#collaborative game

It’s time for the second vial injections, scientists! Let’s see what happens when more mutations are added to a Serpen. Next with Dos! (1.2(Dos))

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Collective Unconscious is a collaborative YNFG à la Yume 2kki, released in June 2024 on the Yume Nikki Online Project website. It is designed for the platform and its multiplayer system. You play as a person called Minnatsuki, who explores the spirit world via a totem pole in their room.

Atmosphere: Rather than the mystical abstraction of much of Yume Nikki, many of the worlds of Collective Unconscious represent real environments – parks, streets, gardens, buildings – but with something a bit off about them. There’s a calm and peaceful feel to a lot of the game, always with an undertone of strangeness and perhaps a bit of unease. As a collaborative game, however, you never know quite what you’re getting when you move from world to world, and the surprise and variety is one of the best things about it.

Exploration: This game was only released a couple of months ago, so most of the issues I have with exploration are definitely down to it being in the early stages of development. There are a lot of dead ends, including worlds intended as connecting paths which have no connection at the end, and sometimes you can walk quite a long way only to have to retrace your steps if you want to keep exploring. Nevertheless, for a game which has barely been updated since its release, it has loads and loads of content and worlds to explore, and you can still take long meandering routes if you happen upon well connected areas. I have no doubt that with future updates most of these frustrations will be smoothed out!

Art: Collective Unconscious has some beautiful pixel art, and it comes from so many different artists in so many different styles! There are some extremely unique vibes, art styles, and world gimmicks that aren’t like anything I’ve ever seen in a YNFG before. It’s really a game with something for everyone: pretty sparkly pixel art, photo collage sprites and worlds, dim and creepy maze-like areas, cute pastel worlds, and everything inbetween.

Storytelling: Being a collaborative game, CU doesn’t necessarily imply a singular overarching story. The conceit is also that the realm you enter is a collective ‘spirit world’ rather than Minnatsuki’s individual dreams. Nevertheless, there are some common themes that devs seem to return to across the worlds, which is great fodder for the player’s imagination, and I’m sure that when any endings are implemented we’ll get a bit more of a sense of a narrative. Some of the events have mini-stories within them already. I feel that CU is a game which might have lore, rather than a singular story – if that makes sense!

Horror and CWs: Collective Unconscious has a decent number of worlds featuring body horror and disturbing environments, although I think the submission guidelines prohibit very explicit gore and jumpscares. I would say that the calm and peaceful areas outnumber the creepy ones in this game, though. As of now (August 2024), CU has no common chasers, but there are a few worlds with unique chaser events that can spring upon you quite suddenly. I really dislike these, but that’s just me.

There’s a hospital world (although it isn’t doing .flow style medical horror), an area which might imply themes of suicide, a world seemingly themed around bile/vomit, and a ‘blood drive’ world which has a lot of needle imagery.

Best thing about it: the sheer variety of different beautiful art styles on show throughout, and the thrill of a new project set to develop in really exciting ways!

Okay scientists! Time to choose what vial to give to our new Serpens. Lastly, 2.3!

Okay scientists! Time to choose what vial to give to our new Serpens. Starting with 2.1!

Time to give the Serpen’s their third vial! After this third vote (for each), you scientists will get the option to not have the Serpen mutate further. At this moment, there are only three neutral vials we don’t know the affects of! So scientists, what vial will we give to 1.2.(Dos)?

Okay scientists. We now that the green vial causes the Serpen’s to grow fur. Wether or not we want to make the rest also grow fur is up to you guys. Either way, we need to give this Serpen a vial before they can be taken out of the test tube

(As I am slow to draw environment art) Okay Scientists! While construction is still ongoing, our top scientists have asked us to continue experimentation. Next we will decide what vial to give to 1.3(Tree)

Real quick, you may be wondering why we’re skipping 1.2(Dos). This is because our top scientist’s have set in place a rule that disallows more than five vials maximum to be given to a Serpen. This is to avoid complications with their health.

(Also I forgot to take away claws from this specific poll. Please do not vote claws, the Serpen already has those)

So with that out of the way,