Psychosomnium

By: Derek Yu

On: January 10th, 2008

Our dear cactus has a new game out, called Psychosomnium. This “minor platform experiment” is about dreams, and requires more brain than brawn to get through its short, but intriguing, story. Fans of cactus (and experimental games in general) will probably enjoy it. I did!

Posted in Freeware, Platformers, Unique / Bizarre, Windows | Tags: cactus

Zaknafein

That was really fun!!
Really felt dream-like, I didn’t know what to expect everytime I faced a wall. And the in-game music is sweet.
Lim-Dul

Whoa – that’s some old news. :-D
In the meantime I managed to start a whole discussion about jumping physics in the comments section of the IndieGames Weblog and the TIGSource Forums. :-D
Spreaded Elvis

The pixel characters are nice, but I found the whole game rather tedious and pretentious.

“Art” games these days…
PoV

Haha, that was great.
Demicol

The game was easier than I expected. It did have some cool puzzles, and the ending was unexpected. If only the game had been longer. I already played trough it 10 times.
Al King

Pretentious? In what way? It was playful, if anything.
Alan Gordon

Hmm. I can’t clear the screen after the bunnies.
Al King

Alan, you need the beefy dude, he can jump high enough.
BaffleCakes

It seems like there must be an alternate ending …
Grawl

I did a video walkthrough, in case anyone needs it – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HBCyMQ0StZs

Plus some extra stuff I didn’t include in that video, since people here didn’t seem to figure out how to get past the bunnies properly – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZUbGUjrkoQM
ZeHa

I think it’s a nice idea but it has some annoying flaws:

– Yhe fonV is uglT!

– you have to re-read those dialogues all the time

– Z is the only key to get it at least a bit quicker, but why only Z? Why not space, enter, control as well? Also, don’t assume that Z is on the lower left on each keyboard. On mine, it’s in the upper middle.

Besides that, it’s a cool little game, but I think if those three things could be polished a little, it would be even cooler ;)
GirlFLash

HA, that was awesome!

I get the feeling that it was all made up as it went along, but just like a dream I guess :)
Lim-Dul

Yet again my comment hasn’t been published because – *gasp* – I added a hyperlink in it… It drives me nuts…

What I wanted to say is that this is some old news – in the meantime I managed to start a whole discussion about jumping in games in general in the comments section of the IndieGames Weblog and the TIGSource forums. :-)

http://forums.tigsource.com/index.php?topic=952.0
Benzido

I loved this game. I think some people around here need a lesson on the difference between ‘interesting’ and ‘pretentious’. And how can a game be tedious when you can finish it in 10 minutes?
Space Ranger

I agree with ZeHa

It was kinda annoying…

The graphics (and lack of graphics) were annoying, the controls were annoying, the having to wait for the dialogues was annoying, and finally I didn’t like the “dreamy” background music.

^_^

Other than that it was great
http://ithamore.blogspot.com/ ithamore

The game has potential as a story telling platformer, but the gravity vs inertia settings for the bee are far too cumbersome and unbalanced.

Also, I’d like to thank Grawl for his YouTube videos of the game. However, I’ve been wondering what happens if one chooses to take the upper path instead of the lower, suicide path shown in the first video.
Lez

you die, you cant touch the sky as a bee or you die and there are blocks blocking your path forward so the only way past is up, and thats death.
ZeHa

@ Space Ranger: I actually liked the graphics, only the font was difficult to read ;)
Jad

This game annoyed me when it killed me for touching the sky as a bee and I had just gone through the spiky part with the horrible gravity/inertia ):

Also, why use up for jumping? That’s like a relic from … bubble bobble for the atari? It just doesn’t feel right at all. ESPECIALLY not during the bee scene ):

Anyhow, it was short and enjoyable, but it wasn’t very much. If we compare it to the literary world, this is a poem (:
JW

You tiggers make a way too big deal of ways of jumping.

This is one of cactus’ bests imo, right after II2. ;)
MedO

I didn’t find flying through the spikes as bee hard at all… then again, I’ve played through Flywrench recently ;)
Mazapán

Am I the only one who thinks this bears resemblance to Knytt? It’s not just the cute walking sound but the sad music in combination with the depressing dialogues that almost mocks Knytt and its melancholy… But then, cactus said he _had_ seen the Aeon Flux short ‘War’ before making it.
Mazapán

Btw, I DO think it’s a great game. Like it a lot.
CMspice

story was cute but poorly written (cactus is better at writing absurdism of the darker genre i.e. mondo series. It just doesn’t transfer right to the cutesy pixel stuff. (Or maybe it’s just because I’m spoiled by Bernie of Origami Hero)

The game was a really annoying platformer but I don’t think it was really trying to be anything more.
Zeno

Well, that entertained me for a few minutes. Nothing special, though.
ssfsx17

I AM THE WIZARD!
Jad

Also

MAAN I WANTED EPIC EPILEPTIC LAST BOSS SCENE WITH THE WIZARD.

Boohoo.
Medieval

No one tried to bash the bunnies?
Jimbob

Yeh, you can also make it past the bunnies with the normal guy as well, but you can’t get any further on the next screen. Just tap jump and you can run underneath them…
http://myspace.com/akktivecarbon !CE-9

that was my favorite cactus to date. like an interactive and psychadelic joke in the noblest sense. (clearly inspired by – as stated in the interview – Syoban / I Wanna Be The Guy / The Big Adventure of Otawa’s Life)

the atmosphere is superb.