I got you to try Octopath, and I got you to try Hypnospace. What will I get you to try next?!
Hypnospace Outlaw did get updated recently, hence why it suddenly got popular a year after its launch! The update added some new stuff to old pages as well as various new pages, though most of those are not listed directly. The most notable additions are probably the Connie's Connections page and Counselor Ronnie, the former is brand new while the latter is about 80% new content.
Personally, I got into the game really quick! Even the tutorial amused me with how well it took on the affectations of a late 90's digital era tutorial!
I do think Hypnospace is hard to categorize into a genre, if I had to put it somewhere I'd say it's a mix of a mystery/puzzle game and an internet simulator.
Usually I don't care much for the lore of words in video games, but I found the lore in Hypnospace really fascinating! Sleeptime computing, all the weird musical genres, wacky alternative history stuff like Trennis instead of Tennis, and of course the entirety of the designated sci-fi/fantasy/geek zone!
I actually saw the developer talk about their intentions for the game, and how in the end they meant for the game to be a love letter to the era rather than simply cynical and snarky about it. Behind all the layers of intentionally bad content, there's also a degree of earnestness to a lot of the characters. I think that's where the Openness shines though. They did actually make an expectation for the corporate pages though.
You're not actually quite done with the game yet! Once you do a few tasks, there's more to the story and the Y2K Mindhack Event that you have to uncover. The game's narrative only really ends once the credits play.
I did actually get 100% archival on my latest run! I never got it on my first run through the game, so I was happy to get it this time. It turns out the final page I was looking for was the page for filling out that you're not the primary household source of income on the survey you can get early in the game.
The whole story with Coolpunk and it branching out into a ton of other things was one of my favourite narratives in the game. That's actually another area where they added new content in the update, it used to kind of cut off abruptly in the original release.
My favourite tracks are the following two, both composed in-universe by the guy who made the music guide: [LINK][LINK]
You might not have heard the second one yet, though, since it's only used in pages related to post-game narrative stuff.
The stuff with violations mostly seems like a way for the developers to roadblock progress into digestible chunks, there's actually not that many optional violations and not all violations you can hand out affect the plot. You can actually reduce the amount of victims in the mindhack event by getting them banned before it happens, and there's a recurring page in the Coolpunk you can flag for harassing other users or people affected by the Coolfest event.
I actually liked the part where the game tells you to look for cases yourself, since by that point I was used to looking to all pages anyway, so it was just a matter of knowing when to flag stuff when it did break the rules!
I think the update did actually have a memory leak issue somewhere, as well as some problems with ports of the game. It's a shame how easily such things can slip through into a finished product, though I did see the developer say they're already working on fixing it.
Regarding the ending, all I can say is to keep playing! Once you solve some of the archival project cases, you'll get given a concrete goal related to what exactly was going on with Hypnospace. In case you haven't already, you should also look for m1nx, it takes some sleuthing to get in, but it reveals a lot about certain characters.
Hypnospace Outlaw has around 1,300 reviews on Steam, with a 97% positive ratio. I'd say that means the game is a success! I'm sure that given those review numbers, they must have sold a lot of units, especially since they're now on Switch too.
Anyway, yes, I did play this game, and like it a lot! I'll copy over what I said about it in my end-of-2019 games overview blog:
"I enjoyed this one a whole lot! Hypnospace Outlaw puts you in the shoes of a 90's internet moderator, solving cases by searching, finding and flagging rule infringing content. The game's one big love letter to the web of that age, and it nails the feeling perfectly, evoking a sort of nostalgia for an era I had only the briefest interactions with during my youth before it gave way to the more modern internet as we know it today.
The game's absolutely filled with content to scour through, all of it completely on-theme and frequently hilarious, but the game also crafts a narrative as the cases slowly ramp up in severity and the passage of time shows on all the webpages which get updated as the game goes on. The creators of these webpages are basically characters in their own right, with tiny little arcs for themselves presented wholly by their additions to their retro webpages. The game had me completely engrossed. There's nothing else quite like it, and it's definitely worth checking out."
2
Tobias 1102~4Y
I have now finished so I can reply to this! I've seen something like 64% of all the pages, so I wonder what I've missed out on.
I didn't really pay any attention to Connie's Connections at first, so it's surprising that that's new content!
I definitely got the impression that it was an homage more than a mockery, so it's nice to know that was the intent!
The way the actual story extended into something that felt like a postgame seems so strange to me, but - as I added in an edit - I suppose it's the same as getting an airship during the final act of an RPG and having the whole world unlocked to finish things off.
I suppose I was looking for an excuse to quit earlier and did so at the first sign that maybe I could, but I'd blame general depression for that. Once I tried to get back into it and find the real ending, I was way more engaged. That's also why it was a slog to get into at first. Annoying how mental health issues suck the fun out of things. Makes me think about the low percentages you see for players who've actually finished any given game; seems most people drop out somewhere for one reason or another.
A lot of the pages are identical between the three eras but count separately for archiving, which I find sort of annoying since I'm sure my fairly low completion percentage is because I never bothered to go back over things I doubted would have changed! That survey in particular counted for a whole bunch of pages...
Those are some interesting choices for favourite music tracks! They feel familiarish to me, though they're some of the many I didn't notice much. The one that made me think "this game has really good music!" was by Klyfta, Cosmic something or other, so I'll be looking that one up later.
I got as far with m1nx as revealing their login prompt, but don't have a password and I have no idea where I might find that! Any subtle tips so I'm not fumbling around blindly for hours?
The game's popularity seems interesting; I wasn't sure how to gauge it, and had been putting it on a similar level to, say, Celeste or Baba Is You or something, so everyone would have seen and played it, but that doesn't seem to be the case? At least based on the numbers from that Kickstarter, the views on these music tracks, and the number of Steam reviews. Not bad by any stretch of the imagination - I'd love to get 1300 reviews!! - but apparently more niche. I assume anything that gets a Switch port has been unusually successful, but based on some of the absolute rubbish I've seen Twitter indie devs tweeting about Switch ports for, I don't know about that!
I'm glad you recommended this! Despite some frustrations, it's definitely something I'm glad I played. I'm unsure what to play next; I was thinking maybe Celeste then Undertale, to tick off some of the big ones that most people do know... unless there's something else I should play first?
(There was something I saw recently and thought "I'll play that next!", but I can't remember what it was... Maybe I'll find it again later.)
2
Maniafig219~4Y
I do wonder how many people quit after the Y2K mindhack and assume Tim was behind everything! The real ending is much more satisfying, obviously!
I usually try to see games I'm playing through, but even I sometimes just give up at some point, usually because I get sidetracked with something else and never return to it. Octopath is the most recent example of that.
Sadly, not all pages change between eras! A lot of pages do, but even the ones that don't count towards completion. There's actually also a lot of pages that are only findable in specific eras but have different variations between eras anyway, and a lot that don't. It made hunting for 100% difficult!
I mostly remember the music that plays on people's pages instead of the downloadable tracks. One other track I did like a lot was Dripp Boy's Mushroom Hop, since it completely misses the point of Fungus Scene and is really catchy. [LINK] I laughed so much as seeing his page in the cavern.
Hm, subtle. I'll say this much: You can narrow down your search to the Teentopia zone during the second time period. Who else has mentioned being interested in m1nx?
Oh, and remember that downloadable text files can have multiple pages you can scroll though!
I would say Hypnospace Outlaw is more niche by design, which is reflected in the size of its consumer base! As for ports to home consoles, the era of that sort of thing coming with any prestige is long gone! The market for indie games is more open than ever, be it PC or console, which has all the boons and banes you'd imagine it has!
I'm glad my recommendation was to your liking! I definitely would recommend both Undertale and Celeste, though I feel that Undertale's strong narrative focus would appeal to you more than Celeste's tricky platforming.
1
Tobias 1102~4Y
I did get into m1nx eventually thanks to your hint, and annoyingly I'd already downloaded that text file ages ago but it wasn't relevant then so I forgot all about it! I suppose that's why the game has things like post-it notes as a basic feature, but I never used them since I never knew what I should be noting as significant because anything could have been!
Interesting that the m1nx comments sort of doubled up on the ChitChat logs I found elsewhere, and I suppose both of them would have counted for unlocking the ending? So an alternate paths kind of thing, maybe.
Also, why was Dylan The Villain but Adrian just seemed to get away with everything even though he seemed just as bad if not worse?? I suppose you could say it's because Dylan was responsible for the technology, but still! Maybe I missed something in my 60-something% page discovery...
I've also been listening to the (immensely long) soundtrack, which has many tracks I just don't like at all since they're just rough ambient noise rather than nice melodies, though Klyfta's stuff really hits some specific preferences I have shockingly well! Seems I never even found a whole bunch of the music in game, though; there's a silly childish-sounding Chowder Man song about Hypnospace that I never saw anywhere!
I think I'll start playing Undertale today... Feels like I should make a big deal about it since I have been doing about my avoiding of it for literally years now, but... eh. I feel like a lot of the anxiety has died from just seeing how many other indie devs there are out there recently, and how much my own efforts don't stand out. So I might as well see what people loved so much about Undertale at long last! Maybe I'll even enjoy it!!
1
Maniafig219~4Y
My first reaction to finding the file was to write it down in a sticky note! I'd actually used the sticky notes frequently for passwords and other things to memorize. They're also useful to decorate your desktop with speech bubbles! [LINK]
The m1nx message board mostly function as clues to find the files you need to send to Sam, you can't actually report anything in m1nx itself since they're open source pages much like the zone hubs. It's the same for the Freelands pages too. I imagine this was done on purpose to show how sloppy the moderating tools for Enforcers are.
Given that Adrian was aware of the findings of the report they commissioned, I'm pretty sure litigation's going to come his way too! Dylan just acts as a more direct antagonist and was more involved in the day-to-day workings of Hypnospace, so I think it's fitting he gets more focus.
I'm quite curious what you'll think of Undertale, and what your run is going to be like! Quite curious indeed!!
Hypnospace Outlaw did get updated recently, hence why it suddenly got popular a year after its launch! The update added some new stuff to old pages as well as various new pages, though most of those are not listed directly. The most notable additions are probably the Connie's Connections page and Counselor Ronnie, the former is brand new while the latter is about 80% new content.
Personally, I got into the game really quick! Even the tutorial amused me with how well it took on the affectations of a late 90's digital era tutorial!
I do think Hypnospace is hard to categorize into a genre, if I had to put it somewhere I'd say it's a mix of a mystery/puzzle game and an internet simulator.
Usually I don't care much for the lore of words in video games, but I found the lore in Hypnospace really fascinating! Sleeptime computing, all the weird musical genres, wacky alternative history stuff like Trennis instead of Tennis, and of course the entirety of the designated sci-fi/fantasy/geek zone!
I actually saw the developer talk about their intentions for the game, and how in the end they meant for the game to be a love letter to the era rather than simply cynical and snarky about it. Behind all the layers of intentionally bad content, there's also a degree of earnestness to a lot of the characters. I think that's where the Openness shines though. They did actually make an expectation for the corporate pages though.
You're not actually quite done with the game yet! Once you do a few tasks, there's more to the story and the Y2K Mindhack Event that you have to uncover. The game's narrative only really ends once the credits play.
I did actually get 100% archival on my latest run! I never got it on my first run through the game, so I was happy to get it this time. It turns out the final page I was looking for was the page for filling out that you're not the primary household source of income on the survey you can get early in the game.
The whole story with Coolpunk and it branching out into a ton of other things was one of my favourite narratives in the game. That's actually another area where they added new content in the update, it used to kind of cut off abruptly in the original release.
My favourite tracks are the following two, both composed in-universe by the guy who made the music guide: [LINK] [LINK]
You might not have heard the second one yet, though, since it's only used in pages related to post-game narrative stuff.
The stuff with violations mostly seems like a way for the developers to roadblock progress into digestible chunks, there's actually not that many optional violations and not all violations you can hand out affect the plot. You can actually reduce the amount of victims in the mindhack event by getting them banned before it happens, and there's a recurring page in the Coolpunk you can flag for harassing other users or people affected by the Coolfest event.
I actually liked the part where the game tells you to look for cases yourself, since by that point I was used to looking to all pages anyway, so it was just a matter of knowing when to flag stuff when it did break the rules!
I think the update did actually have a memory leak issue somewhere, as well as some problems with ports of the game. It's a shame how easily such things can slip through into a finished product, though I did see the developer say they're already working on fixing it.
Regarding the ending, all I can say is to keep playing! Once you solve some of the archival project cases, you'll get given a concrete goal related to what exactly was going on with Hypnospace. In case you haven't already, you should also look for m1nx, it takes some sleuthing to get in, but it reveals a lot about certain characters.
Hypnospace Outlaw has around 1,300 reviews on Steam, with a 97% positive ratio. I'd say that means the game is a success! I'm sure that given those review numbers, they must have sold a lot of units, especially since they're now on Switch too.
Apparently, the game was also kickstarted! [LINK]
Anyway, yes, I did play this game, and like it a lot! I'll copy over what I said about it in my end-of-2019 games overview blog:
"I enjoyed this one a whole lot! Hypnospace Outlaw puts you in the shoes of a 90's internet moderator, solving cases by searching, finding and flagging rule infringing content. The game's one big love letter to the web of that age, and it nails the feeling perfectly, evoking a sort of nostalgia for an era I had only the briefest interactions with during my youth before it gave way to the more modern internet as we know it today.
The game's absolutely filled with content to scour through, all of it completely on-theme and frequently hilarious, but the game also crafts a narrative as the cases slowly ramp up in severity and the passage of time shows on all the webpages which get updated as the game goes on. The creators of these webpages are basically characters in their own right, with tiny little arcs for themselves presented wholly by their additions to their retro webpages. The game had me completely engrossed. There's nothing else quite like it, and it's definitely worth checking out."
I didn't really pay any attention to Connie's Connections at first, so it's surprising that that's new content!
I definitely got the impression that it was an homage more than a mockery, so it's nice to know that was the intent!
The way the actual story extended into something that felt like a postgame seems so strange to me, but - as I added in an edit - I suppose it's the same as getting an airship during the final act of an RPG and having the whole world unlocked to finish things off.
I suppose I was looking for an excuse to quit earlier and did so at the first sign that maybe I could, but I'd blame general depression for that. Once I tried to get back into it and find the real ending, I was way more engaged. That's also why it was a slog to get into at first. Annoying how mental health issues suck the fun out of things. Makes me think about the low percentages you see for players who've actually finished any given game; seems most people drop out somewhere for one reason or another.
A lot of the pages are identical between the three eras but count separately for archiving, which I find sort of annoying since I'm sure my fairly low completion percentage is because I never bothered to go back over things I doubted would have changed! That survey in particular counted for a whole bunch of pages...
Those are some interesting choices for favourite music tracks! They feel familiarish to me, though they're some of the many I didn't notice much. The one that made me think "this game has really good music!" was by Klyfta, Cosmic something or other, so I'll be looking that one up later.
I got as far with m1nx as revealing their login prompt, but don't have a password and I have no idea where I might find that! Any subtle tips so I'm not fumbling around blindly for hours?
The game's popularity seems interesting; I wasn't sure how to gauge it, and had been putting it on a similar level to, say, Celeste or Baba Is You or something, so everyone would have seen and played it, but that doesn't seem to be the case? At least based on the numbers from that Kickstarter, the views on these music tracks, and the number of Steam reviews. Not bad by any stretch of the imagination - I'd love to get 1300 reviews!! - but apparently more niche. I assume anything that gets a Switch port has been unusually successful, but based on some of the absolute rubbish I've seen Twitter indie devs tweeting about Switch ports for, I don't know about that!
I'm glad you recommended this! Despite some frustrations, it's definitely something I'm glad I played. I'm unsure what to play next; I was thinking maybe Celeste then Undertale, to tick off some of the big ones that most people do know... unless there's something else I should play first?
(There was something I saw recently and thought "I'll play that next!", but I can't remember what it was... Maybe I'll find it again later.)
I usually try to see games I'm playing through, but even I sometimes just give up at some point, usually because I get sidetracked with something else and never return to it. Octopath is the most recent example of that.
Sadly, not all pages change between eras! A lot of pages do, but even the ones that don't count towards completion. There's actually also a lot of pages that are only findable in specific eras but have different variations between eras anyway, and a lot that don't. It made hunting for 100% difficult!
I mostly remember the music that plays on people's pages instead of the downloadable tracks. One other track I did like a lot was Dripp Boy's Mushroom Hop, since it completely misses the point of Fungus Scene and is really catchy. [LINK] I laughed so much as seeing his page in the cavern.
Hm, subtle. I'll say this much: You can narrow down your search to the Teentopia zone during the second time period. Who else has mentioned being interested in m1nx?
Oh, and remember that downloadable text files can have multiple pages you can scroll though!
I would say Hypnospace Outlaw is more niche by design, which is reflected in the size of its consumer base! As for ports to home consoles, the era of that sort of thing coming with any prestige is long gone! The market for indie games is more open than ever, be it PC or console, which has all the boons and banes you'd imagine it has!
I'm glad my recommendation was to your liking! I definitely would recommend both Undertale and Celeste, though I feel that Undertale's strong narrative focus would appeal to you more than Celeste's tricky platforming.
Interesting that the m1nx comments sort of doubled up on the ChitChat logs I found elsewhere, and I suppose both of them would have counted for unlocking the ending? So an alternate paths kind of thing, maybe.
Also, why was Dylan The Villain but Adrian just seemed to get away with everything even though he seemed just as bad if not worse?? I suppose you could say it's because Dylan was responsible for the technology, but still! Maybe I missed something in my 60-something% page discovery...
I've also been listening to the (immensely long) soundtrack, which has many tracks I just don't like at all since they're just rough ambient noise rather than nice melodies, though Klyfta's stuff really hits some specific preferences I have shockingly well! Seems I never even found a whole bunch of the music in game, though; there's a silly childish-sounding Chowder Man song about Hypnospace that I never saw anywhere!
I think I'll start playing Undertale today... Feels like I should make a big deal about it since I have been doing about my avoiding of it for literally years now, but... eh. I feel like a lot of the anxiety has died from just seeing how many other indie devs there are out there recently, and how much my own efforts don't stand out. So I might as well see what people loved so much about Undertale at long last! Maybe I'll even enjoy it!!
The m1nx message board mostly function as clues to find the files you need to send to Sam, you can't actually report anything in m1nx itself since they're open source pages much like the zone hubs. It's the same for the Freelands pages too. I imagine this was done on purpose to show how sloppy the moderating tools for Enforcers are.
Given that Adrian was aware of the findings of the report they commissioned, I'm pretty sure litigation's going to come his way too! Dylan just acts as a more direct antagonist and was more involved in the day-to-day workings of Hypnospace, so I think it's fitting he gets more focus.
I'm quite curious what you'll think of Undertale, and what your run is going to be like! Quite curious indeed!!