BlueSuburbia
BlueSuburbia was an interactive poetry and literature project in which you explored poems through immersive environments and animations. It was a Flash site that was updated from 1999-2005. It had a strong cult following in its day, and people would regularly return to it up until the death of Flash.
I still get emails about it today, hence my decision to "remaster" it as a modern video game.
This is a short demo of what is to come.
BlueSuburbia was originally about war, poverty, refugees, and social commentary wrapped in poetry. I was in high school when I made it and it was my way of venting about my family's experiences while dealing with the culture shock of moving to America.
This version will include a lot of this commentary but in a more relatable sense.
This new BlueSuburbia is about struggle, survival, tenacity, strength, and hope… all mixed with a good dose of existentialism.
It is about my experiences in surviving our culture's inclination to feel owed the spectacle of someone's struggle, how society is structured to fail those that need help the most, while reward those that cause so much harm. Much like "Everything is going to be OK" was a commentary on power, this will be a commentary on strength and not giving up despite the world trying to destroy you. It is about the light you feel inside you that does not let you give up, even when the world around you is dark.
(They didn't kill me. So I'm making this game.)
It is a beautiful horror.
Pressing the ESC key on your keyboard will close the game. During game play ESC will open the settings menu where you can adjust the quality of the game, or quit.
TW: insinuation of sexual violence, violence, and discussions about abuse.
Flashing lights.
Click here to download BlueSuburbia on Steam.
For those that want to download and run the old Flash version (the files included in BlueSuburbia_1999FlashVersion.zip), please read these instructions.
Download
Click download now to get access to the following files:
Development log
- BlueSuburbia out now on Steam Early Access! (and Itch)Dec 29, 2023
- How To Download and Run the Flash Version of BlueSuburbiaOct 25, 2023
- Packaging your game with AND locally loading Bitsy in Unreal (Or Pocket Platform...Oct 16, 2023
- BlueSuburbia is an IndieCade 2023 Nominee!Oct 12, 2023
- Adventures with Unreal's Niagara Emitters (Particle Meshes, LODs, and Boundary C...Jun 14, 2023
- The BlueSuburbia Demo is now on Steam!Jun 02, 2023
- A better BlueSuburbia demo with the bugs fixed is here!May 26, 2023
- The BlueSuburbia demo is live!May 17, 2023
Comments
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Check out my channel
im getting to fps on the page
Just nonsense! Wasted my time by playing the early version. Very beautiful shaders and sound design which kinda impress you, but the game is not a game at all. meaningless dialogues, useless boxes and tons of visual effects...
There is no story, just an open world map, anddd that's all. I gave it a try and wasted 1 hour :(
this is wild in UEVR.
This was seriously one of the most visually stunning games ive played in a long time
Really interesting game with some very deep concepts and ideas it's exploring. Make me feel uncomfortable, but in a good way?
The game is really interesting, weird. I need play it more times.
Yay thank you for making a video! this is very cool.
How do you animate the backround like this!? it's beautiful
Like on the itch page? It's a full screen animated gif. The CSS for it is here: https://alienmelon.itch.io/allthemes
(If that's what you mean lol)
Thanks
NEW GAME OMG NEW GAME WOOOOOO
This made me sob, but it also gave me a sense of determination, I'm in a court case right now for sexual battery, his lawyer is offering me 5,000 dollars to drop the case, to pretend it never happened and move on. I'm homeless, disabled and the money would be so much to me. But he's hurt so many people, not just me. I want to take the money, its legal in this state you see. But after playing this demo I feel like I shouldn't, because if I do I'm letting people who've come to more harm by him lose the justice as well. They may never hear the news, but if any of them have hope that he will come to justice, I want to be the reason he did.
i'm sorry that you are experiencing this. it's awful to go through something like this. thank you for standing up to him. even if you can't see it through i hope you are proud of yourself because it does make a difference to even just try... and if you do, you are amazing either way. either way you are the person who has that courage.
please take care. i wish you a lot of strength and hope. (and fuck that lawyer)
cool
That was...an intense and admiarable game to be able to play though even if it's a demo.
i have fond memories of your website from my middle school years...glad it's been preserved
Aww this game looking awesome and totally the type of game I've been searching for! though sad, it's not on mobile? :')
THIS LOOKS AMAZING, are you planning on a mac release anytime in the future? <3
I've never actually heard of the original version of Blue Suburbia that you mention in the game. So I went in without any knowledge of that. I have to say, this is such a fascinating game. I really love your use of sound design, and I found myself lost within the environments you've crafted. The literary sections are already written beautifully, but paired with the sounds and environment? AND THAT STATIC- I was absolutely shaken to my core during "A taste of what's coming" as I realized what the meaning of the experience was. Knowing that and then going into that section with the huge chains made me feel really upset.
As a player, I'm really moved. As an aspiring game dev, this is super inspiring. I can't wait to buy the full version when it comes out someday!!
thank you for these kind words. this means a lot 🥹
THESE EFFECTS SO COOL
Very cool visuals nice work
Full Play NO Commentary
The images, sounds, and atmosphere all seemed to appeal to me, and I felt very immersed in the world of Blue Suburbia.
Unfortunately, my PC shut down due to thermal runaway in the middle of playing, so I could not finish the game. I first played on Good Computer, but when I played again on Work Computer, the GPU temperature exceeded 80℃, so I had to stop playing. Sorry about that.
Below is my PC environment and the recording until the thermal runaway. I hope this will be helpful.
OS: 64-bit Windows 10
CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 2600 Six-Core Processor 3.40 GHz
RAM: 16.0 GB
GPU: GeForce GTX 1660
amazing…
yoo alienmelon ur my fav developer
I waiting full of this game
Too bad can't claim game, don't have access to pc now so can't download it
the demo is going to be up for a very long time since it's not anywhere near done... i aim to (hope) to also be able to support Linux and macOS in the future since that's supported by Unreal.
oh man can't wait for macos version this looks awesome
would be nice to know about controls in the game. I have no idea what to do - clicked on everything, nothing happens:(
are you stuck in the main menu? you move left/right with your mouse (the little light sprite) and click on "Start". things that are clickable get highlighted... after that it's keyboard and mouse (like any first person game).
it seems the problem is my PC, not my stupidity as you might assume<3 when I choose "work computer", all works alright:3
thank you so much for confirming that. it's good to know that "work computer" made it work. i need to fix that UX issue because i think a lot of people have issues running it since they choose the higher options when "work computer" is for them. it helps to have that confirmed. thank you!
I love how beautifully written the story is. I do believe I didnt finish the demo due to it freezing over and over. You can see where it stopped in my walkthrough! Keep at it!!
Thanks for letting me know. I put out a fix for this. I put close buttons [x] in all the UI's now that aren't linked to the thing popping up so that they close right away without a hang.