Did anyone else "finish" Proteus? I don't want to spoil it (though it's very basic) I loved finding it organically, and I wanna know if anyone else did too?

I played "through" it over the weekend. Not quite sure how I feel about what I played. While I loved the game's look and it's use of sound and music, my overall opinion of Proteus is a cause of great dissonace. These sorts of open ended experiments make me constantly think I'm missing something. Did I miss some greater game play experience while chasing bee swarms and staring at singing mushrooms? Although, I did like how it all came to an end.

I have played through the current beta about four times. Some wild life only showed up once form me. I'm looking forward to playing the finished version when it is released.

I was starting to zone out, fully engaged in the music, when I opened my eyes and noticed something was....off. What an interesting experience! I'm curious what the full version will bring and I can't wait to go back to the island for another long jam session.

I Got it with the humble bundle a while ago and didn't play it much. Just played through the whole thing now tho and part of me thinks its great and the other part thinks its pants.

Im confused.

The end was a bit weird when I noticed what was happening.

When I played the Alpha version, I got to the end only after I had wandered out to sea. So I was really surprised when the ending crept up on me in the middle of exploring the island, lost and looking for some stones. Evocative, definitely.

It totally took me by surprise. I noticed the usual plan of action wasn't viable when the night came, so I huddled up next to my circle of anthropomorphic statue friends and watched. It took at least 4 minutes before I realised.

The best part is, I have no idea if any of that made sense to anyone else who's played it.

@Mikular: Don't worry, I know exactly what you mean.

@Mikular:

I.....I guess it makes sense to me? Or not? I don't know what's real anymore...

Just....just to be sure: I'm not the only one who just...kinda flew away, right?

@Abendlaender: Yep, same here.

I just completed my island too. I thoroughly enjoyed it and I found it to be incredibly relaxing chasing frogs and trying to get chickens to run through the portal (didn't happen). But what I want to know is

So is it basically you were dead/in a coma generic indie nonsense. I was kind of hoping for more

@weegieanawrench said:

@Abendlaender: Yep, same here.

I just completed my island too. I thoroughly enjoyed it and I found it to be incredibly relaxing chasing frogs and trying to get chickens to run through the portal (didn't happen). But what I want to know is

SPOILER WARNING: Click here to reveal hidden content.

are there more extras to mess with upon another completion, and just what exactly does "wilder generation" mean?

Okay great. that means I'm not insane, phew.

What I would like to know is, if I "already" discovered everything there is to this game. Has anybody found any good use for the white sparkling frog? I'm just asking cause I don't know if I can play the game again, I have experienced it and I don't think I can or want just "do that again". So besides from the stuff they showed in the QuickLook, here is something I discovered (and I'm pretty sure a lot of other people too)

When you stand in the middle of the statues and look to the stars (at night) the stars go completely insane

@Blimble That's one way to look at it. I will say that I first played it having come in from a particularly stressful 5 hour study session, and I haven't had a more powerful relaxant in a long time. It nails the whole "tranquil exploration" thing to a greater degree than any other game I've played. Easily worth the £6.50 (or whatever $) for insomniacs and the overworked.

@Abendlaender: I haven't found any use for the white frog, no. Maybe he can go through the portal? Or perhaps you can send him through the season portal at night? As for

@Mikular: The whole just walk around and watch odd stuff seems like something I would like (maybe not for £6.50), I just can't be bothered with it if it does to many of those indie game deep things.

@Mikular said:

It totally took me by surprise. I noticed the usual plan of action wasn't viable when the night came, so I huddled up next to my circle of anthropomorphic statue friends and watched. It took at least 4 minutes before I realised.

The best part is, I have no idea if any of that made sense to anyone else who's played it.

I don't know if this is the ending, or what people consider the ending but I've seen it a bunch of times. The first time I saw the acid trip thing that happens with the statues at night I freaked out and ran straight into the bug circle at night. I think it was extra freaky because an asteroid shower started at night when I started the statues. The second time I went to the statues at night and saw what happens at the end.

Both experiences were sombering to say the least. My eyes were wide open during both, slack jawed sort of experience.

@weegieanawrench:

I mean the animal statues

@Abendlaender: Ah okay, I haven't seen that. There is still some stuff I haven't seen yet. Someone in the community hub on steam posted a screen of

fleeing from your dude.

@weegieanawrench said:

@Abendlaender: Ah okay, I haven't seen that. There is still some stuff I haven't seen yet. Someone in the community hub on steam posted a screen of

SPOILER WARNING: Click here to reveal hidden content.

a man or black creature

fleeing from your dude.

WAIT WHAT?

@thabigred: http://cloud.steampowered.com/ugc/882972850842598329/0A7DC903B5236B09D83BD242FC4256A1023A1186/1024x640.resizedimage

@thabigred: Here's the screen.

@weegieanawrench said:

@thabigred: Here's the screen.

Holy fucking shit! That is...scary

Maybe that's the guy who lives in the house! Oh man.....

@Blimble That's actually something I really like about it: it's not the typical Jon Blow "give you something vague then hit your over the head with its deep philosophical implications" type deal. For me, it's just an extremely pretty game about watching around and chasing frogs. The only thing I would construe as being obtuse in that way is that there's a bunch of stones dotted around, and some of them are shaped like coffins.

So that's it you guys I think I'm just going to turn on a playlist of Israel Kamakawiwoʻole, play Proteus and just zone the fuck out for a few hours. Hopefully I run into the this mystery man, maybe not, either way it's going to be glorious.

My ending was just floating up into the sky and my eyes closing on a wintery island with lots of clouds low to the ground. Pretty weird game.

Before the jump to that island I was chasing a ghost but it kept running behind trees and disappearing???? Ghosts, man.....

My curiosity of finding out if there is some bigger picture to these types of games, always ruins my excitement to actually play these types of games. :/

I wouldn't call it a "bigger picture" necessarily. I really like the eye opening and the eye closing at the end, after you float away. It almost makes it like a long abstract music video. I dunno, I liked it and it was cool surprise.

I personally thought the "ending" was great and totally didn't expect it. It was interesting.

I have not played the game but I did watch a video and I am curious about the end.

Screenshots of my "experiences" .. i also chased a white frog and found another white frog and spent some time making them hop at one another ... but yeh ...

SPOILER WARNING: Click here to reveal hidden content.

Gallery

Just Thought id leave these here , saw some crazy shit , like the city walls that sprung up around a tower , and the red night star insane shit, then the black guy appeared and stared at me and ran off when i moved , then i just wandered in a daze as things got hazy and i realized id walked thru a "desert" that was the ocean and then i was walking in the clouds and i looked at the moon and it ended ..

i need to process all of this

One thing I saw on my third play though was giant sheets of northern lights in the sky, as I was approaching the endgame. That was definitely different. I also liked seeing what happens in "autumn" when you stand in the middle of the statues at night. Still no sign of this dude from the screenshot posted earlier in this thread though...and I hung around the house/cottage often, in case he comes from there or something.

Anyone figured out a reliable way to find that guy yet?

@envane Yeah, I did that whole bit about walking through what I thought was a desert too. This "piece of interactive art" ('cuz I hesitate to call it a game) is really weird and cool.

I just played this game and loved it. I found the lack of structure oddly refreshing and relaxing. Like anything abstract I found that i was trying to give meaning to everything that was happening and i came up with some interesting ideas of what the artist where trying to convey. I did run into the man that took me to the large tree in the forest. Also you will find a few of the tree's "Friends"? when you follow him. They kinda look like white foxes that hide behind trees... Does this make sense to anyone?? Anyway, the changing seasons and day night cycles where really fun to play around with. (Try standing in the circle of statues at night;) Did anyone fly at the end? Cause i did... i ended up flying to the circle of statues and things got really funky. I dont know if that's the right way to describe it. Great game and worth the $10.00, hell i have done less with more money. Flying? Anyone? And no, im not high. Although it would be fun. Stop looking for the next "Thing" and just enjoy your experience not everything has to be a F'ing fetch quest.

Ok, so I got the dude. In fact, I've gotten him consistently now in two games, and once I made him reappear 4 times in a row. In case this helps, I did it by standing in the middle of the statues at night in autumn. If you stay there for a bit, a whole bunch of those white ball things will suddenly leap out of the ground all around you. If you then step outside the circle, the dude should appear right in the middle of it when the sky turns black again. You can chase him, and it seems like one of two things will happen: If he suddenly disappears in plain sight, then YOU will suddenly gain his ability to walk around leaving a glowing trail behind you. If you chase him far enough though, eventually he disappears into/around a tree, usually the largest tree on your island (or maybe that was just a coincidence with me).

So far, out of 6 plays, the things I've seen that are "rare" and seem random (ie. I can't get them to happen again):

1. Northern lights in the sky in winter, during the endgame. They're just a set of 3 or 4 huge overlapping semi-transparent, brightly colored pixel sheets in the sky, but they look really cool.

2. In spring, at night, a pair of "flying snakes" that kind of follow each other around in the sky. No wings and funky looking heads, and they just kind of slither around...weird.

3. In the summer, at night, a "collection" of those glowing balls, in a sphere that hovers just above the level of the trees. It just hangs there and makes a really cool sound. You can walk around under it and look at it from different angles, but it doesn't move or react to you at all.

4. A "ghost" thing. It's like a white, semi-transparent inverted triangle that hovers around the trunk of a tree. It looks like it might have a face, but hard to tell because it disappears when you get too close, and then promptly reappears when you move or look away.

Otherwise, everything I've seen has been something I've been able to find and/or cause in any given playthrough.

Another thing that seems completely random is the teleporters. I had one game where there was only one, and walking up to it did nothing. The next game, I had 3, and you could teleport from one to another, but it seemed to randomly coin-toss decide which one I ended up at.

...as you can tell, I'm really loving this game for some reason...

Edit: I suppose #4 above is probably the fox or wolf that others have mentioned. I did see it after chasing the "owl man" dude.

@thabigred: @weegieanawrench: Found that one as well.

Exploring the island was incredible. I really enjoyed fall.

The black man appeared for me on the mountain top with statues during the summer night. The sky will change color and then back again, then when you turn around he is standing there. Freaked me out the first time. He immediately starts running, always to the big tree for me, where he disappears. Hang out at the tree for a little bit and you will see the fox who plays a game of hide and seek with you, ducking behind trees. It seemed like the fox was leading me somewhere, but I lost track of it when the bell sounded and the star portal appeared. Also, there does seem to be multiple endings. I got the northern lights one, the blank sky one, and the meteor chimes one so far.

@weegieanawrench: I had this happen to me too.

It made my heart stop the first time I seen it though.

Since this seems to be the thread for it, I'll bring it up here. I've seen mentioned in a couple places, related to the teleporters, that there's some way to "stop time". Does anyone know how to do this? Is it by exploiting some kind of bug, or a legit feature? Just curious, because it seems like the only thing left that I haven't seen in this game.

I played some more of proteus last night. Does anything happen after you see him? I couldn't get past any season after the dark nightmarish season. Brad made it sound like there was a rebirth in the podcast but I got none of that.

@thabigred: Did you get to the end?

I just finished it myself. I was genuinely surprised when I realized something about the movement wasn't right towards the end. Very cool, and very different

I'm wondering if I missed out on things happening on the island.

On my playthrough the island was completely devoid of life after the summer. In the winter I climbed the mountain and a giant aurora appeared above the clouds. I started to walk towards it, but instead of going walking back down the mountain I floated inside the clouds, but still had movement. So I flew towards the aurora, eventually ending up inside of it and between it's colours.

Upon writing that, I realise that it sounds exactly like trying to describe a dream to someone!

I kept seeing a white owl, anyone else see this?