Hineini
Hineini is an isometric indie game, exploring the intersectional space between religious culture and sexual identity. The central character, Levi, navigates a hostile social environment, discovering who will support him. Set during Channukah, as each day another candle is lit, so also his personal exploration of his emotions becomes clearer. He rebels against his traditionally practicing parents, seeks the language to describe his experience and searches for a place where he belongs. The game explores the opposing desires of belonging and queerness, the pressure to linguistically and performatively conform even in queer contexts and the inevitability of questioning, fearing and loving. The player is brought along with Levi on this journey, helping him to make decisions that affect the social circumstances of his exploration.
The game is being shown at the Central Saint Martins 2023 degree show this June. And is planned to be exhibited at the B3 Biennale and the Frakfurt Book Fair in October 2023.
Work by software developer Joshua Gundlach and 3D artist Ariel Jacob
- use WASD or arrows to navigate the space.
- glide the mouse on the screen until you find a glowing icon and click to speak with your family or interact with the objects around you.
- To continue the converation, click on the dialogue box.
- To end the conversation, click on the cross at the top right corner of the dialogue box.
- To leave the room, click on the glowing door icon.
Enjoy!
Joshua Gundlach - [email protected] - http://singingstranger.com/
Ariel Jacob - [email protected] - https://www.arieljacob.com/
Status | In development |
Platforms | HTML5, Windows |
Rating | Rated 5.0 out of 5 stars (5 total ratings) |
Authors | Ariel Jacob, singingstranger |
Genre | Educational |
Made with | Unity |
Tags | 2D, Blender, faith, Gay, Isometric, jewish, LGBT, Queer, religion, Unity |
Average session | A few minutes |
Languages | English |
Inputs | Keyboard, Mouse |
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Comments
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Hey. I don't quite know where to start. First:
The very first screen with text disappears so fast that I didnt get to read it. I sadly can't rly tell you what screen I mean because it was just gone in a second but it had quite some text I intuitively tried to read.
For the first scene, classroom: I like the design of the room, the layout and all that but I wish there was something to interact with other than students. Just for the sake of it you know. There is a PC, the trash bin and other 'clutter' which could be used to either give the player information about the character of the protagonist by having him comment on things he sees (on the items the player clicks) or could help to get the player into the setting by giving background information to the story.
I did quite some transcription work and do know some terms you used but I think a regular player will be lost at the start without any explenation to some of the terms. (I am currently helping a professor of jewish history in my personal project - if you need any help let me know!!!)
After the dialog, actually before doing the dialogues I was trying to interact with things to triggers lines, actions or eastereggs. Kinda like in the flat later on.
So far it seems the theme continues like it and I wont point it out over and over but I hope you see it's something I personally wish to see. (love to detail)
Another thing I noticed that is not bad but got me confused for a bit:
It is possible to talk to everyone no matter how far away you are so technically you dont need to move the character at all- on the other hand you can walk around while talking to people which first looked like a bug to me but now I am sure it is not.
Slap me for being picky but I hope it helps you understand how a player approaches the game.
Finally a screenshot bound to a question: Are we smol or is this counter huge?
(Please check for a later edit on this post or a reply to myself, I want to start over and try it again paying less attantion to the dialogue)
I'd say this is a good attempt at a 3Dish visual novel but I so far dont see why the character needs to move around - it would be cool to have interactions disabled when too far from the object or player because else I find myself playing with only M1.
I like the 'play in days' concept though. Not sure yet if the decisions did influence the game and how much^^
Do I make sense? :C
Edit: I noticed that the speech bubbles disappear once you hover the mouse to them. I thought: maybe I can click the spot regardless. I did figure that I need to click the character but wondered if it was supposed to disappear :)
A solution I'd like is to either have them visible all the time or have them grey (white opac.) and full opac white when hovered.
Edit2: Hand Icon on 'kids' room closet flickers when hovered
Edit3: Bathroom sink string is untranslated - if that's on purpose it is not clear what it means
Thank you for your feedback, we appreciate you taking the time to write it <3
the art style/graphics are gorgeous!
Loving it so far!!
I accidentally pressed esc and it closed the game. Now I've lost progress where I don't have the flier, or options to do with the flier (like characters being present in locations that depend on it) no matter what day I select to resume the story. I'll start again another day.
Nice that it works as an oh shit button incase you need to close the game quickly
Lucky you! :D I clicked to fast sometimes and cant go back without cleaning my browser ^^
nice