Having reflected on this, I'm now of two minds on this game, in a large part because I think it can be very triggering to suicidal or near-suicidal players. Spoilers for entire game.
On the one hand, I still love this game for its strengths. The music choice is great, the art is beautiful, the mood and atmosphere are pulled off wonderfully, and I love the way Angela uses metaphors and a kind of surreal approach to tell her story -- flowers blooming in a subway car, a bed hovering miles over the earth, standing by a conveyor belt next to a line of people wearing packing boxes for heads, etc.
The problem is how it handles suicide. More to the point, how I fear it may trigger certain near-suicidal or suicidal people into hurting themselves.
Firstly, what feels like the "good ending" is to "Join" the person who has passed on. This is portrayed as a cute and ending, with soft piano music and two cute ghosts holding hands, united as they ascend into the sky. This is also the only ending that concludes the story, and isn't just the character living for one more day. Which is an accurate portrayal of what it feels like to have hit rock bottom, but isn't very enocuraging to people who are actually there.
I know 13 Reasons Why likely has caused suicides, judging by a sharp spike in suicides, suicide attempts, and Google searches for suicide methods following its airing, and this is a kind of reminder of how media portraying suicide can affect people.
Secondly, because of the triggering nature of the theme, a game portraying topics such as suicide should have a note with resources you can contact if you are affected by the game. You Left Me lacks this, even though it to its credit has a warning upfront here on the game page that it explicitly handles suicide.
Because of this, I'm not sure if I can recommend this game, especially to people who struggle with mental illness themselves.
You should learn to have more faith in humankind and the resolute of favoring an end to suffering. This, for those who are at this stage do not decide to end their life, they decided they themselves would not like the world anymore. It is something that can not be helped or halted once in motion. As for the game, I had my best ending when the MC chose to honor the memories , maybe give it another shot.
Not sure what you're trying to say with your first sentence, but no, suicidal thoughts isn't something that "can't be halted once in motion", that's a very dangerous suicide myth. Suicidal thoughts don't have to result in an actual suicide, and people with such thoughts can be talked out of them, or not work up the nerve to actually kill themselves, particularly if you make it harder for them (putting up fences on bridges, for example). Myths like that suicidal people will kill themselves regardless make it harder for people to reach out to people with such thoughts.
I hate to be put in the position of the one arguing against all the good things you said, but I must. Maybe we have different experiences with such a personal matter and it has brought us to 180 in direction. My few experiences with suicide have been hard and real. The one common demoninator from both was that nothing was going to prevent them from happening. When someone has reached the end of the line in what they feel is enough pain, physical or mental, the only thing a person does when they interfere is add to the already agonizing predictament that the person is in. I will gladly give heed to NOT all suicides are this way nor do all suicide attempts want to die. But it is no myth, that there are some people in this world that for their own reasons they do not wish to endure or can not endure any longer, this is what I meant by my first sentence to the readers and you. It is not always best to get involved with a person whose mind is made up to end their existance and can often, not rarely, but often lead to a more dangerous or deadly road then the good samiritan is preparred to handle. Sometimes you must trust in humankinds self preservation that is in us all and step aside and let what will be done be done. As crazy as it may sound to you or someone like you, that is a selfish thing to inject your opinion onto one who has gone through it all and came to this conclusion. Afterall it is why there is now clinics that assist those who have made up their mind to die. The ones I have personal connection to felt what they were doing was right and only peace and fullfillment awaited them upon completion. There was no words or person who could do anything but harm them more by interfering. Thank you for replying back and sharring your mental picture of where you get your actions from. I hope you accept my reply in the same manner of respect as it is sent with no ill intentions towards you at all. I would like to just add this one part, I did not indulge on what or whom I had experience with. With that being said, good and evil walk hand and hand down the road of life. Not always clearly defined which is which, until they come to a fork. Iti s at that fork that we must all make the decision on which way to go, and some can not make the right call for all the evil they may have brought onto others during their journey so far. If you encounter this person, hug them and let them go otherwise they may blame you for their actions afterwards, not be thankful for your stopping what they should have been able to do. That is no myth either, but true hate for the one who interfered. From me to you, keep on living and hopefully just by you living it will keep some alive without any action by you.
Arg, Start leads to black screen on Linux with Intel graphics / Mesa driver only. Will try again with Nvidia drivers installed and tell you how it goes. Otherwise, any way I can help you make it work on Linux / Mesa?
I had a look at the GitHub repo and I see 2 possible explanations:
- the version of TMPro used is not compatible with my platform (it's possible, since 2 years ago TMPro was not integrated in Unity, and could have totally supported only Windows and OSX)
- the LeanTween used at the beginning to show the Morning timer does not work on my platform
No worries though, I understand it's annoying to have to come back to an old jam game code, upgrade it to the last version of Unity because you've uninstalled the old one, make it compile again and then change something. So if it can't be done I'll just try again on Windows next.
Hi, I am a youtuber and hope to get some support from you guys by leaving a like and subscribe to my channel :). Please check out my gameplay of You left me.
I have only a few words to describe this game. It is outstanding and amazing. This game really explores the feelings one can get when you lose someone or when someone leaves you and the extent of how much you can miss them and how much you are willing to do to see them again where dying is even an option. The game also portrays members of society who can have hidden thoughts and agendas towards you and people who appear to care but just keep "secrets".
This is an awesome game and I hope that the creator will continue making games like this :). Thank you so much.
I've made exactly like some I saw in comment, I created my account to feedback you game. It's not the 1st game I try on itch, but it's the 1st wich made me feel so much things. I made all different finish, and I can tell you that right now, I'm not feeling good at all and in the same time I'm so happy having played it. (as when I played Gris) This game is wonderfull, the history is so well writed, and it touches me so deep inside. I hope you will do more games like this, it's really good to have games that can make me feel so much. Thank you so much for this production <3
I hope you don't mind me asking, I am planning to make a very short 2D point and click game with dialogues and visual depth using Unity for my diploma at my graphic design school, I know absolutely nothing about how Unity works yet but I'm going to try learning, I was wondering if you had sources on how to begin and learn!
It's been 7 days since you posted this, but does it have to be Unity? Of course it can be done with Unity but at the same time it's overkill. if you really want Unity, you can check out the free asset called Fungus.
There are open source solutions dedicated to such genres that make the whole process much easier. Like Ren'Py is really good if you want a visual novel experience.
Thank you very much for the reply! Also, apologies for the late answer, I looked at a bunch of tutorials and I tried learning about fungus and other free assets, i'm slowly but surely working things out! Thanks a bunch!
I made an account just to say how much i loved this game! I just quickly played through to get all 5 endings and it left me with a sad bittersweet feeling. It hit close to home, and it really hit me in the feels. I love this game so much!
What a fantastic game with a powerful message. It really captures the feeling of depression and getting over loss. Art and music were really top notch, and I even managed to get all of the endings! (Even though some of them made me feel horrible) Thanks for the experience!
Just uploaded a video on your game You Left Me with one of my friends and we really enjoyed it! Wasn't exactly what we were expecting but, that's a good thing because it surprised me and ended up being better than I thought. I definitely could relate to the game with the whole loneliness and loss thing since I've experienced that myself.
oH MY GOD I'm in so much shock right now. I've been using live portrait maker to design my characters for the longest time AND i loved wholesome cats?? I can't believe the same person is responsible for those and "i woke up next to you again". I didn't think there was any correleation and you have even more beautiful interesting looking games. I'm so excited!!!
okay so.... can someone tell me the different endings i can get and how i can get them because i don't want to watch a youtube video.... i don't want to get spoilers of what'll happen ;-;
Anywhere > Escape at last (This one is sometimes unavoidable)
Work > Roof > Fly
Clinic > Wait in line > My mask is cracking > Can I try something else instead? > Sounds great; thank you > Go home > Home > Take happy pills
Swain's lane, Highgates (You need to read the notes on the fridge and look out the window for this option to appear) > Give in
(The "True ending") Swain's lane, Highgates > Survive
There are other ways to get these endings, but these are the shortest.
Sometimes, certain options disappear or become corrupted. I don't know how that works, but you can always start over (you can find that in the settings). Corrupted options sometimes become accesible after you do something.
My favorites are the last 2. Be careful with the third one, you might not get it if you mess around with other options.
The artwork of this game is amazing! It's a short adventure but it hits close to home for me. Best thing is no matter what, don't give in, don't give up.
Thankyou for making this game! It is a beautiful narrative that explores deep and complex emotions with a gripping story... here is my video on it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AxTPraE47y4
Yo I played this game last year my subs enjoy. The game looks incredible and that music is cool and chill. I enjoy playing it. There was a strong message in the game.
Was not expecting this when I started... I streamed this yesterday evening, what got me to look at the game was the beautiful art but wasn't expecting some of the feels that the game gave me. I try to avoid spoiling games that I've never heard of before playing them on stream. Got a few endings within 37 minutes. I'd definitely suggest anyone to play this especially if you lost someone close as you might relate more (tried to be funny and not dwell too much on some of the more melancholic moments).
Beautiful art and wistful story. We only played about 10mins but need to soak in the experience. The music is so good too. Reminds me of lo-fi hip-hop channel on youtube.
My partner didn't even know there was a font called Audrey. :)
Absolutely stunning art and music, and beautiful story telling. You Left Me perfectly captures the surreal dream like quality when reality becomes hard to process. The only thing that could be improved would be if the clock and clickable text matched the rest of the game. It was quite pixelly for me, and I found it really distracting on what is an otherwise pretty polished experience.
This game is absolutely gorgeous. As someone who's struggled with depression for a while,it's haunting in many ways. Very pretty soundtrack. Lovely art style. I would definitely recommend it.
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Having reflected on this, I'm now of two minds on this game, in a large part because I think it can be very triggering to suicidal or near-suicidal players. Spoilers for entire game.
On the one hand, I still love this game for its strengths. The music choice is great, the art is beautiful, the mood and atmosphere are pulled off wonderfully, and I love the way Angela uses metaphors and a kind of surreal approach to tell her story -- flowers blooming in a subway car, a bed hovering miles over the earth, standing by a conveyor belt next to a line of people wearing packing boxes for heads, etc.
The problem is how it handles suicide. More to the point, how I fear it may trigger certain near-suicidal or suicidal people into hurting themselves.
Firstly, what feels like the "good ending" is to "Join" the person who has passed on. This is portrayed as a cute and ending, with soft piano music and two cute ghosts holding hands, united as they ascend into the sky. This is also the only ending that concludes the story, and isn't just the character living for one more day. Which is an accurate portrayal of what it feels like to have hit rock bottom, but isn't very enocuraging to people who are actually there.
I know 13 Reasons Why likely has caused suicides, judging by a sharp spike in suicides, suicide attempts, and Google searches for suicide methods following its airing, and this is a kind of reminder of how media portraying suicide can affect people.
Secondly, because of the triggering nature of the theme, a game portraying topics such as suicide should have a note with resources you can contact if you are affected by the game. You Left Me lacks this, even though it to its credit has a warning upfront here on the game page that it explicitly handles suicide.
Because of this, I'm not sure if I can recommend this game, especially to people who struggle with mental illness themselves.
You should learn to have more faith in humankind and the resolute of favoring an end to suffering. This, for those who are at this stage do not decide to end their life, they decided they themselves would not like the world anymore. It is something that can not be helped or halted once in motion. As for the game, I had my best ending when the MC chose to honor the memories , maybe give it another shot.
Not sure what you're trying to say with your first sentence, but no, suicidal thoughts isn't something that "can't be halted once in motion", that's a very dangerous suicide myth. Suicidal thoughts don't have to result in an actual suicide, and people with such thoughts can be talked out of them, or not work up the nerve to actually kill themselves, particularly if you make it harder for them (putting up fences on bridges, for example). Myths like that suicidal people will kill themselves regardless make it harder for people to reach out to people with such thoughts.
I hate to be put in the position of the one arguing against all the good things you said, but I must. Maybe we have different experiences with such a personal matter and it has brought us to 180 in direction. My few experiences with suicide have been hard and real. The one common demoninator from both was that nothing was going to prevent them from happening. When someone has reached the end of the line in what they feel is enough pain, physical or mental, the only thing a person does when they interfere is add to the already agonizing predictament that the person is in. I will gladly give heed to NOT all suicides are this way nor do all suicide attempts want to die. But it is no myth, that there are some people in this world that for their own reasons they do not wish to endure or can not endure any longer, this is what I meant by my first sentence to the readers and you. It is not always best to get involved with a person whose mind is made up to end their existance and can often, not rarely, but often lead to a more dangerous or deadly road then the good samiritan is preparred to handle. Sometimes you must trust in humankinds self preservation that is in us all and step aside and let what will be done be done. As crazy as it may sound to you or someone like you, that is a selfish thing to inject your opinion onto one who has gone through it all and came to this conclusion. Afterall it is why there is now clinics that assist those who have made up their mind to die. The ones I have personal connection to felt what they were doing was right and only peace and fullfillment awaited them upon completion. There was no words or person who could do anything but harm them more by interfering. Thank you for replying back and sharring your mental picture of where you get your actions from. I hope you accept my reply in the same manner of respect as it is sent with no ill intentions towards you at all. I would like to just add this one part, I did not indulge on what or whom I had experience with. With that being said, good and evil walk hand and hand down the road of life. Not always clearly defined which is which, until they come to a fork. Iti s at that fork that we must all make the decision on which way to go, and some can not make the right call for all the evil they may have brought onto others during their journey so far. If you encounter this person, hug them and let them go otherwise they may blame you for their actions afterwards, not be thankful for your stopping what they should have been able to do. That is no myth either, but true hate for the one who interfered. From me to you, keep on living and hopefully just by you living it will keep some alive without any action by you.
I love it with all of my soul...
This game is amazing. I love it dearly! its an amazing game and really hits the heart.
Arg, Start leads to black screen on Linux with Intel graphics / Mesa driver only. Will try again with Nvidia drivers installed and tell you how it goes. Otherwise, any way I can help you make it work on Linux / Mesa?
I had a look at the GitHub repo and I see 2 possible explanations:
- the version of TMPro used is not compatible with my platform (it's possible, since 2 years ago TMPro was not integrated in Unity, and could have totally supported only Windows and OSX)
- the LeanTween used at the beginning to show the Morning timer does not work on my platform
No worries though, I understand it's annoying to have to come back to an old jam game code, upgrade it to the last version of Unity because you've uninstalled the old one, make it compile again and then change something. So if it can't be done I'll just try again on Windows next.
Hi, I am a youtuber and hope to get some support from you guys by leaving a like and subscribe to my channel :). Please check out my gameplay of You left me.
I have only a few words to describe this game. It is outstanding and amazing. This game really explores the feelings one can get when you lose someone or when someone leaves you and the extent of how much you can miss them and how much you are willing to do to see them again where dying is even an option. The game also portrays members of society who can have hidden thoughts and agendas towards you and people who appear to care but just keep "secrets".
This is an awesome game and I hope that the creator will continue making games like this :). Thank you so much.
This game really hit me and is such a good way of showing how loosing somone can effect a person.
I've made exactly like some I saw in comment, I created my account to feedback you game.
It's not the 1st game I try on itch, but it's the 1st wich made me feel so much things. I made all different finish, and I can tell you that right now, I'm not feeling good at all and in the same time I'm so happy having played it. (as when I played Gris)
This game is wonderfull, the history is so well writed, and it touches me so deep inside. I hope you will do more games like this, it's really good to have games that can make me feel so much.
Thank you so much for this production <3
Hello!!
I hope you don't mind me asking, I am planning to make a very short 2D point and click game with dialogues and visual depth using Unity for my diploma at my graphic design school, I know absolutely nothing about how Unity works yet but I'm going to try learning, I was wondering if you had sources on how to begin and learn!
Have a great day!
It's been 7 days since you posted this, but does it have to be Unity? Of course it can be done with Unity but at the same time it's overkill. if you really want Unity, you can check out the free asset called Fungus.
There are open source solutions dedicated to such genres that make the whole process much easier.
Like Ren'Py is really good if you want a visual novel experience.
Thank you very much for the reply! Also, apologies for the late answer, I looked at a bunch of tutorials and I tried learning about fungus and other free assets, i'm slowly but surely working things out! Thanks a bunch!
I made an account just to say how much i loved this game! I just quickly played through to get all 5 endings and it left me with a sad bittersweet feeling. It hit close to home, and it really hit me in the feels. I love this game so much!
Beautiful game!
What a fantastic game with a powerful message. It really captures the feeling of depression and getting over loss. Art and music were really top notch, and I even managed to get all of the endings! (Even though some of them made me feel horrible) Thanks for the experience!
Just recently played the game. I didn't know what to expect, but I enjoyed playing it!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1p6QLwE10Uw
Just uploaded a video on your game You Left Me with one of my friends and we really enjoyed it! Wasn't exactly what we were expecting but, that's a good thing because it surprised me and ended up being better than I thought. I definitely could relate to the game with the whole loneliness and loss thing since I've experienced that myself.
oH MY GOD I'm in so much shock right now. I've been using live portrait maker to design my characters for the longest time AND i loved wholesome cats?? I can't believe the same person is responsible for those and "i woke up next to you again". I didn't think there was any correleation and you have even more beautiful interesting looking games. I'm so excited!!!
Love the game, the kitten is so cute.
Will this game ever come out for the IOS?
okay so.... can someone tell me the different endings i can get and how i can get them because i don't want to watch a youtube video.... i don't want to get spoilers of what'll happen ;-;
You can get 5 endings:
(Get out of bed first)
There are other ways to get these endings, but these are the shortest.
Sometimes, certain options disappear or
become corrupted.I don't know how that works, but you can always start over (you can find that in the settings). Corrupted options sometimes become accesible after you do something.My favorites are the last 2. Be careful with the third one, you might not get it if you mess around with other options.
okay, thank you so much ^^ <3
i dunno if you read the comments or not
but your games really REALLY GOOD
and your art style is beautiful!
i don't have anything else to say but i like your games ^-^
Angela He, thank you for sharing such a personal experience with us. Amazing artwork and visuals.
Check this one out!
I love this game so much!
The music and artwork is so atmospheric!
The artwork of this game is amazing! It's a short adventure but it hits close to home for me. Best thing is no matter what, don't give in, don't give up.
I can download but can't play game ! :((
I know right I cant seem to play either!!
D:>
I pretty disappointed
the download wont work it just gives me folders that have more folders in them
how do you dowanload and play the game?
click download
and after that? bc it doesn't say play it gives me a folder
Thankyou for making this game! It is a beautiful narrative that explores deep and complex emotions with a gripping story... here is my video on it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AxTPraE47y4
Yo I played this game last year my subs enjoy. The game looks incredible and that music is cool and chill. I enjoy playing it. There was a strong message in the game.
I cant play.. it wont let me encrypt the files.
does anyone have any ideas on what to do?
Was not expecting this when I started... I streamed this yesterday evening, what got me to look at the game was the beautiful art but wasn't expecting some of the feels that the game gave me. I try to avoid spoiling games that I've never heard of before playing them on stream. Got a few endings within 37 minutes. I'd definitely suggest anyone to play this especially if you lost someone close as you might relate more (tried to be funny and not dwell too much on some of the more melancholic moments).
If you're interested in watching here you go:
I have no idea what I'm doing (stream archive)
Beautiful art and wistful story. We only played about 10mins but need to soak in the experience. The music is so good too. Reminds me of lo-fi hip-hop channel on youtube.
My partner didn't even know there was a font called Audrey. :)
Great art,great story,great music
Absolutely stunning art and music, and beautiful story telling. You Left Me perfectly captures the surreal dream like quality when reality becomes hard to process. The only thing that could be improved would be if the clock and clickable text matched the rest of the game. It was quite pixelly for me, and I found it really distracting on what is an otherwise pretty polished experience.
I appreciate your visual style and art filling
I have made a fan art of this game!!
Can I post it on certain art sites?
I played some and i LOVE IT and the first halve its kinda laggy so sorry lol
The art is stunning, i loved playing it even if its heartbreaking
This is how i feel in real life no lie , But my deppression is leaving a little
I was in two minds to post this or not, I decided to post it regardless as some things just need to be seen. thank you for making this.
This game is absolutely gorgeous. As someone who's struggled with depression for a while,it's haunting in many ways. Very pretty soundtrack. Lovely art style. I would definitely recommend it.