A downloadable experience for Windows

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An experience by Death Orgone/Frederick Maheux

Music by Un Regard Froid based on album "Conspiration" (Conspiracy)
Listen/Download on Bandcamp:
https://unregardfroid.bandcamp.com/album/conspiration-2

Content warning : blood, gore, sacrifice, glitched pornographic imagery, loud noise and strobes

15-20 minutes

Keyboard and mouse required
Control:
WASD - Movement Space - Jump
LMB - Interact/Shoot
ESC - Quit

Except for epitaphs, all texts are prompt for interaction.

Explore the eroding mental landscape of someone trying to find a way out of this reality. Featuring:
 - A double-barreled shotgun
 - Human sacrifices
 - Anticosmic gravitational pull
 - Tentacles

This interactive experience is a companion piece to the album "Conspiration" (Conspiracy) by Un Regard Froid. The music and lyrics were inspired by the literary work of Thomas Ligotti. Acephalic further explores the themes of nihilism, cosmic indifference and social construct of productivity through the prism of the anti-Vitruvian man, the acephalic man.

This is my first experience with game design after 15 years of work as a video artist and post-industrial musician. Video games have always been my main inspiration and passion. My master's thesis examined the subway in video games and I had the chance to publish several articles about the medium. The Covid-19 isolation finally enabled me to learn the process and create my own object.

I wished through this initiatory process to explore the potential relation between industrial/noise sounds and interactivity - abstraction, harshness, dynamism, distorsion, etc. Acephalic is the first step in that direction and hopefully you will enjoy it as much as I enjoyed creating it.

Everything by Death Orgone/Frederick Maheux except:
Real Human Brain by Stuart7
2_pipe_shotgun by Harlad
Scalpel by BiOzZ
Shotgun Blast sound

Download

Download NowName your own price

Click download now to get access to the following files:

AcephalicFinal_1.1.zip 254 MB

Development log

Comments

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love love love the atmosphere really, this game has engraved itself to my mind - i can’t stop thinking about it! great game <3

Thank you!

Perfect game

(+2)

This felt like a bad trip. 90% of the time I spent playing this game I had chills. Haven't had such sensory response to a game or movie in a while. Immersive experience, visceral, harsh, turbulent, disturbing, mind-bending. Both visually and aurally. Incredible psychedelic horror.

Thank you!

(+1)

really interesting, took me off guard with the distorted porn room LOL but i liked it!

well this is certainly harbaboojadanglaglol.

(+1)

what can I say it's a masterpiece.

Thank you!

my cat is singing la la laaaaaaaaaa

shut the up

(1 edit) (+1)

Astounding experience. As someone who created an intense, agressive and loud game myself, I enjoyed this a lot, you have no idea. This is what I crave for. This is what I want, what I need. The kind of experience that inspires me and gets that passion burning. Thank you.

(+1)

I really loved this! The way the visuals went together with the soundtrack was super cool and I've never really seen anything like it before. Can't wait to play more of your work :)

(+1)

Thank you! Glad you enjoyed!

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This game was something else, wow, what a trip, very cool and original. It gave me intense feelings.

(+1)

Thank you! Your support means a lot!

(+3)

this game was what i expected, and yet not. intense, heavy and pulsing. a kaleidoscope of screaming hatred and wriggling flesh. it moved me to tears, because i know the feeling it conveys well. and because what it showed me, reflected back, was grotesque.

i doubt it was intended, but this game inspires me to want to live.

(+3)

All the time and body fluids this game took are worth if it affected you this way. Thanks a million!

(1 edit)

Yeeeeah. Cool game, I don't agree with people that complained about the loud noises :) But there could be something that shows you where to go especially in the (i think) Third Level with those big monuments. I couldn't figure out what to do next. And maybe a little introduction story, just to get people interested?

edit: I was near the cemetery tombstone but I didn't fell over, just watched someone playing it to know what to do

edit2: managed to finish the game, it's fucked up, I like it, Merzbow is proud 


 

Thank you! For reference, there’s more context in the album from which the game was inspired.

I hate to be a real stick in the mud but uh. I didn't like this game at all... Like, I love weird and obscure/disturbing games, but coming in right away with flashing lights, loud screams, and bass boosted noise just turned me off really quickly to it. not to mention the random room with the distorted porn felt out of place... There was perhaps a good message behind this, but I couldn't understand it because I was too busy loweing my volume and rolling my eyes at the "sacrifices"
sorry.

It’s understandable and I was expecting it. Not everybody enjoy harsh noise and power electronics and the objective was to adapt these forms of sonic assault as a game. Thank you for taking the time to write!

Your welcome mate ^-^

Great game! Very soothing!

Thank you! Born to please.

Show post...

great mad creepy and great album :*

Thank you!

crazy cool game that definitely had some deeper meaning that I don’t think I full understand. Start @ 9:26

Thank you for trying Acephalic! I'm a big fan of your channel!

finally did a video on it

Thank you!

(+1)

VERY NICE

(-5)

Worst fucking game I've ever played, don't do this shit again. Wasted 300 dollars in expectation of a great product before even playing it and I could tell 4 seconds in that it was the worst shit I've ever experienced in my life. I want a refund. Eat shit. Go die.

(+3)

How's your chemical imbalance treating you?

(-4)

Report status: Took Meds. Feeling Good

300 Refunded. Never Speak To ME Or My ME Ever Again

(+1)

This is an amazing experience. A surrealistic world. Where the goal is not to win but to feel, to get a tripy visual stimulation. With a careful picked color pallet, Moving around the scenes give you the ability to be part of the artistic presentation. The music of Un Regard Froid is also a great part of the ambiance. The drone  ambient music is hypnotic. The senses of whoever decide to enter the universe of Acephalic will be stimulated and will let you think. Loved Acephalic for the poetic reflection and the sensory experience it brings. Interactable art piece. I will enter again the world of Acephalic and hope that this work is the beginning for the artist to come up with more unique creations in the future. 

Thank you so much!

wow. that was great! thank you for making this!


-sincerely, a strange person

An absolute trip. Pretty remarkable for your first developed game tho

I had a crash in one of the level transitions, and the bass slamming my eardrums started to wear out it's welcome to the point that I turned the game audio basically off. I know that wasn't your intended direction but when there's EXTREME BASS NONSTOP NEVERENDING BAAAAAANG for more than 10-15 seconds it overtakes any experience you are creating and the player will try to get away from the sound, either by walking away from it or turning the sound off. Food for thought


Thank you for playing the game! The issue seemed to be with a video file and it's currently fixed in V1.1 - The next game will be a *little* less tinnitus-inducing ;)

YES

Very Weird game man but i like it! one question how many drugs were you on when you made this hahaha

Here is my video:

(1 edit) (+1)

Thanks for playing and making me laugh for a good 10 minutes! To answer your question: mostly caffeine and sleep deprivation ;)

Awesome experience. To me, it feels like an accurate interpretation of humanity.