able to tell anyone while the town panics about it's missing people.
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Apr 15, 2017 01:31
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No one knew about the cult, so why would they check the mines? Not that I have a better idea where they would look for everyone but unless they heard Germ's explosion and somehow pieced all that together they would have literally no place to start. Also I imagine they were relieved enough from not having to live in fear of a cult no one would believe them about and who know all their names to be too stricken by the tragedy of their deserved cave murder.
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Apr 15, 2017 02:21
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https://twitter.com/trshcpbl/status/853062444469694465
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Apr 15, 2017 05:44
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Paul Zuvella posted:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D-cwDJWLEMw Exact same thing happened to me. I think the only way to make that jump is not try.
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Apr 15, 2017 06:25
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jabby posted:Such a good game. i assumed that the guys in the mine threw themselves down the pit, or at least eide, and thats what the new taco shop signifies. in fact, in that podcast linked earlier in the thread with scott benson he implies that as well
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Apr 15, 2017 06:43
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Wowporn posted:No one knew about the cult, so why would they check the mines? Not that I have a better idea where they would look for everyone but unless they heard Germ's explosion and somehow pieced all that together they would have literally no place to start. Also I imagine they were relieved enough from not having to live in fear of a cult no one would believe them about and who know all their names to be too stricken by the tragedy of their deserved cave murder. Ending spoilers. I don't think anyone would check the mines unless the main characters told them to. I'm more thinking about how they will cope with living through the aftermath of the mass disappearance while being the only ones who know the truth. Also knowing what happened to Casey and (despite what Mae can say) not being able to tell his parents. Verviticus posted:i assumed that the guys in the mine threw themselves down the pit, or at least eide, and thats what the new taco shop signifies. in fact, in that podcast linked earlier in the thread with scott benson he implies that as well Eide was killed in the elevator fall I believe, I don't know if the black goat responds to dead sacrifices. Also I think that's a depressing interpretation of the Taco shop. I never felt like the cultists were actually being rewarded for their sacrifices in the way they thought they were, and I'd like to believe mildly good things will continue to happen to Possum Springs without their influence.
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Apr 15, 2017 12:18
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jabby posted:Ending spoilers. they are probably getting something. eide still had to jump a fence carrying a person (unless i missed a small reference to like a secret tunnel or door or something) and they reference their increased longevity. if the black goat wasnt obviously real, you could say that they're delusional, but im pretty sure they're getting some results
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Apr 16, 2017 13:55
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Verviticus posted:they are probably getting something. eide still had to jump a fence carrying a person (unless i missed a small reference to like a secret tunnel or door or something) and they reference their increased longevity. if the black goat wasnt obviously real, you could say that they're delusional, but im pretty sure they're getting some results And yet Possum Springs has continued to deteriorate despite their sacrifices. My interpretation is that the black goat rewards the cultists personally (or perhaps twists them is a better word) by giving them powers and long lives, but the benefit to the town is either entirely down to coincidence or the Goat is just drawing out it's eventual demise. I feel like any interpretation that says Possum Springs would get better if only they made enough sacrifices kind of misses the point. Also to echo what someone else said earlier it was certainly nice to play a main character that actually needs saving herself. I personally think if it wasn't for Mae's friends she would have ended up joining the cultists, and it was certainly an interesting moment when you realise your character is actually having a negative influence on the lives of some of her friends.
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Apr 16, 2017 15:21
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jabby posted:Also to echo what someone else said earlier it was certainly nice to play a main character that actually needs saving herself. I personally think if it wasn't for Mae's friends she would have ended up joining the cultists, and it was certainly an interesting moment when you realise your character is actually having a negative influence on the lives of some of her friends. I liked that part of the game too. Mae isn't some player avatar, she's her own flawed character and you just get to choose which mistakes she'll make. Though, I could see that rubbing some people the wrong way and using her as a lazy example of "This is what's wrong with millennials!" Another part that I found interesting in hindsight was how patient Mae's parents were with her. At first it took me out of the game because it seemed unrealistic. There isn't a parent on earth who would pay their child's way through college and then just shrug when they drop out with no explanation. But when her Mom's patience did finally run out it lead to one of the most affecting scenes in the game. Later on when the game tells you exactly what happened to Mae her senior year I sort of understood why her parents might be extra gentle and patient with her. I'm not sure if that was intentional or not but if felt like a pretty neat, "Ah-ha!" moment to me.
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Apr 16, 2017 18:24
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McCracAttack posted:Another part that I found interesting in hindsight was how patient Mae's parents were with her. At first it took me out of the game because it seemed unrealistic. There isn't a parent on earth who would pay their child's way through college and then just shrug when they drop out with no explanation. i dont think thats really unrealistic. a few days worth of patience is not saintly jabby posted:And yet Possum Springs has continued to deteriorate despite their sacrifices. My interpretation is that the black goat rewards the cultists personally (or perhaps twists them is a better word) by giving them powers and long lives, but the benefit to the town is either entirely down to coincidence or the Goat is just drawing out it's eventual demise. I feel like any interpretation that says Possum Springs would get better if only they made enough sacrifices kind of misses the point. the town isn't getting better, its just not dying as rapidly. id agree with you if the food donkey suddenly came back, but a taco place isn't really reversing a trend. for all we know they threw all of themselves down the pit and that's all they got Verviticus fucked around with this message at 01:02 on Apr 17, 2017 |
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Apr 17, 2017 00:59
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McCracAttack posted:I liked that part of the game too. Mae isn't some player avatar, she's her own flawed character and you just get to choose which mistakes she'll make. Though, I could see that rubbing some people the wrong way and using her as a lazy example of "This is what's wrong with millennials!" https://gamebias.wordpress.com/2017/04/12/night-in-the-woods-ode-to-millennial-egotism/
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Apr 17, 2017 02:39
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That review is  quote:Developer Infinite Fall also excuses Mae’s deplorable acts by gamifying them. Stealing, destroying property, and stabbing are presented as fun, throwaway minigames. This design choice, coupled with the townspeople’s bizarre lack of criticism for Mae’s egomania, implies that sociopathy should be celebrated, not examined. Even if Night in the Woods had a cogent point, Mae would remain an unflattering caricature of a millennial. Benson and Hockenberry’s writing is unacceptable in light of Three Fourths Home: Extended Edition, which demonstrates how the hardships of a capitalist society give millennials and baby boomers more spiritual connectedness than many realize. e: the partisan swipes are especially funny as anyone casually examining Scott Benson's twitter feed will see very quickly that he has little love for the Democratic Party. FreeKillB fucked around with this message at 02:59 on Apr 17, 2017 |
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Apr 17, 2017 02:47
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FreeKillB posted:That review is Uh, lack of criticism of Mae? Like, every character that knows Mae well ends up calling her out on her poo poo. That's kinda most of the game. My vote is on the dude made this review based on pieces from other reviews or from reading a synopsis, and probably never actually touched the game itself.
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Apr 17, 2017 04:21
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The author does claim Bea uncritically "goes on to support Mae's thievery" without noting that this reading is a little undermined by the immediately subsequent part of the scene wherein Bea guilts Mae into returning the stolen goods. Also, saying that Mae "can’t even offer her good friend a reason as to why she quit school" as an example of millenial immaturity or whatever is missing the point so thoroughly that I'm half-tempted to cite Poe's law.
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Apr 17, 2017 04:41
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I notice a lot of reviews have difficulty with the concept of a game forcing a player character to commit unpleasant actions without implicitly condoning those actions. So, so many games are player avatar power fantasies that I guess it's just become expected. I interpreted it as how sometimes mental illness just makes you do lovely stuff in front of your eyes even if inwardly you know it's bad, which at least in my experience it really does.
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Apr 17, 2017 04:45
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Panic! at Nabisco posted:I notice a lot of reviews have difficulty with the concept of a game forcing a player character to commit unpleasant actions without implicitly condoning those actions. So, so many games are player avatar power fantasies that I guess it's just become expected. I interpreted it as how sometimes mental illness just makes you do lovely stuff in front of your eyes even if inwardly you know it's bad, which at least in my experience it really does. This was seriously one of my favorite parts of the game and a wonderful bit of characterization for Mae. She's a dumb fuckup, especially in social situations. I relate to that hard, but even if it's not a reflection of the player, it's a key part of understanding the character you're playing. Almost all games would let you navigate a text tree to find the best choice, but you're not doing what you would do in this game and I appreciate the hell out of that.
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Apr 17, 2017 04:55
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