A melancholy journaling game, Zenosyne is about the feeling of life passing you by. You can only play once, so savor it.

Zenosyne is a word from the dictionary of obscure sorrows - https://www.dictionaryofobscuresorrows.com/

Music by David Hilowitz - you can find his website here: http://davidhilowitz.com/

StatusReleased
PlatformsHTML5, Windows
Rating
Rated 5.0 out of 5 stars
(21 total ratings)
AuthorEzra Szanton
Made withUnity
TagsAltgame, artgame, Atmospheric, Experimental, Narrative, sad, Short, Singleplayer, Text based, Typing

Download

Download
Zenosyne.zip 24 MB

Development log

Comments

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(+1)

i did not like having to lay my life and thoughts out so clearly. really made me put into perspective all my regrets and cravings, for lack of better word, in life. thoroughly crying through the last half.

10/10 oddly impactful game

(+1)

Thank you for sharing your experience with the game. These are the kinds of feelings I hoped this game would evoke. Have a great day!

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A meaningful game, I tried to answer the questions carefully as time passed.

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I could not for the life of me even work out how to get a keyboard to appear lol

Did you play on a computer?

On the browser on my Xbox

ah, there's no on-screen keyboard for the game (not sure if one usually pops up for Xbox browser?). It should work for you if you play on a computer with a hardware keyboard attached!

you could connect a key board to your xbox and see if that works!! :)

(+2)

First question I just watched the time pass faster and faster

Second I kept writing almost without a purpose, typing whatever, to try and elongate time as much as I could

Third I actually tried to answer, and then time bothered me. I had ideas, but made no sense

Fourth I again fought against time. Something clicked.

Fifth I wrote something. I used the small frame of time I had to say something. It wasn't perfect, but it was there

Sixth (was there a sixth?) I went back to nonesense. Hahahaha

My lifelong dilemma with time, presented in front of me in 5 minutes.

Thanks <3

<3

(+2)

i played this game wrong :( i had to stop to screenshot everything. some of what i wrote meant a lot to me. i wrote some things i didn't expect to write. 

really nice atmosphere...

You didn't play the game wrong! If anything, I think the game is wrong and you played it correctly. If I ever come back to this, the main thing I want to add is the ability for the game to record your answers in a little journal. 

I'm glad you liked it!

(1 edit) (+3)

I was hoping horror, now i´m shocked due to how amazin this game is, without having to last long.

This is now a memory for me.

Thank you!!

(+2)

:')

(+1)

:]

(+2)

this is an artwork

(+1)

<3

(+3)

So it's kind of like, life speeds us by when we choose not to experience/think about it, but when we really take the time to reflect, we can maybe feel more satisfied by the time we reach the conclusion? That was my interpretation anyway lol

I really enjoyed how short yet profound this game is. It also helped me write about things I haven't thought about in awhile, which is nice because it's so easy to get caught up in all the business of life and forget about all the other things like good memories and hopes for the future. It also helped me feel a little less lonely because even though it was just a game, it felt like I was sharing these thoughts with someone new. Thank you so much for creating this experience!

(+1)

Thank you for saying this! These kinds of comments are exactly why I make games :)

(+3)

I have played this game 4 moths ago , despite knowing that this game must be played only once , I couldn't help but play it again because  I feel like it's a new life to me  , its a new chance and a new me . again THANK YOU Ezra your game helped me in a way u cant imagine . all love and support to you

(+2)

Thank you so much! I'm really happy that you've found this connection to the game. Love and support to you, too!

(+3)

This was a really emotional game, and I enjoyed it quite a bit. It made me think a lot about my life, and about my future.

(+2)

Thank you! I just remastered this one so I'm happy it still provides that experience!

(+2)

It's a very nice game.

(+2)

amazing and touching , it caught me off guard and couldn't answer some questions. it made me reflect on a lot of thing in my life. THANK YOU

(+1)

Thank you for the kind words! This kind of feedback is what makes me want to keep making games.

(+4)

I rarely allow myself to be vulnerable. The setting made it very easy and natural for me to write openly and I ended up pouring my heart out. 

I really needed this

(+1)

It makes me so happy to hear that this game did that for you. Thank you for playing and for writing this!

(+1)

Wow, This Is Really Moving For Me. I Just Felt A Great Release And The Knowledge That Nothings Forever

Thank you for saying so Blaze! I'm really happy it brought up those feelings for you, it's nice to hear that a game connects the way it's intended.

the formatting of the window is weird, its like
half cut off and i cant see most of it

Oh no! Thanks for telling me I'll try to fix it in the next patch. Does it look like that when it's fullscreened as well?

the option to fullscreen is blocked by the messed up formatting :( its like, the frame is overlaying the game itself

only happens on my chromebook, guess the resolution is just forcing it into a way that doesnt fit

I appreciate it! I'll try to fix it this weekend :)

thank you! :>

Hey Sage, I tried to reformat the game to work with other resolutions but oh boy did I make some bad decisions when I first started the game and at this point reformatting would be pretty difficult. Instead, I uploaded an executable you can download - you shouldn't have the same cutoff issue with that unless I *really* messed up. Let me know if it works for you!

(+1)

Incredible!!!! The time slow on the typing was super cool, and I love how that ties into the theme of the game. Your prompts ended up provoking some pretty thoughtful answers and intense emotions. It was an experience, for sure, so I agree that it's a nice idea to only play it once and take some time to reflect why recalling and writing about those things made you feel the way it did. Beautiful work!!

Thank you my friend <3

(+1)

I like how to game quits or closes if you spam text, that caught me off guard, would be better with some instructions tho.

Thanks for the feedback! I was definitely trying to spook people with that but maybe I went a little overboard :/