You are Fil,

and your life has been feeling rather flat and dull. Everyday feels the same, only the most arbitrary, minuscule details are even slightly different. But it's never enough to make a difference. It could be worse right... it's just the same day. Waking up, dealing with people, searching for more... the same job every day. Life.

Controls:

Mouse to look

WASD to move

Spacebar to jump

Esc Backspace for ???

Move the mouse to look around. Gamepad Ready: Both Sticks, A button, sholders, start / select


Live a life in a loop,
break the loop.
Live your life.

(MacOS build coming soon)

Code, ideas, music and pixel art by qst0

Ideas, writing and story by Walker Orihara

-=-=-=-

Join us on our discord for all things game-dev.

Check out MetaHobby.com and qst.itch.io for more!

-=-=-=-

You were Fil.
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  • Kwis
    Lv. 67
    • Try to let us a way to close the game other than alt+f4
    • The reason I say this is because I had the bad idea to switch to full screen, which f*cked up the controls, you lose control of how you look around you
    • Well, yeah, like many others, I'm confused. Mainly from falling over the map. Makes me feel a lot of paranoia when moving.
    • Didn't know what I was expected to do tbh, but I assume it had to do with just going straight and avoiding holes
    • Speaking of which, it is way easier when you realize you can jump as much as you want, even in the air
    • Which makes the game feel super cooooool! I enjoyed flying, even if there isn't much to do in the air, aside going to the exit easily.
    • Speaking of which, when the exit disappears... what am I supposed to do?
    • Not sure what the coins were for. They needed a sound when you collect them btw
    • The atmosphere of the game was really pleasing. That weird music with the little charming characters, the you are phil, you were phil. The game feels unfinished but this was pretty cool!

    EDIT: When I say close the game, I mean force it to close. the current way to exit is way too long

    Night Fuss
    Submitted

    Night Fuss

    • qst0
      Lv. 2
      qst0 Coder of A Life in a Loop

      4yrs ago

      Hey Kwisarts, you can quit the game with backspace or escape in keyboard mode, and select on controller. The game is kind of a fever dream in this current/final state.

      The coins are pointless, like Fil's feeling on the world they are stuck in. Treat it like a nightmare or waking dream. The sfx would be nice, but might make them feel like they have a point.

      Thank you so much for playing, I hope you had a bit of fun. I didn't mean to frustrate anyone. I know bugs and pointless-ness can do that. It was a technical project for me (trying 3d in a game format) and a writing project for my partner on this. Experimental vibes.

  • C0DERP1GLET
    Lv. 36

    Cool with a 3D game! I think it would have been better if you had a lower scope though.

    Giga Gap
    Submitted

    Giga Gap

    • qst0
      Lv. 2
      qst0 Coder of A Life in a Loop

      4yrs ago

      It's always about scope right? :) I would have loved to had more focus on this but we raised the scope from no-story to story in the last 20 hours. It was a rush and this is the clunker of a result.

  • IsmoLaitela
    Lv. 19

    Right at the bat I noticed that you can fly around freely by spamming space. There doesn't seem to be any z-axis check, which was in a room where the door was upstairs and I managed to trigger it from below.

    I got stuck in a part where exit was no more and after flying around a bit, I decided to quit... but couldn't use the way game suggested and had to alt+f4.

    This seems like first 3D experiment and worked fine as it was. Confusing experience, nevertheless.

    Darling
    Submitted

    Darling

    • qst0
      Lv. 2
      qst0 Coder of A Life in a Loop

      4yrs ago

      Confusing indeed. Sorry to have to make you alt-f4. Backspace and escape should work too.

      I didn't add jump checks or z axis because of time and an eventual dream-like feel that it produced settled in my mind as okay quickly, I think liked the idea of leaving it broken.

  • Atomic
    Lv. 19

    Very odd game, but the characters were charming, and the dialogue system was super neat. As far as I could tell, there wasn't all that much of a incentive to do anything, because the only thing that changed were the potholes. It's a cool attempt at a 3D game, and has the whole Groundhog Day feel to it, which is highly thematic. I liked the music and sound effects, but the sprites and world building was what ties it together. Reminds me a bit of this Garfield game I used to play on the PC a long time ago, where you have to vacuum the house - I'm a sucker (no pun intended) for the mundane aesthetic, but nobody really seems to explore it.

    Deer Lord
    Submitted

    Deer Lord

    • qst0
      Lv. 2
      qst0 Coder of A Life in a Loop

      4yrs ago

      Super glad you caught my drift and the story feel etc. It was a bit of a bug-ish experimental nightmare clipping clip fest. Glad you played. Thanks!

  • Eva
    Lv. 13

    It was cool to see a 3D game done for the jam! The room panning was confusing for me at first, but I switched to using my drawing tablet and it was alright. I got stuck when there was no door, but did see the...keypress end. Not sure if I missed out on anything, but it was a fun little game!

  • WangleLine 🌸
    Patron

    The speed at which the player turns around is way too slow, the movement speed of the player feels too fast, the sprites of NPC's turn around in a weird way when you get close to them, the player turns in a weirdly soft way and continues doing so when tabbing out of the game, the player can walk through the walls in the first room and just fall into the void.

    These are the things I noticed, I hope this feedback helps :D

    Night Fuss
    Submitted

    Night Fuss

    • qst0
      Lv. 2
      qst0 Coder of A Life in a Loop

      4yrs ago

      I'll be sure to add in a sensitivity change / calibration for future 3d tests/jams/etc Thanks so much for the feedback. I need to fix the way things billboard but I, alas, lazy.

  • Cajoled
    Lv. 20

    Very impressive that it's 3D! Based on what people are saying, it seems like there's an end, but I couldn't find it. I collected all the coins, but I don't think anything happened when I hit the garbage cans.

    Overall really cool aesthetic and sound.

  • trolog
    Lv. 6

    Was originally confused, but then I learned how to play, collect garbage, drop off and go forward avoiding the ever increasing pot holes, I managed to get to the end.

    I thought while the art was simple pixel 2d images, they were presented in a 3d enviroment and this really sets itself a part from the rest on here as being different and for that I give you full kudos!

    I like that you had coins to collect, it would be cool to have a nice sound effect match the 8 bit coin, "be-ling" I said while I collected the coins pointlessly, let's face it people love to collect stuff.

    So the cons, I guess it's a bit too simple and there could be more instructions on how to play in game. I don't know how to do 3d in game maker so from this aspect it's not so simple.

    • qst0
      Lv. 2
      qst0 Coder of A Life in a Loop

      4yrs ago

      The simple / unplayable nature of the game kinda became acceptable to me with the nature of the beast. Collecting, living -- taking out the trash... all pointless to Fil it seems... nothing can take him out of this nightmare of a waking dream...

      Except alt-f4 and some the exit menu as some found!

      Glad you played. Thank you so much! :) The feedback is great. I'll take it all for my future works.

  • Inkira_develops
    Lv. 4

    I found this game massively confusing, I didn't have clear objective and I fell off the level by passing through a wall almost instantly. I feel the movement speed is too fast and it needs wall collisions. I was impressed by the 2.5 D effect you used. I am sorry to say I didn't quite understand how you used the loop in your theme.

    PS. Thanks for playing my game.

    • qst0
      Lv. 2
      qst0 Coder of A Life in a Loop

      4yrs ago

      You are just stuck in a loop so that was the theme. The calibration does need work. Thanks for playing my game too! :) :) :)

  • walkerorihara
    Lv. 1

    I think it needs more jojos references

  • Kylazaur
    Lv. 5

    Either I didn't know what I was suppose to do or it was unclear xD, I'm sure i did everything possible but I'm not sure, maybe I did? maybe I didn't who knows but good job, and 3D also, awesome work ^^

    • qst0
      Lv. 2
      qst0 Coder of A Life in a Loop

      4yrs ago

      The only real ending, perhaps secret ending, is where "You were Fil", and you go live your life and the game closes without having to alt-f4 or x out. Thanks for playing!