Gestalt

by Higoten
Gestalt
Things are not as black and white as they appear.
ID:2815286
 
Gestalt: Things are not as black and white as they appear

Released: Gestalt, illustrated by DALL-E 2, with storyline and technical improvements.

Screenshot of GestaltWelcome! The initial Illustrated Release of Gestalt headlines considerable graphical improvements, replacing the text-based map with 76 new images that are well-suited to the atmosphere of the game and generally impressive, although perhaps more impressive is who what created those graphics.

DALL-E 2 is an AI system that generates images from text prompts, and the results can be absolutely stunning and mind-blowing. To obtain the images in Gestalt, most were generated using only the story text from the scene, appended with "black and white" and "pixel art" tags. And while the results may not be perfect (and are actually a poor showing of the system’s incredible capabilities), almost all of the images presented in Gestalt are exactly as DALL-E 2 created them.

To accompany the graphical improvements, the resolution of the story text has been increased, providing a crisper text appearance. Additionally, improvements have been made to the verbiage and flow of the storyline, with errors present in the original public release corrected.
Screenshot of Gestalt
On the backend, technical mistakes and poor design choices have been resolved. The game contains no multiplayer features or interactions but has been rebuilt to allow players to join a server and experience the game, potentially saving players from the hassles involved in downloading and launching a single-player instance. Once the webclient becomes functional, Gestalt should function in that medium as is.

As a regression, sound effects have been removed from the game, which could arguably be an improvement depending on if one finds clompy footsteps and pittery rain constantly looping to be enjoyable (It isn’t!). An attempt was made to add new sound effects to this release, but I wasn’t content with the results, and may potentially be an avenue for future improvement. But as this release represents the first public update to this game in nearly a decade, please don’t hold your breath!