Smile For Me

loved my time with this game, absolutely adorable. Love all of the characters and their little quirks, the nodding/shaking your head mechanic is silly and fun and also made for some honestly emotional moments also have to give massive props to Yugo Limbo for the game's art direction, absolutely gorgeous from start to finish :') highly recommend picking this game up! it's worth every penny

Smile For Me is set within the mysterious compound known as "The Habitat," a community one joins by accepting the terms of a suspicious website, promising to bring happiness to the depressed. The Protagonist, also known as Flower Boy or Son of the Florist, finds this website and decides to join the community. They awaken to a rather baren room, and are greeted by one of the local residents, Nat. After a brief conversation with Nat, she discloses that The Habitat is run by a mysterious figure known as "The Habit," who's promised to bring smiles to the faces of each of its residents on "The Big Event." However, Nat is dubious of these claims, particularly disturbed by the videos which are broadcast to resident's rooms each night, the contents of which have been growing progressively unsettling. Thus, she believes it would be in everyone's best interest to leave The Habitat. The best way to do that? Solve the problem which brought them here in the first place, by bringing smiles to their faces. The narrative of Smile For Me is a brief reflection upon joy and sadness, particularly the ways in which one can make a positive impact on communities by listening to their neighbors, and a willingness to lend a helping hand. There are 22 members of The Habitat, and each is currently struggling with a problem, insecurity, or other anxiety which is preventing them from being able to smile. As The Flower Boy interacts with each resident, they have the opportunity to enjoy the fairly quirky personalities of each individual. Overarching the seemingly positive game, is a sinister undertone, as it quickly becomes apparent that residents of The Habitat may not be entirely safe. Each night, a video is broadcast to resident's rooms, and the contents of these messages seem focused on perpetuating the misery of the residents, rather than alleviating it. Furthermore, The Flower Boy may come across messages or imagery along their journey to suggest that The Habit may be a very disturbed individual. The gameplay of Smile For Me is largely focused around a point and click adventure. The game is rather strict with item interactions, requiring the player to first select the hand from their item wheel, before they can use it to pick up other items, or interact with the environment. As The Flower Boy comes across various members of The Habitat, many will initiate conversation. Rather than simply clicking buttons yes or no, The Flower Boy must actually nod their head yes or no, by looking up and down or left and right repeatedly. After listening to a resident's problems, it may become apparent that they wish for a specific item, or want to see a specific outcome. For example, a resident might request a lost memento, or they may wish to hear words of love from someone they care about. Thus, the puzzles of Smile For Me involve not only deducing how to bring happiness to the residents, but often the mechanics of how to make that thing happen. In some instances, the puzzles are as simple as hand item A to person B, whereas others may require utilizing multiple items in a special sequence, or collaborating with other members of the habitat. To add some pressure to these tasks, The Habitat has a strict curfew, and if The Flower Boy does not return to their room on time each day, they'll be awoken by video messages from The Habit far more sinister than normal. Overall the game is well designed, with most of the puzzles being pretty fair to intuit. The art style is also quite charming, eliciting a somewhat cartoonish/paper doll style world, with all characters represented as 2D sprites, in a 3D world. While the game was a bit too short for me to find any of the connections with the residents significantly moving, it's also true that the writing was short and to the point, with the right amount of quirkiness to make interacting with the community enjoyable. Likewise, while the game does not go so far as to broach full on horror, the unsettling nature of The Habit, and timed curfew add a good level of anxiety. While it's not necessarily a game I could see everyone enjoying, I thought Smile For Me was a fun little puzzle adventure, which brought a smile to my face.

game good :thumbsup: love limbolane

cute good vibes