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Apartment Complex
Apartment Complex
https://kinerus.itch.io/apartment-complex
Apartment Complex is a short and free-to-download narrative exploration game set in a mostly abandoned apartment building. The only human occupants of this building are its two landlords. You play as one of the owners, who is middle-aged, jobless, and depressed. In an effort to do something with his life, your character takes it upon himself to check in with the tenants, who are not even remotely human.
The game only takes about twenty minutes to play, and the gameplay consists of walking through the three-story building and talking to the tenants. Just to put this out on front street, Apartment Complex has a message, and that message is that landlords are bad. I don’t disagree, but the game isn’t shy about being didactic. Its message is so blunt that I can’t tell if it’s a parody, but I wouldn’t worry about it too much. Other than the armchair Marxism, the writing is a lot of fun.
Each of the eight tenants (inasmuch as they can be counted) is a Lovecraftian monstrosity that defies Euclidean logic but still needs a place to stay on this particular plane of reality. Perhaps because of his depression, your character isn’t the least bit bothered by the ontology of these beings. Regardless of whether he’s talking to the fungus-infested remains of the former co-landlord, a divorced dad with multiple alligator mouths, or a colossal all-seeing eye of the abyss, this guy takes it all in stride.
And honestly, this is such a mood. I get it. Sanity-altering cosmic abnormalities are a dime a dozen, but you know what’s really fucked up? The inequal distribution of wealth across class lines. Again, Apartment Complex has a message, but it’s not wrong.
Also, given that the creator is only twenty years old, I admire the accuracy of the game’s portrayal of the jaded middle-aged mindset. Like honestly, does it really matter that your neighbor is an eldritch abomination who exists in the shadows of reality? Does it even matter.
Where Apartment Complex shines is the boldness and creativity of its 16-bit pixel art. The floorplan and room layout of the building are bog-standard, but the way each tenant occupies the space has to be seen to be believed. If you’ve ever wondered just how weird Earthbound-style graphics can get, this game is for you. The character portraits are incredible.
From its eye-catching color palette to the dry tone of its humor, Apartment Complex makes me nostalgic for Welcome to Night Vale in the best possible way. This is a chill and creative game about monster friends and postmodern malaise, and honestly? It’s super relatable.
https://kinerus.itch.io/apartment-complex
Apartment Complex is a short and free-to-download narrative exploration game set in a mostly abandoned apartment building. The only human occupants of this building are its two landlords. You play as one of the owners, who is middle-aged, jobless, and depressed. In an effort to do something with his life, your character takes it upon himself to check in with the tenants, who are not even remotely human.
The game only takes about twenty minutes to play, and the gameplay consists of walking through the three-story building and talking to the tenants. Just to put this out on front street, Apartment Complex has a message, and that message is that landlords are bad. I don’t disagree, but the game isn’t shy about being didactic. Its message is so blunt that I can’t tell if it’s a parody, but I wouldn’t worry about it too much. Other than the armchair Marxism, the writing is a lot of fun.
Each of the eight tenants (inasmuch as they can be counted) is a Lovecraftian monstrosity that defies Euclidean logic but still needs a place to stay on this particular plane of reality. Perhaps because of his depression, your character isn’t the least bit bothered by the ontology of these beings. Regardless of whether he’s talking to the fungus-infested remains of the former co-landlord, a divorced dad with multiple alligator mouths, or a colossal all-seeing eye of the abyss, this guy takes it all in stride.
And honestly, this is such a mood. I get it. Sanity-altering cosmic abnormalities are a dime a dozen, but you know what’s really fucked up? The inequal distribution of wealth across class lines. Again, Apartment Complex has a message, but it’s not wrong.
Also, given that the creator is only twenty years old, I admire the accuracy of the game’s portrayal of the jaded middle-aged mindset. Like honestly, does it really matter that your neighbor is an eldritch abomination who exists in the shadows of reality? Does it even matter.
Where Apartment Complex shines is the boldness and creativity of its 16-bit pixel art. The floorplan and room layout of the building are bog-standard, but the way each tenant occupies the space has to be seen to be believed. If you’ve ever wondered just how weird Earthbound-style graphics can get, this game is for you. The character portraits are incredible.
From its eye-catching color palette to the dry tone of its humor, Apartment Complex makes me nostalgic for Welcome to Night Vale in the best possible way. This is a chill and creative game about monster friends and postmodern malaise, and honestly? It’s super relatable.
no subject
no subject
It's incredibly frustrating when an interesting-looking indie game is impossible to play. It's tough to blame the creator for "poor quality control," since they're just one person, but still. There are easy workarounds to common issues.
In the case of this game in particular, it would have been nice if the developer had put the basic game controls on the Itch.io page. Games like this usually use the "x" key or the spacebar as the action button, and it took me more than a minute to figure out that this game uses the "enter" button instead. Also, I think it would have helped if doorways were indicated with a dot or floating triangle to help people who aren't used to this style of graphics.
Thankfully, I've been seeing some recent discussion in indie gamedev circles on Bluesky about this. Now that Itch.io has become slightly more mainstream, you can't just assume a prospective player has 10+ years of experience playing your specific type of game. Amen to that.
For me personally, it's indie FPS games I always end up giving up on. I'm not stupid; I could just use some help navigating the space at the beginning.
Sorry for the long reply, but I wanted to thank you for giving this game a shot based on my post. That's so cool to hear. Seriously, thank you!
no subject
No problems! I like finding new stuff like this online that I don't normally stumble across myself. Those types of games remind me of the fun pc games I played as a kid.