Acatalepsia

ACATALEPSIA

A deep space archeology game where you dig up bizarre relics and uncover the story of what might have happened millions of years ago on an alien planet. However, the more you uncover, the less habitable the planet appears to be. (w/Eldritch/Lovecraft-inspired elements)

The Fermi Institute of New Earth has dictated a cursory exploratory mission of Proxima b, one of many newly accessible T.H.Z.s (Technically Habitable zones). After accepting your application they delivered you for a trial period of 3 Standard days to ensure proper acclimation. In that time you will be expected to do initial excursions within the bounds of basecamp at Crateris Alpha as well as preliminary construction of deep-rock drills. 

PSA: There are two main routes, Sleeper and Insomniac. However, these routes can be mixed and matched to achieve 6 unique endings! Enjoy!

(Also, this game includes cutscenes, don't panic if you can't move immediately!)

Main Mechanics:

– Setting Up Drills

– Checking Communications

– Analyzing Relics

- Decision Making

Controls: 

PC: 

**WASD or Arrow Keys to move cursor and player 

**WS or up and down to move up and down to pick choices

** 'Z' to continue through dialogue and interact with objects

Check the bottom right corner to toggle full screen!

(Make sure to click the game screen on start up, if you click outside of it you will need to click the screen again to enable gameplay!)

Mobile: 

'A' to continue through dialogue and interact with objects

Direction pad to move cursor and player/to pick choices

Check the bottom right corner to toggle full screen!

Additional Credits to Play Testers:

Nervousape

drodlaren

Haley (MilkyMcMarf)

Gettindizzy

Amber (spitsoaked)

NB: 

I have a few plans for a future update to fix any issues with the game and add a few stretch goal details! Please share your thoughts in the comment thread below, if you feel so inclined, I'd appreciate it!

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Dev Notes:

3/27/25

It's been a while since release and I wanted to  add some notes after sitting with the game for a bit. This game was a pretty massive undertaking and an interesting venture into the whole of game development. I'm genuinely proud of this dinky little game boy game because it stands as a monument for how much I've improved. 

Just now I've noticed while remaking the old title asset that my eye for facial expressions has really improved and now I can bang out a winning Nate smirk in record time and it looks better than the thousands of iterations that came before it. Big win there. 

I think the biggest challenge I had with this project was making sure it actually got done. It was a constant debate over whether I should actually finish it or not and as development sprints passed I was growing more fearful that this project was a waste of time. As you can see though the game exists today, primarily because I was too stubborn to quit on the idea. But also because I continually adapted my project management skills and improved the game iteratively rather than forcing it to be "perfect" from the get go.

I'm really still proud of the characters and their relationships within the game and I think my witty little bits of writing on the interactable objects really showed my love and care for this idea.  Nate and Nicole will forever live rent free in my brain as the voices inside my head.  Too bad they don't pay rent. I definitely want to continue their narrative and the world building in a later game. I planted a lot of seeds here but only offered a few concrete answers.  So I'm excited to make that happen in the future.

Lastly, this might end up being my last GB Studio game for the foreseeable future. Don't get me wrong I absolutely love the software I chose to make this game in. It was great for keeping my scope more limited and honing in the creative direction, but as I plan to pursue greater stories in their literary quality and in the ways that players can interface with them, I'm going to move so something a little less ancient than the game boy. 

Regardless, play on! Nate and Nicole will be back... In higher definition someday. You have my word. o7