A blog post where I talk about Yume Nikki a lot

 For those of you who don't know what Yume Nikki is, I recommend you don't read this blog post, go download it right now (either off steam of wikia) and play it completely blind.

For those of you who have played Yume Nikki, I recommend you go fall in the fangame rabbit hole starting with 2kki and .flow because this game really blossomed into its own art form since its final update and the beginning of the development of many staple fangames.

For those of you who have fell in the rabbit hole...

see me on 2kki ynoproject :)

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 Yume Nikki is a game that came in a strange time of my life. A time where I was largely stagnant and unmoving in many things. I didn't have a job yet, I was out, but not transitioning, I wasn't making music anymore since those old tracker projects (some on my YT if you'd like to listen to them), and I had no tea to drink and rant about on the internet. There was quite literally nothing going on with my life at that point which really left me set up to be as receptive as possible to an experience like Yume Nikki. I have always been one for the experimental, or avant-garde, and very much one for surrealism in art to carry messages, emotions, and ideas in a subtle, but eloquent way.

 In this particularly void period of my life, a game like this, which carries itself in such an dark, mysterious, and sickeningly isolated atmosphere was bound to really suck me in. The worlds, the characters, the unique music which would inspire my works today. I talk of these things very vaguely because the part of the experience of this game that resonated with me the most wasn't what was found on a surface level, you know, wacky looking NPCs, graffiti world and its floor making noises. Not even what was a bit deeper in the theoretical implications of Madotsuki's life, like how she may be trans, or have been abused by her mother, or the more far-out theories that she may have been raped and had to abort her child.

 No, while those were quite nice to get into and speculate about, it was never those things that hooked me on this greater experience that couldn't be found anywhere else. There's something about this game in its entirety. How it came into existence, the fact we don't know the person behind the game at all and how they haven't been heard from since that random announcement of the remake on steam. Somebody, sent from God for all we know, came down and made this piece of art that not many will know about, that not many will even care much for, and that some may find something greater in.

 But what greater something!? I talk so much about experiences and the greater art piece, but could not even begin to put into words what this game has done for me. Perhaps that is exactly it. This feeling of X. A profoundly unknown variable is brought to fruition by this game, ripe for the shaping of whatever confused minds happen upon it. This phenomenon is something I get a lot from surreal art, and may perhaps be the purpose of much of it. One could harp on about how this variable X in art could be the aspect of divinity in all things. The divinity all mankind is connected, but sorely blind to. Or that it's the opposite: pure darkness. Some may feel one, some may feel the other. Some may think "it's not that deep, bro". All valid assessments as they are assessments of that which is something and nothing. Glass is half full, glass is half empty, glass technically full of water and air, glass is a fabrication of the mind.

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 I feel like this game is too intense for me at times. I can't just seem to enjoy something at face value, or even just face to skull value. I'm a nerd who takes things too seriously. This is why I like Yume 2kki a lot. Because it's not nearly as perceptibly serious as its official predecessor. It's a game that begun development in 2007 pretty much a month after Yume Nikki got its final update and Kikiyama disappeared for 8 years before coming back and disappearing even longer. It was the project of a few 2channers who wanted to make something bigger than the last game, with all its surreal charm in tact. Developers came, spat fire, and went, came and went. And the game got bigger and bigger and even got a new protagonist, bigger and bigger and now has western developers making their own pieces of the game. Until it became less like a sequel to Yume Nikki, but a canvas for people touched by the game to make their own small vignettes of a similar experience to piece into a much larger game.

 It became a bit communal, many authors and players come together to show each other their art. You don't boot up Yume 2kki like it's this mysterious game made by someone who disappeared after making the game. You boot it up to go see Rio's new worlds he added, or this new, god-awful aediorugap world that's 17 connections deep and is based on RNG whether you get to reach it at all or not. You can straight up talk to some of the people behind parts of the game. This game is made with the love of many and that's what makes it far more of a feel-good experience than Yume Nikki did. There's none of that isolation, even less if you play it on https://ynoproject.net where it's the most populated game, getting 60 active players daily (wink).

 These games, not just Yume 2kki, may never capture that true feeling of mystery and isolation, or the variable X the original could, but I think something entirely new has sprouted from the most unusual soil that was Yume Nikki. Something reminiscent of its earth, but something that has become its own art form for everyone to express themselves through. And I think that's pretty sweet

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 In conclusion, play Yume 2kki on https://ynoproject.net or die.