Subject Of Observation
Welcome to "Subject Of Observation," an atmospheric pixel-art adventure that takes you on an introspective journey into a woman's haunting past.
After the fall of the "great nation", it became known that its citizens were spied on by their own government. For this, informal collaborators spied on their neighbours, friends, and even family members. Now, several years later, Erika Mustermann decides to face her past as a citizen of a dictatorship. As a SUBJECT OF OBSERVATION.
As Erika reads her files, she remembers the past. Help her to piece together who spied on her and broke her trust.
How to play:
In general it's always a good idea to click on anything blinking.
Read the text of each file, then click on the underlined text. Make sure to click on EVERY NPC to read all dialogue. Use the arrows to identify the spie.
Made in 14 days for Adventure Jam 2023.
Credits:
Words & Code: Gregor Müller
Pixels & GUI: Gwendolyn Yamashita
Music & Sound: Bertrand Guegan
Voice Acting: Leonie Schliesing
The inspiration for this game lies in the very real surveillance of the citizens of the GDR by the Ministerium für Staatssicherheit. If you want to know more about the real history behind this game, go here, here or here.
Download
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Comments
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Great game concept. Superb!
Designing an adventure around Stasi files is an unusual concept. An interesting topic, albeit a heartbreaking one for the victims of the state. The amount of Erika and Max Mustermann spied on by people close to them is simply staggering.
You've done a really good job with this difficult subject. The idea of bringing the past back to life directly from the IM reports is excellent. The pixel graphics are also really good. As is the music and the voice acting. The direction in which it was heading was quite foreseeable. But that's not really a problem for a short visual novel kind of game. I would really love to play something longer (and more difficult) in this style. Great game!
good
That was great interactive story telling about looking back at the GDR. You could hardly trust anyone. It reminded me of the stories my former landlord from Brandburg an der Havel told me.
The gloomy atmosphere with the great pixel graphics and the music do a lot to put the player in the shoes of Erika.
My only critismcm is that there were no puzzles, but it was still like an interactive movie.
I personally think it's not bad to click on the text to change to the corresponding scene, but it was to easy to identify the person. If you identified the wrong person you could try to guess the next person. I wished there were more challenges.
It was still fun though to experience your interactive story.
A great concept, well executed. Well done!
I did see the ending coming, but it still hit me. The music and voice acting really sold it. Leonie’s voice acting, in particular, was excellent throughout.
The writing was mostly solid, although there were some small grammatical errors. The art was also solid, and did what it needed to do.
I didn’t really see the point of being able to view each scene without the characters. In fact, I’m not sure why I needed to click on part of the text to make the scene appear in the first place. It could have just appeared when I clicked on the corresponding tab, or began the chapter. This didn’t lessen my enjoyment; it just seemed superfluous.
Overall, great job! Easy recommendation 😊
SPOILER WARNING!!!
My main criticism is that I wish more of the puzzles had involved the notes, as I was able to solve all but the party chapter simply by seeing which character appeared in every scene. If you ever decide to extend this game, I think the format could be used for some really clever deduction puzzles.