Abide With Me
Eric hasn't seen his parents in ages. It's due time for a visit.
ABIDE WITH ME is a short story about Eric and his troubled relationship with his family. It's a story about his inability to communicate, the disconnect between what he thinks and says, told in two separate acts.
Playing in full screen and with headphones is recommended.
This is the first non-comedy game I've posted here, and the first one I've done solo. It was an interesting experience to make, but I'm fairly happy with it. There's still a long way for me to go as a writer and dev, but I'm getting better. For more games or content, follow @marafrass or @clam_team on twitter.
Development log
- Update! Chapter II!Aug 31, 2019
- Abide With Me is done!Aug 28, 2019
Comments
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incredibly interesting and poignant game. loved the way Erics real feelings were implemented in the second chapter... admittedly i am a bit too forgiving for my own good and in my case affection remained even when im not perfectly sure it shouldve, i still related very deeply to this... old age is terrifying, even more so watching other people go through it. burning fading memories have always filled me with a sense of dread. just as it is stated here, sometimes youre not sure you prefer them remembering or completely forgetting about it all. loved how this was written and presented (art style and ambience wise), the old timey aesthetic really helps bring home the deep melancholy such reunions invoke.
the art and vibe to the atmosphere is awesome.. i love it
This game just hit diffrent,,, i am not in the same situation as Eric but i somehow can relate to him... to be honest i am thinking that it might happen to me in the future once i'm no longer living with my parents 'cus as a child i grow up to met my parents expectation even to this day, and i always feel like no matter what i do i will never be enough for them.. but i would be lying if i say that i don't love them...
Thank you for making this, i love it,,
this game really hit home. i feel like this all the time when i see my father but still can't help and love him even after he fucked up my childhood. love this game
WOW well my stepdad, sad to just sad cause regardless I felt anger but in the game I pictured him and I just was sad still
I experienced a lot of abuse during my childhood living with my parents. Both of them are too old or mentally ill to even understand what I was left with as a result of their abuse. This game completely captured the things you wish you could say, but knowing they won't understand, you have to choose not to.
Hey again folks! Lately, this game has been getting a lot of views from what looks like an Assignment page, leading me to believe it's being used as part of a class or a course. If YOU are taking this class/course or were directed here from an assignments.onenote site, feel free to let me know! I'm really curious!
[...] Take care.
My relationship with both of my parents worsened a lot last year. The game is great, and I genuinely had a heavy heart playing though. Captured my feelings in text for sure.
I really want to play this game, looks so interesting, but it doesn't work! :-(
Oh no! What browser are you running? It should work fine on Chrome and browsers with similar framework!
I actually downloaded it from itch.io app on Windows 10, I'm not using a browser, but if I would it would be Microsoft Edge.
That explains it! The game is currently only available as a webGL build, so I dont think it actually works as a download. I wasnt even aware you could download it at all! If you’re still interested, you can play the game online right in your browser!
I played Abide with me on Google chrome browser, it worked so I'm glade I could play your game. Thank you for you helpful reply, what is WebGL build by the way, I heard about it before? Yes, itch.io gives as an app, you can install it if you like, the video games are available like online. Your video game was really interesting and sad too, I enjoyed it. Well done!
Thank you! WebGL is basically just a framework that allows Unity games to run in browsers without any additional downloads!
now im sad :(
:(
Thank you so much for creating this amazing game. I really cried at this. Brilliantly made I have to say, hits right where I hurt. Thank you again, I hope you're doing well!
Thank you so much! Im doing well, hope you are too.
Well shit, this came at me from all different angles.
Hey new people playing this! I've been seeing a strange new influx of players, which obviously is great, but a lot of them seem to be coming from a "assignments.onenote"-type page, as well as an undefined youtube page. Feel free to comment here and tell me how you found the game!
..my mother abandoned me as a child and i recently cut off my father because he was emotionally abusive. i'm 19. thank you for this..
I'm so sorry to hear that, and I hope things work out for you soon. This game was made for you and people like you.
It really hit home for me, the game. Thank you for making it. I do mean that.
Thank you - that's all I could hope for. The game was made for you, and people like you.
this was so ... shockingly emotional. thank you.
Thank you!
this was so good and very well made! I loved everything about it, thank you for making this :)
Fuck. Just... fuck.
My mom, we, uh... never had that good of a relationship, but she tried. Bipolar, type two. Severe crisis. Dad left. Told his boss i was dead, and moved back to his home town. Came back when i was 16 last year, and mom is kind of stable. Fucked right off again after seeing i had grew up troubled with drugs and was bi, didn't call for months, i block him, immediate call from him. Ignored him for some months, called him to talk to my brother (who i had met for the first time last year, although i knew he existed since i was about 3) and to wish my brother a happy birthday. I'm 17, and 2 days ago, i found out dad did lie. He did beat my mom. He did lock her at home. He beat up bro's mom, too. Bro. Hell, i'm sure he would've beat me, had he the chance. My 15yo brother and his mom told me everything about my dad.
I have 2 brothers, one 15, still in 5th grade (and in Brazil, it's not easy to have good education; even after he tried every private school in his town, they still couldn't manage his anger problems), and other 6. A sister, too. Cutest thing, although the only one that is my father's son is the 15yo. I still consider them brothers. I'm ranting and venting, i guess, this game made me need it. This game made me think about my mom. It's been a month since we've last talked, and we live in the same house. Grandpa suspects i still do hard drugs (i'm doing everything to show him i'm past that for months), grandma has a temper.
I now have to take my dad's place and raise my family right. I came to this a few days ago, and now am reading psychology books to try and help my bro with his anger, i'm looking for work to get him a therapist etc.
This game made me so emotional, so, so emotional. I'm at school crying like a pussy with my friends beside me, understanding jackshit. Maybe one or two get it. I don't know. I look at sis everytime i block my phone, and think about them all the time.
But what about my parents? I told dad to fuck right off and we're not gonna talk anymore. He told me explicitely he doesn't care about my brother, and that he's a piece of shit. When i insulted his new wife, he called me a 16yo piece of shit. Again, i am 17. I'm not gonna grow up to see dad like this. Mom is possibly going to be... distant and cold, too. Like that. Or like Dad in this game. What am i going to become?
Your game is so good, it made me create an acount to ramble about my shitty fucking little life on a website barely anyone cares about. I'm crying about mom. About dad. I have no father but grandpa, and he's 62. Mom got pregnant at 16. What will i do when he gets old? What if grandma is the one to become forgetful? She has some memory problems, but mostly pressure problems, physical pains, she's already suffering, and that makes me feel so fucking bad. Grandpa doesn't live with me, mum and grandma, but he comes over everyday. What if one day, he just... doesn't? What if he doesn't remember if he's proud of me? Will he remember he bought me my first bass? Will grandma remember she bought my first guitar? Will mom remember showing me her favorite songs and taking me to the movies, even with all the delusions she had? Will she remember the times she tried to kill me? DOES SHE? Will grandpa be proud? Will he? Will grandma be proud?
And now, i'm reading again, just for the sake of encouraging my brother to do the same. I'm gonna show him cool books, RPG books, good tales, stuff like that. Help him study. And i'm trying so hard to learn to help him.
Will he be proud?
Dad said he is.
The only person i KNOW is proud of who i've become is the person i despise the most.
Thank you, stranger. Your game is indescribably meaningful and just.. infinitely beautiful. Lindo. Uma obra de arte. Mesmerizante, mesmerizing.
Have a nice life.
And if you want to listen to a good song of them, try Deep, deep, by Have a nice life. Sorry for venting, i needed it. I needed this game.
Thank you for taking your time to vent and write this all out - the game was made for you, and people in similar situations. Family is tricky, and there usually isn't a happy Hollywood ending where people get past their demons and suddenly are free of them. It's human to be angry, to be confused, and to feel two opposite emotions at once. It's important to remember that. Hope things get better for you, and you find a way to deal with everything with as little sadness or anger as possible. And thank you so much for your kinds words about the game.
Alright, i'm back, no tears this time through, haha.
Thank you so much more for having written a thought out reply, and a beautiful one at that. Your words have more weight than neutron stars within them, i guess.
I told my brother about how i wanna run this family. Talked to my mother. We're ok now. She will help me with my brothers. It will all be ok. My brother says he will lead alongside me, and i trust him. Your game has possibly molded a better family. An indie story game made such an impactful decision. You deserve the world, and i can't help but wish you that your world is the most fulfilled it can be for as long as you are in it. And... "this game was made for you". There's a little spot in my list of people who are smarter than me that i'll leave reserved for you, because even though i don't know you enough to have certainty of that, i can clearly see that you are so much ahead of me, and that inspires me so much.
Everything bless. We'll all be alright.
Eu criei uma conta apenas para te responder, na esperança de que te alcance como notificação no email. Eu queria te dizer que o seu relato deixa muito clara sua inteligência acima da média, tanto na construção da narrativa como na expressão emocional (sem falar no uso do idioma!). Você vai navegar por altos e baixos, mas tem a capacidade de enxergar perspectivas renovadas que vão te levar em frente com um propósito forte: essa família que você vai construir. Isso não era para ser sua responsabilidade, mas é o que você tem em seus irmãos. Quando estiver por baixo, não se entregue à mentira de que não é capaz, não ceda às "saídas" autodestrutivas. Resistir até agora mostra como é forte e como isso é só o começo de um percurso que vai longe, independente de como você estiver neste momento.
Recomendo que pesquise sobre as escolas de formação da aeronáutica, a EEAR (sargentos) e AFA (oficiais). Todo ano tem concurso e acho que os limites de idade para entrar são 25 e 23 anos, respectivamente. Se entrar, terá uma base e um salário estáveis para ajudar a construir sua nova família e poderá enquanto isso engajar-se na faculdade que você pretende fazer (psicologia, talvez?), sem a pressão de ter que se formar rápido para começar logo a carreira.
Eu tenho o dobro da sua idade. Meu pai foi assassinado quando eu tinha 7 anos e minha mãe estava grávida de 8 meses. Minha família é assombrada por luto, depressão sem fim, remédios e risco de suicídio. Foi difícil chegar vivo ao fim da adolescência (os 2-3 anos jogando RPG quase diariamente estão entre as melhores partes da época) e ainda hoje carrego os fantasmas de quase 30 anos atrás como se eu ainda fosse aquele menino que aos 7 anos já dizia que queria morrer. Sou agora mais velho que meu pai. Mas consegui o sonho de viver uma nova família, obtive mestrado em literatura e todas as noites leio para meu filho maior (o menor tá começando a entrar no esquema). Lemos O Hobbit inteiro como presente dos 6 anos dele (e antes tínhamos lido as sete Crônicas de Nárnia). Só isso já basta para que tudo tenha valido a pena. A depressão é um distúrbio que distorce minha percepção e impacta com meu negativismo e ansiedade, mas eu sei que meu coração está cheio também de algo maior e melhor que isso.
Espero que não me ache presunçoso em me meter na sua história. Eu só não podia deixar de notar que sua inteligência e comprometimento podem fazer toda a diferença.
I made an account just to write you, the developer, that your game has hit home, and no game ever did that to this level. I don't know if that's comforting or painful. Great job.
Thank you so much for your kind words. I hope the game gave you some release, or made you feel less alone in what you're going/you've been through.
So, glad I was able to play this game. I tried to play it how I would handle the situation in real life but, I found it difficult to try the other options. And when the perspective changed I felt better understanding for the main character.
This game AA!! Talking with the mother especially made me feel so uncomfortable (in the intended way). When she said things like "You don't have to do anything, just take care of yourself." I could FEEL the double meaning. If you don't do anything then you're seen as not helping, as not caring for her but if you try to help you're refused. The dialogue for her was very well written in my experience. I loved the game and if anything I wish it were longer and had more depth (don't get me wrong, I LOVED it!!) to the conflict, like instead of vague hints. I think it works just fine like this though, it portrays an atmosphere perfectly and is very well written! The dad and the letter knife was gut wrenching, generations of hurt.
Thank you so much!! I think you're the first one to comment specifically on the letter knife, too - I think that part is really significant too. Again, thank you so much for your kind words, I appreciate it immensely!
Hey to any new viewers: We've had a huge spike in traffic the past few days from youtube, but we can't tell from where exactly.. If you're coming from a certain channel or youtuber, please comment here and let me know!
Gloom!!
Thanks so much for letting me know!!
Interesting game
Thanks bagel!
I didn't get it, and then I kind of did. I think if you added more in terms of sound you might have greater affect. The artwork is great!
At first this game made me feel uncomfortable. It was a mixture of guilt (identifying with the son) and fear of getting older (identifying with the mother).
Later it was just interesting to see, how my view of the parents changed.
Very nice style and animations. Together with the music it really felt very british.
Thank you so much for the kind words! And as for your rating, I tend to agree - the second part can get a bit slow and repetitive. Not all the dialogue is given new meaning with the new options, and there might have been room to trim it even more than I did.
Really nice and short game! I liked the characters and their relationships, it's not easy when your parents are getting older. The art style was very beautiful and I really liked the music that played in the background. Overall a very nice and enjoyable game :D
I don't know if you've heard of Game Development World Championship before (gdwc2019) but it's a competition for indie game developers where they can submit their games and it's free! It's great if you want some more visibility for the game and it only takes a couple of minutes to join :)
Thanks! And yeah, you commented on our previous game, too.
(Im curious - did you finish the whole thing? Im just wondering because while a lot of people really liked the game, I dont think anyone would call it, or the story, enjoyable :)))