Bathos

October 21, 2011 1:02 PM

Bathos. A simple puzzle game. Avoid reading spoilers! Players may want to avoid this thread until finished with the game.
posted by kmz (57 comments total)

So, uh, did I miss something, or was that really all there was?
posted by Guernsey Halleck at 1:11 PM on October 21, 2011

Hah! I accidentally figured it out when I hit the right "key" by accident. I had to play it again to be sure that right way.
posted by roguewraith at 1:12 PM on October 21, 2011

I was really hoping it was going to be the key with the traffic light handle because that was the sweetest key.
posted by SharkParty at 1:14 PM on October 21, 2011 [4 favorites]

Cute?
posted by lumensimus at 1:17 PM on October 21, 2011

A better game might be made in 24 hours if there were actually a game to it.
posted by rikschell at 1:17 PM on October 21, 2011 [1 favorite]

Ok, I admit I don't get it. Cute design but I'm missing the point I think
posted by pointystick at 1:20 PM on October 21, 2011 [1 favorite]

Er, yeah, I ran out of patience with this before I actually found a solution.
posted by Inkoate at 1:27 PM on October 21, 2011

It made me feel silly, and I really enjoyed it. The absurdity of the key fountain was great, I wish it had gone on forever.
posted by stresstwig at 1:29 PM on October 21, 2011 [1 favorite]

I kind of feel like I already know that I spend a lot of time doing pointless things, and that this game doesn't need to remind me. Also, it's maybe too clever by half.

Metagaming this simple is unsatisfying, and not just in the way it wants to be.
posted by emilycardigan at 1:29 PM on October 21, 2011 [1 favorite]

Found the spoiler online. That game was hateful and not one bit funny.
posted by mochapickle at 1:30 PM on October 21, 2011 [5 favorites]

This took 48 hours??
posted by ReeMonster at 1:34 PM on October 21, 2011 [2 favorites]

Escape the room, indeed.
posted by rouftop at 1:35 PM on October 21, 2011

lol troll game
posted by East Manitoba Regional Junior Kabaddi Champion '94 at 1:37 PM on October 21, 2011 [6 favorites]

For this to have even remote chance of being clever, hitting x to start better damn well start the thing. It didn't - 4/5 times, leaving me to wonder if, somehow that was the joke.
posted by not_that_epiphanius at 1:39 PM on October 21, 2011

It was probably hilarious on paper. (I found a spoiler and facepalmed.)
posted by quoz at 1:46 PM on October 21, 2011

Oh hey great. Nothing.
posted by penduluum at 1:46 PM on October 21, 2011

I admit that I laughed when I figured out the solution. To be fair it did give me several hints, one of which I eventually solved.
posted by muddgirl at 1:47 PM on October 21, 2011 [1 favorite]

Figured out the solution, rolled eyes forcefully.
posted by marginaliana at 1:50 PM on October 21, 2011 [1 favorite]

That was the equivalent to watching my five year old nephew tell a knock knock joke. On the other hand, it did keep me from working for 10 min. it has that going for it.
posted by Gygesringtone at 1:54 PM on October 21, 2011

bathos |ˈbāTHäs|
noun
(esp. in a work of literature) an effect of anticlimax created by an unintentional lapse in mood from the sublime to the trivial or ridiculous.
posted by basicchannel at 2:05 PM on October 21, 2011 [7 favorites]

I tried piling up the keys on the right. Took too long. :(
posted by EtzHadaat at 2:07 PM on October 21, 2011 [2 favorites]

groan
posted by defcom1 at 2:09 PM on October 21, 2011

Hey, have you guys played Steamshovel Harry (previously)? Much better waste of your time, in my opinion.
posted by The Winsome Parker Lewis at 2:12 PM on October 21, 2011 [1 favorite]

Ugh - puzzle yes, game no. Not worth the time wasted, although I was amused by all the different key types.
posted by YAMWAK at 2:13 PM on October 21, 2011 [1 favorite]

Ok. Can we hunt this "game" designer down and feed him his keyboard or something?
posted by loquacious at 2:14 PM on October 21, 2011

This game falls into that category of games that the creators of the game would not want to play.
posted by bdc34 at 2:18 PM on October 21, 2011 [1 favorite]

Well geez. I thought it was cute.
posted by lucidium at 2:27 PM on October 21, 2011 [1 favorite]

:( Can we hunt the game designer down and give him a Nobel Prize? I suggest that economics one.
posted by muddgirl at 2:28 PM on October 21, 2011

I don't mind metagaming if I'm led into it in some way but as the first and only thing to actually do in a game? No thanks.
posted by MUD at 2:28 PM on October 21, 2011

OK, so it's a bad joke. The problem is that it lacks the element of hope that makes a good bad joke work. The best bad jokes are those where the hearer knows they will be disappointed, and yet still carries on listening in absurd hope of a good punchline (it's a bit like Kierkegaard's account of faith in Fear and Trembling, now I come to think of it). The laugh at the end is more at your own willingness to be tricked than at any shift in register.

The problem with this game is that you know you're going to be disappointed all too early on, and are driven on not in the wild hope of a good punchline, but because you don't want to be beaten. The game produces the form of the bad joke without the emotional content.
posted by howfar at 2:30 PM on October 21, 2011 [4 favorites]

I'm with loquacious, especially if we sharpen the keyboard before feeding it to him.
posted by Coobeastie at 2:34 PM on October 21, 2011

Count me as another who thought it was cute. Maybe it's because I'm old and it made me nostalgic.
posted by peep at 2:34 PM on October 21, 2011

The problem with this game is that you know you're going to be disappointed all too early on

Maybe I'm just gullible/stupid enough for this game. My thought process was (SPOILERS):

"Maybe I have to wait for the right key... hm, that doesn't seem to work.. nothing to do with the colors of the keys... can't pile the keys up to reach the window... Hmm, some of the keys have letters, better restart and sort those ones out... Oh, maybe I have to get all the keys that spell the word... hey, the keys stopped and I only have 3 letters... DUH!"
posted by muddgirl at 2:38 PM on October 21, 2011

not_that_epiphanius, you have to click on the screen once before you press x.

Click to focus and press X to start.

That said, meh.
posted by Specklet at 2:40 PM on October 21, 2011

I might have found it more amusing if it didn't first make me watch it type a conversation letter by letter.
posted by jacquilynne at 2:41 PM on October 21, 2011 [7 favorites]

you have to click on the screen once before you press x.

Long day. I shouldn't do this from work.
posted by not_that_epiphanius at 2:43 PM on October 21, 2011

What I thought for the longest time is because some of the keys looked to me like (ok, what is the handle part of a key called?) the (handle?) looked like they were letters and I thought maybe you had to put them in order like a code or something.
posted by pointystick at 2:49 PM on October 21, 2011 [1 favorite]

They did look like letters. They're a hint.
posted by muddgirl at 2:50 PM on October 21, 2011

The letters are E S C.
posted by maryr at 3:00 PM on October 21, 2011

I didn't realize they were letters. I thought they were a 3, 5 and 0 (which they are if you're facing right), and tried to connect it to the hash marks on the wall. I could not figure it out on my own.

Puzzle solutions that break the fourth wall can be very clever if they're alternate solutions (for example, the second controller port trick fighting Psycho Mantis in Metal Gear Solid), but as the primary solution, it usually ends up frustrating me.
posted by Sibrax at 3:06 PM on October 21, 2011

What a stupid fucking game.
posted by chugg at 4:04 PM on October 21, 2011 [3 favorites]

I'm not much of a game player but I got it pretty quickly. Maybe because I'm not much of a player?
posted by Secret Life of Gravy at 4:27 PM on October 21, 2011

I got it pretty quick. Like, 5 seconds quick. It was fun, I liked it.
posted by Cyclopsis Raptor at 5:02 PM on October 21, 2011

I would probably like this better if it was called "Escape!"
posted by East Manitoba Regional Junior Kabaddi Champion '94 at 5:45 PM on October 21, 2011 [3 favorites]

What happens now?
posted by Obscure Reference at 5:45 PM on October 21, 2011

Now we sit quietly.
posted by tumid dahlia at 5:50 PM on October 21, 2011

I got it after he said "I must ESCAPE" about the sixth key I tried, and then I played it like five more times thinking there was another, non obvious solution.

I'm still not convinced we're not all idiots.
posted by cmoj at 7:02 PM on October 21, 2011 [1 favorite]

And wait.
posted by 1000monkeys at 7:04 PM on October 21, 2011

DOH.
posted by 1000monkeys at 7:04 PM on October 21, 2011

whoah level 2 is amazing!! you guys!!
posted by SharkParty at 7:54 PM on October 21, 2011 [2 favorites]

I can see why people might not have liked it or may have been annoyed, but for some reason it hit me just right and I enjoyed the twist.
posted by SpacemanStix at 8:17 PM on October 21, 2011 [1 favorite]

Just played it over again and my time REALLY improved!
posted by neroli at 8:53 PM on October 21, 2011 [2 favorites]

They did look like letters. They're a hint.

Ha, that's great. Just got it.
posted by SpacemanStix at 10:05 PM on October 21, 2011

I'm disappointed that there was absolutely no need to jump.
posted by mantecol at 11:27 PM on October 21, 2011 [5 favorites]

Really?! Eurgh. I want to punch this game in the face.
posted by joboe at 5:03 PM on October 22, 2011

Seriously? I tried tying in stuff, ran my fingers along the keyboard, etc. Eventually figured it out.

Although, I think the key he was looking for was f4, accompanying the CTRL key. That took care of the game in a much more satisfying way.
posted by Hactar at 8:45 PM on October 22, 2011

What I like best about this game is its replayability.
posted by mreleganza at 7:52 AM on October 23, 2011