Awkward Dimensions Redux

An extremely raw and deeply personal game that has some notes from the beginners guide

Going by whats in game some people see this as a self-loathing artist simulator by way of that 14 year old theater kid who thought he was destined to make art in all things and who's very life and calling is dependent on the expression of the intangible and other ♥♥♥♥ those kinda kids say that makes people cringe - even the people who love them. Some other people see this as a truly heartfelt, earnest, sincere attempt at putting a lot of what is inside the creator out there for everyone to see. with some of it being easy to parse, other parts, not so much. with some parts being playful and fun, lightweight and silly, and others being uncanny, odd, surreal, unsettling, and at least in one scene, pretty relatable, inspiring, and depending on your life experience, heartbreaking. So my take, as i'm sure others have to, is that this is actually both of those things at the exact same time in equal measure, which creates something that in a way is a lot more human, real, and efficiently done then a lot of more subtle self-referential artistic content on steam, let alone dream simulators. for that and the fact that its free, punchy, ran well for me anyway, and didn't overstay its welcome…

This is a collection of surreal dreams, some better than others. I played this 10 years ago, and, for some reason, I really liked it back then. I was a teen in an early stage of having depression, everything was so confusing. And that's when I started finding comfort in games, to distract myself from real life. And this game was one of the first free games on Steam that I randomly played. Today I replayed it again, and I can't help but feel a nice nostalgia about it. Life has changed a lot, but I still play random games like this to feel something. The level with the chat in the sky still hits as hard as 10 years ago... This is not a perfect game, but I'm glad I found it back then. Thanks for sharing your dreams.

This is the type of game that just doesn't make sense, but at the same time does make sense. Weirdly enough, you find yourself connecting and relating to it.

So I really like the idea of this game. Others' dreams have fascinated me as much as my own. However the cheeky "Wear headphones" intro being voiced in a low and nearly inaudible tone despite my volume setting already had me expecting the loud sounds that were coming. Thankfully it didn't blow my speakers but it caused my receiver output to distort. The gameplay seems interesting but the controls are unbelievably clunky for something that's billed as the 'redux', presumably of a prior version of the game. The player moves in a very laggy way reminiscent of a tile-based RPG maker game, resulting in movement both starting and stopping out of time with the player's input. Jumping is much the same, with a laggy delay. Loading between 'dreams' is also a bit jarring but that's forgivable; a transitional fade would be appreciated however. Soundtrack seems promising enough but, again, distorts due to bad mixing. Initial play of the game resulted in immediately crashing my entire system into a full reboot; playing on a lower resolution in a window is recommended on Steamdeck. I see a lot of comparisons to 'Beginner's Guide' but from what I played (not a lot) it felt more like Yume Nikki …

I felt confused at first because I didn't know what I was getting myself into. But as I progressed through the game, I discovered a very intimate interactive work of art by an artist who opens up and talks about his inner struggles in a very vulnerable and touching way. It's certainly not for everyone! But personally, it's an experience that left a strong impression on me, and that I also somewhat resonated with.