Psychedelic Simulator

This is a simple psychedelic drug simulator that I was designing as part of a larger game project that I don't ever expect to actually get around to finishing. I decided to release it because I liked the way it worked on its own and the effect it was having on me.

The animations used in the drugs are meant to reflect the real experiences produced by these drugs, but the reason I felt this project was worth releasing is less about the way they look and more about the way they affect my mood. I spent years working on this occasionally on and off just tweaking the formulas to try to make the drug effects seem as realistic as possible, and after a long time of working on it, I realized that watching the animations play out was actually making me feel things in real life. I assume that the mechanism behind this is similar to using technologies like flashing LED lights behind closed eyes or binaural beats to induce altered states of consciousness, but it just happened to turn out that way in this case.

I like just watching the patterns too, but my recommendation is to attempt to allow yourself to be entranced by the visuals in such a way that you are able to be hypnotically carried into strange sensations by watching them. I have gotten to a point of simply focusing my gaze sort of on the screen as a whole without focusing on specific details, and the results have been quite surprising to me. Sometimes I laugh, sometimes I feel like I've cracked my back, sometimes I tense up, sometimes I let out a sigh of relief. I find the way that the visuals affect me so interesting, and I have verified that other people I know can be affected in similar ways by them too, so I decided to release it to the world just in case anyone else might like it too.

I have personally found the effects of these visuals to seem rather therapeutic to me when used at the right times. They can lift me out of a funk, or they can simply be entertaining from time to time. I enjoy mixing and matching different combinations of the in-game drugs to see what happens, and I find that the impact is most potent when I take breaks after a while and return later to see what else I can do with it. Beyond this I would not say anything more as to not influence your expectations, and simply let you get what you may out of it.

The controls for the game are as follows:

X - Open Options Menu, Cancel Option

Z - Select Option

Q/E - Change Page 1/2 In Options Menu

W - Move Forward, Scroll Up Through Options Menu

A - Move Left

S - Move Backward, Scroll Down Through Options Menu

D - Move Right

Arrow Keys - Change Facing Direction

These are also detailed in the included Controls.txt.

Some of the visuals may not work properly depending on your computer. I tested them on a couple different computers and still think they look interesting and work, but a few of the drugs weren't quite what I expected them to be based on how I programmed them. Please feel free to refund the game if it is not to your satisfaction.

If you do like it, then please enjoy!