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Man I tried to play this a long time ago and couldn't get into it. Now that I'm over the 30 hump and checking up on my boy Greg's recent ventures. I find this to be a really well put together piece of art, seeing backgrounds would've helped my lack of imagination, but I keep rethinking of this story as I'm trying to sleep.
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so browsing through old game list I decided to play this masterpiece again (it has been 10 years I think when I played it before I had a kong account, in another game site). And still it is fun to read through all the plot lines. I miss these kind of story-depth games which aren't common in the last years. There is something I didn't get though, there is a pair of endings (28 and 29) in which past Todd and Angela get into future Todd's body and he is in a beach. That was roughly 2 years after the agression. He even keeps Clint's wedding ring as a trophy. So he wasn't sent to jail or his sentence was small. Then it isn't clear how he reached cancun, as that is expensive and we learn he was a car driver and apparently not much wealthy as somewhere he mentions getting the ear device was expensive.
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Okay I think the author of this game doesn't come here anymore since it's an old game but DAMN THAT WAS GREAT ! And the way I played made me able to see ending 16 and 18 lastly, and trust me that was MINDBLOWING. I don't read that much and really enjoyed the story, thank you ^^ ! And now i'm off to see the truman show on streaming ahah !
Thank you for the comment, and I'm glad you enjoyed it! I do still check the comments here from time to time. I know this game came out a long time ago, and it's just a little digital world, but I still just can't help revisiting the past, pondering what new choices I might be able to make in responding to new comments...
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I missed ending number 33 not 14 and yeah at endings there I have this ????? Anyways I would never choose some of choices here, I just did it to get my endings :(
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I got 34 out of 35 endings, dunno how to get last one, I screened them and now looked numbers, so I missed ending number 14. Anyways is very original game and addictive, but same time super sad, just as life is, most endings end badly one way or another. If someone is into things like this, then I can recommend Always Sometimes Monsters, but watch out on your depression, as games like this can cause it at least temporary, now continuation of this was finally released too, called Sometimes Always Monsters.
I didn't intend for it to be that overt -- it's never explicitly explained just what exactly he's doing, but it's otherwise implied that he's up to no good! :-P But yeah, it is intended to be the same character. It's a sort of reverse-redemption story backward through time, or something?
Sure, you can find the 3 songs here:
http://www.newgrounds.com/audio/listen/410095
https://soundcloud.com/edbrew/what-lies-beneath
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K5TAwZg9GCE
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Holy! At first, I was kinda upset that #29 was my final ending that I unlocked and not something happy or even bittersweet like any of the #30s, but then I discovered that #29 is the canon ending. Lucky me!
Thanks! And yeah, the UI could have been (a lot) better, especially the scroll bars, which some people seem to miss entirely -- which sucks because the story probably makes a lot less sense if you just click the options and never scroll down through the text... :-P
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This is a game I thought I didn't remember. Then I clicked the link, and saw the front cover, and physically shrank back. This game gave me nightmares
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Am I the only one who noticed that Future Todd has two ties, like the Future version of Marty Mcfly from Back To The Future 2?
Yes!! You might be the first person to actively point this out, haha. It was very much intended, since Future Todd's character was inspired by Biff. More details in this Facebook post: http://tinyurl.com/yarn8cxv
Thanks! I am STILL working on a non-interactive graphic novel sequel thingy, but it's taking a few years because the first two drafts were terrible. So now I'm taking a shot at Draft #3 and hoping that it is not also terrible. I would like to eventually finish this, but "unfinished" is probably a better status than "terrible." :-P
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This game. Absolutely beautiful bit of work. Gonna have to rate it up there with the crazy philosophical bullshit I read on a day to day basis.
Good job, with any luck you'll be the next Pratchett.
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If anyone is interested, you can now read a summary for the planned sequel in a Google Doc I link to in this forum thread here: http://www.kongregate.com/forums/5-the-arts/topics/687326-summary-of-reality-tunnels-a-graphic-novel-i-havent-actually-written-yet
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I last played this game when it first came out, nearly 6 years ago. But even when I read it now, I visualize it in the selfsame way as I did then. I understand it more the second time through, though. Angela becoming Future Todd and getting another life, so to speak, was pretty profound. I certainly wouldn't object if that were possible IRL. Also, the first thing I'd do if I had a time-travelling device is come back to October 2010 to play this game. Thanks, greg, for making this great game for us to enjoy.
Thanks -- I'm glad you appreciated this angle! The paths where simulation-Angela "becomes a real person" (to borrow from Pinocchio a bit) are my favorite -- "simulation-Angela's consciousness in Future Todd's body" will be one of the central characters in the non-interactive sequel to this story.
The "original" biological Angela in the physical world will also be another central character. Man, so much Angela... I guess that's what happens when copies of your consciousness start proliferating in other people's bodies/simulated realities.
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(more spoilers) Oh, I thought he did in one of the paths he told Past Todd to leave him with Angela, the park scene after the concert. I completed all the endings 6 years ago so I didn't remember that he didn't actually commit the crime.
(more spoilers) He never actually does it anyway. In the future "real world," he walks up to the line, freaks out, and uses the earpiece to go back to "the past" because he feels safer there, with everything more within his control. He's mostly evil, but not 100%. There's a fragment that isn't beyond redemption, both within his past self and within how he reacts to his own behavior, which he doesn't even fully understand (he has a bit of a mental breakdown over who he is in a couple of the paths).
Fun fact: Future Todd's character was inspired by Biff from Back to the Future. There's that scene in Back to the Future where Biff is in the car with Marty's mom, and the movie just kind of glosses over the implications there, but it seemed like a character element that perhaps deserved a bit more attention, given the gravity of what Biff was trying to do there. Another fun fact is that Biff's character was inspired by Donald Trump ( http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/10/21/how-back-to-the-future-predicted-trump.html ). So, with only two degrees of separation, there's a pretty direct line between Donald Trump and Future Todd. Something to keep in mind this November, I guess!
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Time paradoxes confuse me. But you wrote these different outcomes and scenarios perfectly. But 35 different endings, I stopped at 20/35 endings. And, how did you come up with this choose your story setup? It's great.
Thanks! This story was mostly written by asking, "What if?" "What if your future self came back to help you achieve something? What if this something was a relationship with someone, and what if your future self got jealous? What if you fought back, or what if you went along? What if your future self is far darker than your present self, even if the seeds are there? What would this dark future self be doing in his own environment?" This format was easier for me to write than a single linear story because I didn't have to edit out as much, and whenever I came up with a new idea, I could work it in somewhere very easily. It basically went from daydreaming about time travel, to thinking about "achieving" something, to thinking that a (shallow) relationship might make a good story, then you toss in some jealousy, darkness, violence -- you know, the usual -- and it all just kind of formed on its own, haha.
Check the game description for links to all 3 songs used in the game. Or, here:
http://www.newgrounds.com/audio/listen/410095
https://soundcloud.com/edbrew/what-lies-beneath
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K5TAwZg9GCE
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"Uh, well, the government did actually use that Facebook information to draft people for the second Korean war in 2013..." Todd replied.
That was intended as a dumb little throwaway joke (there are a few others too, probably because the overall story is so dark that my brain was desperate for any tiny trace amounts of comic relief), but then North Korea really did get abnormally aggressive with their rhetoric in 2013. Remember that I wrote this in 2010, also!
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Since today is the official "Back to the Future" day, I just wanted to mention that, yes, this is indeed the inspiration for Future Todd wearing two ties. If only our fashion had progressed as much as we dreamed it would...
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Wow this game isn't what i expected. But i wish the dialogue wasn't so long...by that, i mean there was more separate slides with paragraphs, like an rpg game. Though maybe it's just because I'm not used to this type of gaming. Otherwise, seems like a good game to me.
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Yo Greg, your game was good, but this girl made a story that trumps yours.
http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/639241
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wait is the time traveler even todd from the future, it seem to just be some randomer who falls in love with angela and uses todd to get with her
Wait, there's an award? I'm not planning to make an update to this story specifically, but I am working on a non-interactive novel that'll be a sequel to both this story and God's Assassin simultaneously. Clint, Angela, Todd* and Faith will be the 4 central characters. (*spoiler: actually Angela in Future Todd's body)
My intent with the story was that this never actually happens, but it's a strongly implied danger. Remember that scene in Back to the Future where Biff gets alone with Marty's mom in the car, and Marty's dad has to punch Biff in the face to rescue her? That general level of explicitness was my target here.
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so question to the dev I'm starting my LPing channel and I know when you posted the music on the collabs it was creative commons is the music still creative commons if I were to do an LP on this game?