The Longing

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The Longing
Studio Studio sigh
Publisher Application Systems Heidelberg
Senior Developer Anselm Pyta
Erstveröffent-
lichung		 5th March 2020
platform Windows , Linux , macOS
genre Idle game
Game mode Single player
control Mouse keyboard
medium Download
language English, German, French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Russian, Korean, Chinese

The Longing is an indie - point-and-click adventure and Idle Game German development studio Sigh, which was released on March 5, the 2020th Based on the Kyffhauser saga , the game is about a being called "shadow", who is given the task of waiting 400 days in order to be able to awaken a sleeping king. During this waiting period, the shadow must find ways to pass the time. The main feature of the game is that the 400 days begin to run in real time, regardless of whether the game is open or not. The Longing received positive reviews and was praised for its experimental nature.

Game principle and plot

The gameplay of The Longing is based on a real-time countdown of 400 days during which the player character named "Shadow" waits to wake his king. The interaction with the game world is deliberately designed to be slow, for example due to the slow speed of the shadow. The gameplay mainly involves exploring caves, collecting resources to furnish the Shadow's home with furnishings, and other past-time activities such as painting and reading. The books mainly consist of classical literature such as Moby-Dick and Also sprach Zarathustra , which were provided by Project Gutenberg . Many aspects of the game are time-dependent, for example gates which only open after a long time to reveal new areas. The game is designed in such a way that functions such as a waypoint system allow at least partial progress without the player having to be active. This enables the shadow to automatically move to a previously saved position, directly into your home or to a random position.

The main objective of the player is based on a list of things that can improve the life of the shadow, however, none of the activities are absolutely necessary, since the time in the game inevitably increases regardless of external influences. Nevertheless, there are ways to manipulate time, such as staying in the "Halls of Eternity", since time stands still there. In addition, the time runs faster if the home is nicely furnished by the shade, or if certain actions such as reading or making music are carried out. Due to the constant running time, it is possible to play the game through by starting it after 400 days in order to wake up the king, even if this is not the intended course of the game. To prevent cheating , the game has a prison in which the player is locked if the computer's system time is changed. The game has different endings, but not all of them are based on the 400 day waiting period.

Development and publication

The story of The Longing was mainly inspired by the Kyffhauser saga , in particular by a dwarf from the poem "Der alten Barbarossa" by Friedrich Rückert , which is based on the saga. There a dwarf is tasked with checking every 100 years whether the king is ready to wake up. Anselm Pyta, the lead developer of The Longing , found the character interesting and focused on him and his mental state. Accordingly, the game was developed around the theme of loneliness. The game principle was inspired by idle games such as Clicker Heroes . Before the release there was a demo, which could be seen at AdventureX 2020. The game was released on March 5, 2020 on Steam for Windows , macOS and Linux .

reception

The Longing received positive praise for its experimental narrative structure in the trade press and received several computer game awards. An average score of 76% was achieved on Metacritic .

Awards and nominations

price category Result Web link
2020 German Computer Game Award Best debut won
2020 Independent Games Festival Nuovo Award nominated
A MAZE 2019 Long Feature Award won
Animated Games Award Germany 2019 nominated
Ludicious Zurich Game Festival 2020 Innovation in Games Award won

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f g Gita Jackson: One Way To Beat This Upcoming Puzzle Game Is To Wait 400 Days ( en-us ) December 18, 2020. Accessed May 1, 2020.
  2. ↑ James Cunningham: The Longing Completes its Yearning for Release ( en-US ) March 6, 2020. Retrieved May 3, 2020.
  3. ↑ Rebekah Valentine: Designing the end of all Longing ( en ) February 27, 2020. Accessed May 4, 2020.
  4. ↑ Jesee Gregoire: The Longing Review - Jump Dash Roll . March 5, 2020. Accessed May 6, 2020.
  5. ↑ a b c Riley MacLeod: The Longing, Which Can Take Over A Year To Finish, Encourages You To Embrace Waiting ( en-us ) March 9, 2020. Retrieved May 1, 2020.
  6. ↑ Alice Bell: The deep darkness of caves and mushrooms in The Longing ( en-US ) March 12, 2020. Retrieved May 1, 2020.
  7. ↑ a b Jupiter Hadley: 'The Longing' Explores Gloomy Depths Over 400 Real-World Days ( en-US ) November 25, 2019. Retrieved May 1, 2020.
  8. ↑ Alice Bell: I have finished the sad tamogotchi game that is The Longing ( en-US ) April 2, 2020. Retrieved May 16, 2020.
  9. ↑ Joel Couture: Road to the IGF: Studio Seufz's THE LONGING ( en ) February 18, 2020. Accessed June 14, 2020.
  10. ↑ Pass 400 days underground in IGF-nominee The Longing, coming to Steam on March 5 (Win / Mac / Linux review copies available now) ( en ) Retrieved June 14, 2020.
  11. ↑ : THE LONGING: ( en ) Accessed May 1, 2020.
  12. ↑ Young Talent Awards : Best Debut The Longing . March 28, 2020. Accessed May 4, 2020.
  13. ↑ Finalists and Winners ( en ) September 22, 2016. Accessed May 1, 2020.
  14. ↑ A MAZE: Long Feature Award goes to: @AnselmPyta with The Longing # Amaze2019 # AMazeAwardspic.twitter.com / eogPz0q4Ik ( en ) April 12, 2019. Accessed May 1, 2020.
  15. ↑ THE LONGING press kit . Retrieved May 2, 2020.
  16. ↑ Ludicious Winners ( en )