YIIK: A Post Modern RPG / Ackk Studios / Andrew Allanson - "I wanted to make a game with a protagonist who was very unlikeable" - From Someone who is equally unlikeable. Currently developing Version I.V (1.5)

[LucasSomething]

Do you think the game would have been received better if it had no voice acting at all like originally planned? They only had it fully voiced because the publisher pressured them to.

It's easy to use hindsight and say yeah, but i dont think so. If the game had no Voice acting i think people would just skip dialogue en mass and whine about not understanding the plot. The game has an impressive amount of voice acting that is worth praising.

But i think they'd hate Alex less because without a voice, it's easier to directly bash the writer and not the character, and doing that maybe they'd catch on the narrator being unreliable a little better. With the way he's voiced, Alex sounds "too honest therefore unselfaware" so there is little room for interpretation or nuance, he is just too easy to hate.

Like, i'm sure Andrew wanted people to hate alex of course but i think he assumed it would take longer to get there. Alex telling Rory no one cares feels like a shocking moment where the mask finally slips but the average player already hates him for awhile. It also doesnt land that well cause Rory is a garbage unit and whiny meaning a lot of people hate him more than alex.

If the player read Alex dialogue out loud it would be harder to hate him and easier to catch some red flags, like him getting the cat's gender wrong. Andrew is right when he said people "understand" in a novel but not in a game, but it's not impossible. You just need to know when to be vague and when to be unsubtle like in say, silent hill 2.

 

[JamusActimus]

Rory is a garbage unit and whiny meaning a lot of people hate him more than alex.

Exactly weirdly enough gameplay performance influences how a character is seen.

Like Rory would be more liked if he was a top tier unit.

 

[X Prime]

Exactly weirdly enough gameplay performance influences how a character is seen.

Yeah, people really don't get this, it's wild. It's probably part of why, say, Sephiroth is so hyped up, because of how overpowered he is in the Nibelheim flashback.

 

[Peru oso donas]

Another reason why the "nobody cares about your dead sister" scene fails at making Alex the badguy, is that at point the player probably won't know about the meta narrative of Alex lying to you, so they will take the scene at face value and agree with Alex about Rory taking them for a wild goose chase because he couldn't cope with his Sister's death.

 

[LucasSomething]

Exactly weirdly enough gameplay performance influences how a character is seen.

Like Rory would be more liked if he was a top tier unit.

Alex too, his original attack minigame was too difficult and every player i saw struggled with it and hated Alex further for feeling so weak.

The first update made it a single tap but made him fire element which i heard is the worst element so he's still sucks outside of LP Toss having broken late game scaling.

Another reason why the "nobody cares about your dead sister" scene fails at making Alex the badguy, is that at point the player probably won't know about the meta narrative of Alex lying to you, so they will take the scene at face value and agree with Alex about Rory taking them for a wild goose chase because he couldn't cope with his Sister's death.

It's weird cause Alex did get a lot of hate for that but i feel over the years the meme became so present, especially on reddit, that more people found the context of the full line ("We almost just died ourselves!") and actually started siding with Alex.

And like, i changed my mind too lol. Even if they didnt almost die, Rory going "That's fine and dandy but it doesnt solve MY problems!" and "Do you realize realize my sister killed herself?!" and its like Rory is traumadumping on strangers he met 30 minutes ago.

 

[GratsTheat783]

And like, i changed my mind too lol. Even if they didnt almost die, Rory going "That's fine and dandy but it doesnt solve MY problems!" and "Do you realize realize my sister killed herself?!" and its like Rory is traumadumping on strangers he met 30 minutes ago.

Apparently Rory's supposed to be a mirror of Alex. Where Alex regards himself as the most important, Rory regards himself as not important at all. Rory lies about his sister's disappearance mirror Alex lying about Semi Pak. The golden alpaca scene is apparently supposed to represent Alex making the situation about him again which is why it's so out of nowhere. It's also inserted to try and justify Alex's berating of Rory.

The best defence I've seen of Alex at that part is that Rory literally made them trudge through a sewer for several hours under the pre-tense that they were looking for his sister. Unless you had the patience of a Saint, which Vella and Micheal have apparently, you'd probably be upset too regardless of the reasoning for it. Although, Alex brings his friends on a multi-month goose chase for a girl who he lies about having witnessed disappear, so maybe they're even.

I was reading through the steam forums for YIIK and found out that you can glitch out of the map to get to the lighthouse. Unfortunately they must have made the lighthouse inaccessible since I couldn't access it. You have to go to the bowling place, drive into the mountains left of it and nudge yourself down. You'll need to fiddle a bit to get out onto the water, but you can get out of the map that way.

Here's some stuff the devs have said about the game on the forums.

 

[LucasSomething]

Apparently Rory's supposed to be a mirror of Alex. Where Alex regards himself as the most important, Rory regards himself as not important at all. Rory lies about his sister's disappearance mirror Alex lying about Semi Pak. The golden alpaca scene is apparently supposed to represent Alex making the situation about him again which is why it's so out of nowhere. It's also inserted to try and justify Alex's berating of Rory.

The best defence I've seen of Alex at that part is that Rory literally made them trudge through a sewer for several hours under the pre-tense that they were looking for his sister. Unless you had the patience of a Saint, which Vella and Micheal have apparently, you'd probably be upset too regardless of the reasoning for it. Although, Alex brings his friends on a multi-month goose chase for a girl who he lies about having witnessed disappear, so maybe they're even.

I was reading through the steam forums for YIIK and found out that you can glitch out of the map to get to the lighthouse. Unfortunately they must have made the lighthouse inaccessible since I couldn't access it. You have to go to the bowling place, drive into the mountains left of it and nudge yourself down. You'll need to fiddle a bit to get out onto the water, but you can get out of the map that way. View attachment 6483913
Here's some stuff the devs have said about the game on the forums.
View attachment 6483945View attachment 6483962

>Both endings are canon because reality is getting destroyed so anything is possible
>Essentia lied to alex except for reality is totally breaking which is what matters
>Every random gag and quirky joke like Claudio diving in water behind his counter is proof reality is breaking

What is wrong with this game where it both lies to you but also expects you to take quirky jokes as serios signals of the apocalypse.

Also, if true, this is retarded because i thought reality ending was supposed to be symbolic to Alex refusing to grow up??? Is it actually ending for realsies?? But why? Does this mean Alex is truly the center of the universe??

How do i know what is Alex being an unreliable narrator and what is reality breaking apart? Is he a modern hipster hallucinating that he's in the 90's or did the timelines mix because the world is ending? This is why nobody understands this game.

EVEN if this story made sense, this whole plotline of alternate realities and "soul sharing" is lame and stupid. These posts are from 2019 and not from the Allansons so it might be just their interpretation. We'll see how the 1.5 update changes the plot.

 

[LucasSomething]

https://steamcommunity.com/app/459080/eventcomments/4700161008290006479?snr=1_5_9_

Yiik 1.5 has "gone gold" today meaning it's finally ready. No release date given but it should be "soon".

 

[HexFag]

https://steamcommunity.com/app/459080/eventcomments/4700161008290006479?snr=1_5_9_

Yiik 1.5 has "gone gold" today meaning it's finally ready. No release date given but it should be "soon".

Is there something wrong with me that I'm vaguely curious about yiik 1.5? I'm genuinely curious if anything changed between the 5 years between 1.0 and this release and if they took any criticisms to heart. I don't think its gonna be GOTY tier, I don't even think it's going to end up as a good product. I'm just curious about what kind of mess this game will be.

 

[LavaBat]

Is there something wrong with me that I'm vaguely curious about yiik 1.5? I'm genuinely curious if anything changed between the 5 years between 1.0 and this release and if they took any criticisms to heart. I don't think its gonna be GOTY tier, I don't even think it's going to end up as a good product. I'm just curious about what kind of mess this game will be.

From talking with the developers (and their fans), they've added an entire section of the update dedicated to bitching about youtubers, streamers, and anyone who hated the game. They unironically believe that the main reason people hate YIIK is because of the negative videos and memes people made about it.

Why do you think in all their post-release interviews and streams they want people to replay the game so badly?

 

[Ravana]

Oh good, I was afraid they were making the game less cringe

 

[GratsTheat783]

From talking with the developers (and their fans), they've added an entire section of the update dedicated to bitching about youtubers, streamers, and anyone who hated the game. They unironically believe that the main reason people hate YIIK is because of the negative videos and memes people made about it.

Why do you think in all their post-release interviews and streams they want people to replay the game so badly?

On a livestream I watched, they said they weren't expecting the update to change anyone's minds and that they also didn't care that much about YouTubers' criticisms of the game.

 

[Mobster Monitor]

We have an announcement date for the announcement of the release date.


Michael front and center, huh?

 

[Hee]

We have an announcement date for the announcement of the release date.
View attachment 6638636

Michael front and center, huh?

One of the things I’m kind of excited for is the expansion of Michael’s character and interests. Having fully animated cutscenes has allowed for some pretty cool choices.

The cutscene when you meet Rory showcased in a stream showed me a glimpse of that. Showing Michael look at the photo of Carrie(?) in realization/shock while Rory and Alex are spouting unimportant bullshit is a good use of what was originally a scene that annoyed me in 1.0.

Unsure of how good I.V. will be in terms of story, but I’m hoping that with these changes we get something engaging and interesting . I hope the “obscure and experimental B Movie of games” approach they’re taking pays off because I really enjoy the gameplay now as it is.

 

[Mobster Monitor]

The update will release on the 2nd of December.

https://youtu.be/4JPgKdo5HSo

I dunno why I'm excited for this, the only game I really like this year was Amber Island so I hope Yiik saves 2024 and becomes my 'goty'.

 

[30+GameOvers]

Was it ever explained why Micheal was wearing a Chris Chan shirt? There is no way the devs didn't know.

 

[Decoy St. Chum]

I think it's only fair that people are interested in this game. I am too. I don't want to play it, but I like knowing about it. It's such a self-absorbed, strange, downright arrogant game. People are confused on what it's trying to say but it's trying to say something! I think that's what's attractive about it - it's not a throwaway Unity asset flip. Ubisoft couldn't make this game. Only Ackk Studios could. It's an attempt at art fucked up in a supremely honest, human way and I think it matters a lot. We as humans respect effort and good intentions often as much as we do the result of said effort.

 

[Bruno Powroznik]

This video appeared in my subs today

Local Archive

I felt that this video was oddly positive and trying really hard to say that the other reviews are "bad faith" and then i saw that andrew gave this fucker early access to the update, what a shock, i'm sure its just a massive coincidence that this came out when it did.


The funniest part to me is this



he didn't even watch a quarter of running shine's video before labeling it as "misrepresentative" "excessively crass". what a huge faggot

 

[Haramburger]

On a livestream I watched, they said they weren't expecting the update to change anyone's minds and that they also didn't care that much about YouTubers' criticisms of the game.

Well that turned out to be a fucking lie. The only reason a major patch like this exists years after launch is because of the youtubers and the volume of content. Seeing then this other guy go and hate-rate the analysis videos without even fully consuming them, lol. At the very least they could've skipped to watch/listen to the last 5-10 minutes of RunningShine, obviously a ton of work was put into it.

Oh well, enjoy launching against PATH OF EXILE 2 RETARD

 

[deepfriedfritter]

Most of his talking points are just the same shit from Hellkrai's unhinged videos which he shills at the end, so I have to ask; is any of this analysis of the game his own original thoughts?

Like is the narrative that the story of YIIK takes place in Alex's head something he concluded solely from playing the game? Because to me it seems like he played the game, was impressed by the weird visuals and then looked up some lore videos. Which is what most YIIK fans do when they do the whole "dig deeper to find out the true story" shit.

I'm starting to think he didn't even watch the videos he's putting on blast at the beginning but instead watched Hellkrai's autistic ranting streams.