Every Day, Once A Day
Every day, once a day, give yourself a present.
Don't plan it.
Don't wait for it.
Just let it happen.
This game is, in part, a compassionate webtoy. You can use it as a daily checkin to reinforce a habit of treating yourself to unexpected delights. It can give you some suggestions if you like.
It's also, in part, a chill incremental game. With progress measured in days, rather than seconds, you can accumulate resources, buy upgrades, and unlock minigames.
Mostly, though, this game is a story. About you. Because you remember.
Content: some obscenity, some smarm.
Jam: Created for FIX YOUR HEARTS OR DIE - A David Lynch Game Jam, this is my humble tribute to Lynch's romance, compassion, and art. I draw most obviously from a Twin Peaks quote, but also from the feeling of an artist I find fundamentally friend-shaped.
Feedback: This is my first solo dev release and I welcome any and all feedback. I'd like to fix any bugs you find. I also intend to keep updating the project into the future, with new content or features informed by player feedback.
Requirements: I've only tested the game in contemporary versions of Chrome, Safari, & Firefox. Let me know if you run into a browser compatibility issue!
Contributions: Two elements of this game are crowdsourced: the present suggestions and milkshake wisdoms. If you'd like to contribute to either list, leave your thoughts below. If I use them you'll be credited.
Development log
- Initial Release14 hours ago
Comments
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Because you seem like the type of artist who'd appreciate it, and because I had a strange feeling like the game wanted to hear my thoughts but had no place to receive it, I've decided to write my thought process thinking over this game's question.
What I thought is, I'm not sure if I know how to give myself a present like that. As an adult, if I want something, I can take steps to acquire it, and I often do. These things seem nice but often mundane, so to call it a present doesn't really seem right. And if it's something I do daily, could it really be that special?
But then, the prompt doesn't say that it has to be 'special', only that it has to be a present. It seems that a present should be something that makes me happy, but is it so easy to figure out what would make me happy? Would a new shirt, or a cup of a nice drink, make me happy? Perhaps marginally, but I so often experience those kinds of things with little thought, so that it's hard for me to think of them as presents, really.
So I started to think that even if a present isn't special, it should at least be something different from what I usually do, at least a little bit. So then, maybe a present is something that makes the day worth remembering. It would of course be an impossible goal to do that every day, none of us manage to do something so memorable that it's worth thinking back on every single day, I'm not even sure our brains are capable of that. But don't we each, after all, wake up at least hoping that we do something to make this day worth remembering in the future, rather than fading almost immediately into a blank space on a calendar?
It was hard to really think of something I could do on the spur of the moment that would satisfy that condition. Perhaps I'd set kind of a high bar for myself there. But it occurred to me suddenly, that perhaps the comment I was composing in my head was itself a kind of present. To self-indulgently dump my stream of consciousness to a total stranger and hope that, as an artist like myself, they would appreciate the feedback. So, of course at that point I had to commit to actually writing it.
I don't know if I'll be back tomorrow, but engaging with this definitely gave me something interesting to chew on, so I'm glad that I took a look.
Hey! Thanks for taking the time, it was certainly a present for me :)
I think the context in which Dale Cooper gives the advice is one of simple, pleasant times turning dark. He gives the advice as a reminder to indulge in simple pleasures and to take care of oneself even when the world is suddenly chaotic, confusing, or violent. That may or may not resonate with you—maybe it truly is simple every day to get up and do all the things your body and soul need, and the reminder is truly unnecessary for you! In which case, hey, that's incredibly cool and I'm happy for you.
Regardless, I do think it's ultimately a terribly mundane question, with terribly mundane answers. Coop's examples aren't of dramatic gifts; some might even call them necessities depending on circumstance. Maybe you need the coffee to make it through the day. Maybe you need a nap. We all need new clothes sometimes.
Reframing those needs as a gift to ourself, an investment of not only resource but also care and kindness, can be useful in itself.
I'm tickled by the reaction to this so far and appreciative of your sincere engagement. I hope, whether or not you return to this on subsequent days, and whether or not—if you do—you have any interest in the eventual game beyond the checkin question, that you can enjoy this interaction. :)
(Also, for whatever it's worth, this is the perfect place for such thoughts. Yall did it!!)
I see, that definitely makes sense. Sometimes I get caught up in my own train of thought and don't consider that it can be as simple as reframing how you think about things. Perhaps it's not that I don't need the reminder, but that I reflexively downplay the value of those small experiences. Maybe something for me to keep in mind for the future. Thanks for the thoughtful reply.
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Maybe you'll see me again tomorrow =)
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