Empty.
Everything must go.
“Empty.” is a minimalist zen puzzle game that teaches value of simplicity in life. The goal is to remove all objects by rotating a room.
The game has a novel puzzle mechanic that synergies with the unique stylized look. The flat shading style makes the room contents seamlessly blend with the background, enabling the game mechanic — everything that is no longer visible no longer exists. The player’s goal is to find an angle where objects visually disappear, making the room progressively cleaner and free of clutter.
We have been working on Empty. since thegame prototype took the first place at theLudum Dare 37 competition in December 2016, where it took thefirst place in “Overall” category(Jam). In its prototype form the game has gained many positive reviews here on itch.io. In fact, the kind of support the game had gained here from the outstanding players and developers community — became the encourage boost for making of the new version.
We have polished the game concept by adding the narrative to each level and the game look improving the shading system.
The game currently has 19 levels, which combined are typically solved in 1—3 hours. Each level starts with a stylish narrative that reminds the player to appreciate simplicity in life — to value the small victories and cherish experiences instead of things. To progress to the next level the player has to solve the previous one. The level difficulty is generally low, making it accessible for all ages.
Theoriginal soundtrack was composed to underline the game atmosphere of tranquility and curiosity. The desktop versions have a full soundtrack included. For mobiles and web version, in order to make the files smaller, the OST consists of a bunch of selected tracks from desktop version.
Controls: Pan with mouse or touch.
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A page for the older 2016 version (in case you wondered how it started):http://dustyroom.com/empty-game-ldjam/
Home page for 2020 version:http://dustyroom.com/emptygame/
| Status | Released |
| Platforms | HTML5 |
| Rating | Rated 4.6 out of 5 stars (442 total ratings) |
| Author | Dustyroom |
| Genre | Puzzle |
| Tags | 3D,artgame,Atmospheric,Casual,Ludum Dare 37,minigames,Relaxing,Singleplayer,zen |
| Links | Ludum Dare |
| Mentions | itch.io digest January 2017 |
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Development log
Comments
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For around twenty minutes, I was stuck at this stage too and had attempted it twice after restarting in the hopes of correcting some bug. The items I had left to remove were: blue paper airplane, green desk, red chair, orange desk, navy desk, pink desk, and purple book. However, I just finished the classroom after referencingMobile Gamer Dad's video on YouTube. For some items including the purple book, they must be aligned at a specific angle for them to disappear. Hope you're able to move forward like I was able to!
Nice :D Reminds me of "Vignettes" and "Islands: Non-Places", and also of an old obscure game called "Projective" (https://v3.globalgamejam.org/2014/games/projective).
It says there are 19 levels, but there are currently 24, two of which were added after Icely 4-months-old video, so this game is still being worked on. Perhaps the description should be updated.
I have found a couple bugs. In one early level (8? I forget which), one of the walls became white before anything was absorbed into it, but I couldn't reproduce it. In level 20 (the gardening shed), it is possible to absorb the shears before the lawnmower is gone.
Also, could you please make the game downloadable again?
Same for me :(
Edit: You can play it here: https://dustyroom.itch.io/empty
It's a creative game that made me really think while turning around. It was surprisingly longer than I thought but while it made me a bit antsy I still had a lot of fun doing the puzzle, it really challenged my brain and made me use my braincells! Though I'm not a minimalist, in fact the opposite-- I appreciate the message and find it ironic how you guys are named DustyRoom yet the game is all about minimalist. Well, thank you for creating such a cool game!
