That's a genuinely great game. I did dislike the handedness of combat (how much combat there was), but the topics are brilliantly explored (especially the unnamned's dysphoria).
When I load the game it's not responsive to my keyboard input (other than alt, for some reason). There is no error message and this occurs with both versions of the game, whether they are fullscreen or widow, no matter how long I run it for. Does anyone know why this is/how to fix it?
Hope I'm just being dumb.
Also the game looks really interesting and I can't wait to play it once the problem is (hopefully) solved.
this is a tool by one of the developers of the engine itself intended to fix this problem. should it persist, please check any controllers you may have connected, and any controller interfaces that might be active. those, too, can interfere with the game reading your controls.
Hello i have an issue with the game: every time i try to load my save the game crash and a error message appear, before that the game would run but crash frequently with an error message that say: "DSERR_BUFFERLOST".
easyRPG is an open-source tool for "emulating" RPG Maker 2003 games (the engine this is made in!). it can occasionally help with issues like this. once you've downloaded it, simply put the program into the same folder as "RPG_RT.exe" and, instead of running "RPG_RT.exe", instead, run easyRPG and select the game from the list that should be displayed (if it doesn't start running on its own).
i have to say though that this instability, and the apparent save-file corruption worry me. i know that RPG Maker 2003 games will occasionally interact badly with certain peripheral applications related to controllers. if you have any controllers plugged in, or any software intended to facilitate controller-use, that might be a problem. but unfortunately, im not sure what could be happening here.
ill be doing some research, and will let you know if i find a more straight-forward fix. until then, please let me know if easyRPG worked. thank you, and i apologise for the problems :,)
this might be an issue pertaining to your computer's audio driver(s); it crashes - as far as i understand it here - and spits out all of these error messages because it can't play the game's music and SFX (which are .wav files), and tries in vain to "loop" them.
try updating your audio driver(s), or changing to another audio device in your windows settings, and try again; let me know if this brings relief.
Some words to describe this game are: brilliant, moving, gripping, terrifying, poignant, and beautiful. it's a clear labor of love and anyone reading this should play it
Thank you. This game has done so many things for me. I played this game when I was still cracking My egg. I didn't know what name I should go with and so many other things, but when I heard the main character's name, everything clicked into place. I now use that name, and it fits me like I have never felt before. it feels right, and I cant thank you enough.
hey so idk how this happened but apparently I have some image assets from this game on my microsoft onedrive account and I'm not sure how they got there cause I never use that account. I just felt like mentioning that to whoever made the game.
I started playing this after the 2021 Haunted PS1 demo came out. Right about the time when my egg had started cracking. Being handed that lighter certainly stirred some feelings I'd been having. That egg has fully hatched and I'm very pleased I've gotten around to fully playing this game!
Dear Quinn K, I'm burning to ask - there is a line in Tell Me I'm Worthless by Alison Rumfitt: "No live organism can continue to exist compassionately under conditions of absolute fascism, even the birds in Italy under Mussolini were observed to take part in rallies and violence."
I see many parallels between this book and your splendid game, and I mean to ask if this line was in mind when you & your team were writing your fascist birds, or perhaps even if it was a case of deliberate allusion.
I hadn't heard of "Tell Me I'm Worthless" before now, and An Outcry started development in 2019, a good bit before the book's release in 2021. Also, that line itself is an allusion to the opening of Shirley Jackson's "Haunting of Hill House" ("No live organism can continue to exist sanely under conditions of absolute reality").
In short: It's a coincidence, but a pretty interesting one. Thanks for bringing that book to my attention!
I see, I did expect it to be more of a coincidental similarity in themes, but figured I'd ask. I am familiar with the Hill House reference as well fwiw.
I love the game!! It really has a good design to it and Anne really reminds me of a family member who is also called Anne. lol xD
I only got 1 ending so far, which is the suicide ending. But i am still trying to get more!! Love the game and keep up the work! cant wait to see what will happen with the other endings!
Hi! I'm a 19 y/o student from Lower Austria, studying in Vienna. I really love the game, its allegories and metaphors, and ever since I bought it on steam in kept me thinking. That being said, I would very much like to translate An Outcry into the language its world is set in: Austrian German. With the Viennese dialect sprinkled in by some, while heavily relied upon by others. I'd love for my parents to play the game - with their English less than sufficient, I would love to help it reach a wider audience.
I know you've put great care into the Viennese worldbuilding, and I would be honoured to add to it with the classic 'Wiener Schmäh'.
I can't seem to play it/run it on my laptop because it will keep saying "Cannot open Anoutcry file" everytime i click on the application for it, what does that mean?
Hrm... I've never seen this happen. Are you using the itch.io launcher, by any chance?
Looking at the in-game files, that would be this specific file messing up.
Try and download it, rename it to "AnOutCry.png" (if itch renamed it in the uploading process), then attempt launching it again? If a different issue crops up then, let me know.
I tried it and it didn't work, which is kinda weird. I'll just try and see what will happen if i extract the stuff from the RAR file again. I really do hope that it will work.
I'm currently downloading the folder myself to double-check if everything's okay in there.
Unfortunately I really don't know what could be wrong at this moment. My last resort would be to attempt to launch the game using EasyRPG: https://easyrpg.org/
EasyRPG is an open-source emulator for RPG Maker 2003 games. Sometimes, it can lend a game additional stability - or so I would hope. :(
If this doesn't work either, feel free to request a refund on your purchase. I'm really sorry.
Overall I was very impressed with the game,
which some would commonly describe as a walking
simulator or combat & choice narrative. It is set
in Vienna today and has an atmosphere that oscillates
between oppressive and picturesque. You play a
non-binary protagonist who is ignored or actively
excluded or threatened by most of her neighbors in
her apartment complex. At some point, ugly talking
birds appear (a clear metaphor for the "Alt-Right"),
which publicly threaten the protagonist, but only a
few are willing to help the protagonist at all. The
elements in which the whole thing is presented alternate
between Kafkaesque & Lovecraftian. One of the most
positive aspects of this story is the dense, oppressive
atmosphere, which is underlined very well by the reduced
color palette & the sound design, as well as the electronic
or rock music. The only major point of criticism is the not
very sophisticated turn-based combat system.
8 out of 10. (:
To the development team, and especially to the creative director(s), for whom I suspect this project was deeply personal, as most art is:
Thank you for making this game. Its existence makes the world a better place.
I could and perhaps should say many more positive things about it, but I will not presuppose that my opinions matter to you. Instead, I'd just like to point out one element of the game that has given me much food for thought.
Exactly one character in the game has voice lines, and only for one particular scene. I must assume this was an intentional choice.
I am a fan of the novel Heart of Darkness. Although many scholars have documented the unsavory tastes of racism and imperialism that mar the prose, I still think it has insightful things to say about the dark side of human ambition, and so I still believe that it has value.
In Heart of Darkness, there is much emphasis placed on Kurtz's skills as an orator. The character's greatest ability is to make morally questionable motives seem upright by use of rhetoric and lofty speech, thereby deluding himself and others. In fact, when Kurtz is finally found, he is a weak and sick shell of a man. In a sense, his voice—his ability to ennoble any action through oration—is all he ever was.
As the character Marlow says, "A voice! a voice! It rang deep to the very last. It survived his strength to hide in the magnificent folds of eloquence the barren darkness of his heart."
I can't help but wonder if the creative team was familiar with the novel and decided to link this motif, however subtly, to the insidious faux-elegance of inflammatory political oration, debate, and televised commentary.
This game was even better than I was hoping it would be since I saw the demo and got excited for it. There were some parts that surprised me despite the fact that I feel like I've seen every weird little RPG trick at this point. Extremely cool use of RM3. Go into this with an open mind and aware of the heavy subjects and you will have a good time.
I've put in a lot of thought on what sort of comment to leave for other people looking to get into this game, and to the devs. The best way I can think of to do so is to mention a review off a random site, which sung this game's praises, while saying that the scope of the game is limited. Sure, the game only takes place in an apartment building. But this is a game that paints foreshadowing into every moment, every line, everything means something. It's so well planned that I think widening the "scope" of this game would have taken away from that, and from the themes of the game.
So then I was trying to think about what I disliked about this game, if anything. I enjoy being critical of things even I adore, it's part of me enjoying something fully. I, however, as much as I try, cannot come up with any real faults. While playing the game I did worry that the game's overarching themes would be lost on the main audience, a sort of "preaching to the choir" syndrome, but I'm happy to say that the game did a great job at side stepping that as well, and delivering a message that I myself needed to really hear, even if I didn't think I needed it at first.
The artwork and assets work together seamlessly, the writing is intentional and impactful, the music is haunting and relentless, and everything works together to sink you into this world.
My only real suggestion for those who aren't sure if this game is for them is to take the trigger warnings seriously. I had to put this game down and take breaks for my own mental health, make sure to put yourself first before any game.
this is a wonderful game made with such passion & care that it left me stunned multiple times. the fact that it's made in RPG maker 2003 leaves me in awe all on its own, let alone the beautiful pixel art & splash screens, the stellar writing, and the atmospheric music. this is the first game in a While that i've felt compelled to play to completion, and each ending feels very deserved. i truly think An Outcry stands alongside its RPG maker predecessors with honors, and i hope (demand!!) that it gets the recognition it deserves.
Incredible work. First got a taste in the PS1 demo disc, and have been waiting patiently since! This was incredibly compelling stuff, painful and rewarding.
Just finished my first playthrough and it was everything I hoped and more. Definitely still digesting a lot of things narratively, and am garbage at writing meaningful reflections on such matters, but the storytelling was excellent and I can't wait to see what other endings have in store (especially since I feel like my playthrough was catastrophic and full of bad choices [or, non choices, if that makes sense]).
Also, on a technical level, y'all managed to do stuff I didn't even know was possible with RM2K3, which is always exciting to see. (Would love to learn more about any of the tricks up yer sleeves, but this probably isn't the medium for that .:P)
This video serves as a more in-depth review but I really recommend you to play it by yourself.
I came into the game with very high expectations and still they got blown away. An Outcry went very fast from "this cool demo I liked" to this very impressive thoughtful experience. It's hard to summarize in only a few sentences how much this game means to me. It's character design, world design, music and themes just resonated hard with me. And I feel like it will resonate with many others.
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Although I've never experienced what the character has gone through it sure made me feel like it! Such a great game and absolutely love the art!
That's a genuinely great game. I did dislike the handedness of combat (how much combat there was), but the topics are brilliantly explored (especially the unnamned's dysphoria).
Hi!
When I load the game it's not responsive to my keyboard input (other than alt, for some reason). There is no error message and this occurs with both versions of the game, whether they are fullscreen or widow, no matter how long I run it for. Does anyone know why this is/how to fix it?
Hope I'm just being dumb.
Also the game looks really interesting and I can't wait to play it once the problem is (hopefully) solved.
thanks!
that one sounds like the old keyboard issue that RPG maker 2003 has:
https://steamcommunity.com/app/362870/discussions/0/541907867763056737/
this is a tool by one of the developers of the engine itself intended to fix this problem. should it persist, please check any controllers you may have connected, and any controller interfaces that might be active. those, too, can interfere with the game reading your controls.
Thats fixed it. Thank you so much!
Hello i have an issue with the game: every time i try to load my save the game crash and a error message appear, before that the game would run but crash frequently with an error message that say: "DSERR_BUFFERLOST".
oh dear. that's entirely new - ive never seen this crash happen before.
im personally not sure how to fix it, but i might be able to offer a way to sidestep the problem, potentially:
https://easyrpg.org/
easyRPG is an open-source tool for "emulating" RPG Maker 2003 games (the engine this is made in!). it can occasionally help with issues like this. once you've downloaded it, simply put the program into the same folder as "RPG_RT.exe" and, instead of running "RPG_RT.exe", instead, run easyRPG and select the game from the list that should be displayed (if it doesn't start running on its own).
i have to say though that this instability, and the apparent save-file corruption worry me. i know that RPG Maker 2003 games will occasionally interact badly with certain peripheral applications related to controllers. if you have any controllers plugged in, or any software intended to facilitate controller-use, that might be a problem. but unfortunately, im not sure what could be happening here.
ill be doing some research, and will let you know if i find a more straight-forward fix. until then, please let me know if easyRPG worked. thank you, and i apologise for the problems :,)
hey! i just found this when googling the error message you received:
https://forums.rpgmakerweb.com/index.php?threads/having-trouble-with-custom-soun...
this might be an issue pertaining to your computer's audio driver(s); it crashes - as far as i understand it here - and spits out all of these error messages because it can't play the game's music and SFX (which are .wav files), and tries in vain to "loop" them.
try updating your audio driver(s), or changing to another audio device in your windows settings, and try again; let me know if this brings relief.
Updating the driver seems to have work, i can load my save and the game din't crash for now, thank you for the help !
Some words to describe this game are: brilliant, moving, gripping, terrifying, poignant, and beautiful. it's a clear labor of love and anyone reading this should play it
Thank you. This game has done so many things for me. I played this game when I was still cracking My egg. I didn't know what name I should go with and so many other things, but when I heard the main character's name, everything clicked into place. I now use that name, and it fits me like I have never felt before. it feels right, and I cant thank you enough.
hey so idk how this happened but apparently I have some image assets from this game on my microsoft onedrive account and I'm not sure how they got there cause I never use that account. I just felt like mentioning that to whoever made the game.
sidenote i have never played this game and only know the name cause the title screen (i think its a title screen) was among the files
Spooky! No clue how that happened.
I started playing this after the 2021 Haunted PS1 demo came out. Right about the time when my egg had started cracking. Being handed that lighter certainly stirred some feelings I'd been having. That egg has fully hatched and I'm very pleased I've gotten around to fully playing this game!
Dear Quinn K, I'm burning to ask - there is a line in Tell Me I'm Worthless by Alison Rumfitt: "No live organism can continue to exist compassionately under conditions of absolute fascism, even the birds in Italy under Mussolini were observed to take part in rallies and violence."
I see many parallels between this book and your splendid game, and I mean to ask if this line was in mind when you & your team were writing your fascist birds, or perhaps even if it was a case of deliberate allusion.
Thanks,
Ash
I hadn't heard of "Tell Me I'm Worthless" before now, and An Outcry started development in 2019, a good bit before the book's release in 2021. Also, that line itself is an allusion to the opening of Shirley Jackson's "Haunting of Hill House" ("No live organism can continue to exist sanely under conditions of absolute reality").
In short: It's a coincidence, but a pretty interesting one. Thanks for bringing that book to my attention!
I see, I did expect it to be more of a coincidental similarity in themes, but figured I'd ask. I am familiar with the Hill House reference as well fwiw.
Thank you!
I just finished ending three of this game (the first ending I got and it was so good omg I have got to play the others now
Hey just wanted to say I really enjoyed this game! Definitely needed to bash some fascist birds.
I love the game!! It really has a good design to it and Anne really reminds me of a family member who is also called Anne. lol xD
I only got 1 ending so far, which is the suicide ending. But i am still trying to get more!! Love the game and keep up the work! cant wait to see what will happen with the other endings!
Hi! I'm a 19 y/o student from Lower Austria, studying in Vienna. I really love the game, its allegories and metaphors, and ever since I bought it on steam in kept me thinking.
That being said, I would very much like to translate An Outcry into the language its world is set in: Austrian German. With the Viennese dialect sprinkled in by some, while heavily relied upon by others.
I'd love for my parents to play the game - with their English less than sufficient, I would love to help it reach a wider audience.
I know you've put great care into the Viennese worldbuilding, and I would be honoured to add to it with the classic 'Wiener Schmäh'.
I'm hopeful you'll respond.
Hello! Thank you for your interest in the game :] Feel free to send me a message over on my Twitter to discuss this further:
twitter.com/quinnkdev
I can't seem to play it/run it on my laptop because it will keep saying "Cannot open Anoutcry file" everytime i click on the application for it, what does that mean?
Hrm... I've never seen this happen. Are you using the itch.io launcher, by any chance?
Looking at the in-game files, that would be this specific file messing up.
Try and download it, rename it to "AnOutCry.png" (if itch renamed it in the uploading process), then attempt launching it again? If a different issue crops up then, let me know.
WHOOPS, you also need to put this file into the "System" folder in the game folders. Forgot to add that.
I tried it and it didn't work, which is kinda weird. I'll just try and see what will happen if i extract the stuff from the RAR file again. I really do hope that it will work.
Oof... Same exact error message?
I'm currently downloading the folder myself to double-check if everything's okay in there.
Unfortunately I really don't know what could be wrong at this moment. My last resort would be to attempt to launch the game using EasyRPG: https://easyrpg.org/
EasyRPG is an open-source emulator for RPG Maker 2003 games. Sometimes, it can lend a game additional stability - or so I would hope. :(
If this doesn't work either, feel free to request a refund on your purchase. I'm really sorry.
I finally got it to work!!, I must've extracted the file wrong or something.
Game's pretty heavy and combat's tough, but defo recommend experiencing it at least once.
Learning about these characters and their lives was a treat, and the soundtrack was fantastic.
One of the best RPG Maker 2003 games ever made!
To the development team, and especially to the creative director(s), for whom I suspect this project was deeply personal, as most art is:
Thank you for making this game. Its existence makes the world a better place.
I could and perhaps should say many more positive things about it, but I will not presuppose that my opinions matter to you. Instead, I'd just like to point out one element of the game that has given me much food for thought.
Exactly one character in the game has voice lines, and only for one particular scene. I must assume this was an intentional choice.
I am a fan of the novel Heart of Darkness. Although many scholars have documented the unsavory tastes of racism and imperialism that mar the prose, I still think it has insightful things to say about the dark side of human ambition, and so I still believe that it has value.
In Heart of Darkness, there is much emphasis placed on Kurtz's skills as an orator. The character's greatest ability is to make morally questionable motives seem upright by use of rhetoric and lofty speech, thereby deluding himself and others. In fact, when Kurtz is finally found, he is a weak and sick shell of a man. In a sense, his voice—his ability to ennoble any action through oration—is all he ever was.
As the character Marlow says, "A voice! a voice! It rang deep to the very last. It survived his strength to hide in the magnificent folds of eloquence the barren darkness of his heart."
I can't help but wonder if the creative team was familiar with the novel and decided to link this motif, however subtly, to the insidious faux-elegance of inflammatory political oration, debate, and televised commentary.
This game is important. 10/10
I followed an outcry.
This was a great game - I look forward to playing the other route.
The sound design is on point. I feel disturbed. But it’s a horror game. I feel like I am always fighting something bigger than I can fight.
FINALLY got around to playing this tonight, so glad I did. I've got a short written review up here https://ggapp.io/crimson2877/reviews/an-outcry/9AOcZYQj
but the tldr is I love this game!!!
Really showing what talent the Haunted PS1 Community has, what a pleasure to play. Thank you for the hard work, an indie horror masterpiece
Full Playthrough No Commentary
This game was even better than I was hoping it would be since I saw the demo and got excited for it. There were some parts that surprised me despite the fact that I feel like I've seen every weird little RPG trick at this point. Extremely cool use of RM3. Go into this with an open mind and aware of the heavy subjects and you will have a good time.
I've put in a lot of thought on what sort of comment to leave for other people looking to get into this game, and to the devs. The best way I can think of to do so is to mention a review off a random site, which sung this game's praises, while saying that the scope of the game is limited. Sure, the game only takes place in an apartment building. But this is a game that paints foreshadowing into every moment, every line, everything means something. It's so well planned that I think widening the "scope" of this game would have taken away from that, and from the themes of the game.
So then I was trying to think about what I disliked about this game, if anything. I enjoy being critical of things even I adore, it's part of me enjoying something fully. I, however, as much as I try, cannot come up with any real faults. While playing the game I did worry that the game's overarching themes would be lost on the main audience, a sort of "preaching to the choir" syndrome, but I'm happy to say that the game did a great job at side stepping that as well, and delivering a message that I myself needed to really hear, even if I didn't think I needed it at first.
The artwork and assets work together seamlessly, the writing is intentional and impactful, the music is haunting and relentless, and everything works together to sink you into this world.
My only real suggestion for those who aren't sure if this game is for them is to take the trigger warnings seriously. I had to put this game down and take breaks for my own mental health, make sure to put yourself first before any game.
hey, I loved your game
beginning to end.
Very relatable & ominous.
thank you for this experience (^:
this is a wonderful game made with such passion & care that it left me stunned multiple times. the fact that it's made in RPG maker 2003 leaves me in awe all on its own, let alone the beautiful pixel art & splash screens, the stellar writing, and the atmospheric music. this is the first game in a While that i've felt compelled to play to completion, and each ending feels very deserved. i truly think An Outcry stands alongside its RPG maker predecessors with honors, and i hope (demand!!) that it gets the recognition it deserves.
Incredible work. First got a taste in the PS1 demo disc, and have been waiting patiently since! This was incredibly compelling stuff, painful and rewarding.
Just finished my first playthrough and it was everything I hoped and more. Definitely still digesting a lot of things narratively, and am garbage at writing meaningful reflections on such matters, but the storytelling was excellent and I can't wait to see what other endings have in store (especially since I feel like my playthrough was catastrophic and full of bad choices [or, non choices, if that makes sense]).
Also, on a technical level, y'all managed to do stuff I didn't even know was possible with RM2K3, which is always exciting to see. (Would love to learn more about any of the tricks up yer sleeves, but this probably isn't the medium for that .:P)
Fantastic work all around!
This video serves as a more in-depth review but I really recommend you to play it by yourself.
I came into the game with very high expectations and still they got blown away. An Outcry went very fast from "this cool demo I liked" to this very impressive thoughtful experience. It's hard to summarize in only a few sentences how much this game means to me. It's character design, world design, music and themes just resonated hard with me. And I feel like it will resonate with many others.
I'm so ready for this.
excited to play soon!
So nice I bought it twice. But seriously, I will review once I'm finished, but I'm excited to play soon!!!