INSIDE
You are INSIDE. You want so desperately to be OUTSIDE. But it is hard. INSIDE is safe, INSIDE has everything you've known for so long.
Does OUTSIDE even have the friends you've made in here?
A visual novel with point & click elements, made for the O2A2 VN Jam 2026, a micro Visual Novel jam with strict asset limitations and a 1000 word limit. INSIDE features:
- Five long-time friends
- Exactly 1000 words of high-intensity mental illness action
- One room (four walls, two windows)
Content Notes: INSIDE was written to explore feelings of agoraphobia and executive dysfunction, and the crossover between them. There is frequent reference to bugs and filth. If these themes upset you, you might want to take a pass on this one.
Download
Install instructions
Download the correct file, unzip (the file, not your pants) and enjoy.
Development log
- INSIDE is OUT!20 days ago
Comments
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Neat concept and execution. Cool mouse hover states over those structures so I knew what I could interact with. Your writing makes me laugh - that right window "Don't tell my sister". The title of your devlog is brilliant. Your install instructions re unzip is hilarious. Good game!
Ahh thank you so much!! It makes me smile that my writing got a laugh -- I've never thought funny writing is my strong suit! I'm really glad you enjoyed this :)
This feels like a childrens show host got fired and didn't leave their house for 5 years, I love it. The amount of thought the protagonist put into how each element of their room would think and act around them and amongst themselves is so interesting. The dirtiness of the outside of one window made me wonder if the outside was a hellscape, but the other window quickly corrected me. Just by talking about each element I realise that I start to feel closer to the protagonist of your game!!
Oh I love that conceptualisation of the character -- it feels very real to me especially because I had that one Spongebob episode in my head when I was making this. You know the one.
This one. Somewhere between this and Bo Burnham's Inside (which I totally forgot was the name of the special until right now LOL).
I also love hearing how your conceptualisation changed talking to each item. Because I had no reason to control what you click when, I like to imagine everyone's getting a unique "route" in that respect, and I'm excited to see how that changes people's reactions to the game.
Funnily enough, the windows were my first and last items to write! I started with the Scratched-Up Window on the left, and ended with the Blurry Window on the right. I did slightly anticipate that people might go to the Blurry Window last, just on account of it being "hidden" by the text box, but you've proven me wrong in that respect! How interesting...
Thank you for playing, thank you for commenting, thank you for encouraging me to make something!
My exact order was blurry window, clean window, rug, door and THEN the gunk under the rug, because I didn't realise you could click it until there was nothing else to click. I made the assumption that maybe it was intentional that the character was ignoring it to such a degree that it wasn't clickable. I also clicked the objects multiple times just in case there was some extra dialogues but I don't think I found any (which makes sense bc word count lol) :) I liked it lots
I would have LOVED to do extra dialogue for each object, and more interaction between them too, but yes, that word count!! I'm happy you liked!!
Very clever use of the limitations of O2A2 to tell your story! Really loved the use of external "characters" to explore the internal. That framing reminded me a bit of Disco Elysium - I could certainly imagine this voice acted.
Simple but effective art, and a fun use of the UI to have the conversations as an ongoing 'log' - that added to the feeling of sitting in a room endlessly rebuking and failing to push yourself through different lenses.
Great work!
WAOW thank you so much for the thoughtful and insightful comment! Voice acting this would be really fun -- I wonder if it would be better with one voice as everything (a la Disco Elysium's internal monologue), or a group of voices...!
I'm really glad the "log" did its job in pushing that bloody awful feeling of sitting in your room begging yourself to go outside.
Thanks again for taking the time to play and comment!