Running Back to You
Since the game launched over 12 years ago, you've spent countless nights playing World of Adventure, the highly-acclaimed and popular MMORPG. However, tonight is the final time you're logging in because the servers are shutting down. Forever.
Time to say your last goodbyes.
Controls
- Click into the game screen when it says "Running Back to You" to activate controls
- Use WASD to move around, and arrow keys to rotate the camera
- Use WASD or arrow keys to advance the dialogue
- Interact with the world by "bumping" into the different items/characters
- Collect the glowing cubes to revisit your memories
Acknowledgements
- 👾 Thanks to Adam Le Doux for Bitsy, Elkie for Bitsy 3d and Aury System for Bitsy Color + and its 3d counterpart!
- 🎼 Far From Home by Jim Hall (Synth Kid)
- 💖 Thanks to Luke for proofreading my work, as always :)
Development log
- Thank you for 1000+ plays!Sep 25, 2022
Comments
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I was never even into mmorpgs and this made me cry
really excellent work
Goodbye, my little corner of the universe.
this game is amazing
no cat nooooo
sobbed uncontrollably. 100/10.
Absolute beauty! I love it so much!
Very nice game, i liked the ending
super sad :(
as someone who has lost a lot of games as they've closed, who has seen the internet unfold around me...
yeah.
i'm going to go pet some digital pets. and my real world ones.
okay the ending is so good, not gonna spoil it but I absolutely love the way it unfolds
this was so good! I loved the art, especially the sunrays were so gorgeous. The ending was really bittersweet and reading everyone's messages was so enjoyable :)
It was an amazing story, a trip down memory lane through the last days of the MMO world.
Every place was filled with memories of different players, and it was nice to see everyone spending their last moments in the place they wanted to be.
And the story of the players. Ooohhhhh... It was a loss...
5/5 sad :(
Loved the ending. Thanks for the experience!
the ending make me sad :(
rip cat man it was wholesome
*cries in PSO* 😭
Never thought that some pixel could make me cry like that
great game! It actually gave me that sense of nostalgia and dread of knowing another piece of your childhood is going to disappear. Which, as a 2000s - 2010s kid, seems to be a reoccurring theme since i still remember when i used to wake up on a Saturday morning and play flash games like 'Pizza City' or 'How to Raise your Dragon' and old poptropica on a windows xp machine. But the world moves on regardless.
I’m litearlly going to cry damn that was beautiful
this is very sweet :')
I don't play MMOs like this, but that hurt. I'm not a crier, but I guess video games touch my soft spot. I cried.
yeah i cried
this has a great style to it, really like it. Made me think of club penguin a lot, lol.
I really loved that, also I NEED THAT MUSIC IT'S SO BEAUTIFUL
Well, you can get it here! Far From Home | Synth Kid (bandcamp.com)
This looks awesome but as someone with ADHD I find those "never ending small text boxes" horribly annoying. Give me something bigger, show all the relevant text, if necessary say "1/3" at the bottom. But don't torture me with this infinite stream of slowly scrolled messages.
I will get back to it when I am in a calmer mood as this game really looks great.
Hey, sorry you feel this way.
The manner in which the dialogue works in this game is the standard way bitsy (the tool this game was made with) behaves. So if you found playing this game frustrating, I’d recommend you to approach any other bitsy games carefully in the future - as 99% of the time they’ll have a small dialogue box just like this one. It’s just a tiny tool (not even a game engine) so adding extra functionality is actually very hacky and not easy.
Also, this “stream of scrolled messages” mirroring a stream of consciousness is actually a staple of the genre, I’m afraid. They are games to play slowly, explore and (hopefully) reflect on what they are telling you. They are not games to speedrun.
Anyway, I do hope you enjoy the game once you come back to it. Take care of yourself and have a lovely day.
Thanks, sorry if I was sounding rude. I never looked at these dialogs as a stream of consciousness before, maybe because this feature seems a little buggy in my own head.
Have a lovely day too.Finally found a moment of calm to enjoy it. It is a nice little game. Thank you for making it.
This was lovely, thank you.
Wonderful game.
This was very sweet, thank you
Beautiful! I wish we could explore more of this little world. But that’s the thing, isn’t it? It’s over now, and all that remains are the memories :’)
Thank you for making this game!
Such a poignant yet beautiful game :') Totally captures the sense of nostalgia and the tragedy of a dying universe.
The conversations between "players" in the world and the little "memory cubes" made the experience feel even more realistic. I got stuck in the Forest of Delusion for a long while figuring out how to progress, but I guess this mirrors the frustration of the remaining "players". Even the interaction with Pixel cemented the finality of goodbye to the game-verse, which was quite heartbreaking.
Thank you to the developer for creating this!
Definitely this made me cry so much. Is not just a bunch of pixels...so touching
Incredible!
Frickin' beautiful.
This literally made me cry
hey...hehehhe...h.... just wondering.. is the title of this game by any chance inspired by a vanessa williams song of the same exact name?
this is great! i've never put very much time into an mmo but this still got me haha
what a fantastic little narrative, really makes you think about all the now defunct digital friends and fauna. if you have any time, please consider expanding this little dying universe (ironic, i know!)
Love you forever pixel!
And yes, it did feel right.
I also got stuck in the Forest of Delusion, but I found the caves eventually. Super cute, really liked overhearing all the other players' conversations, and talking to Pixel was very sweet (and I totally didn't expect the twist). Fuck AdventureVerse!
Loved the music and art! The names are so adorable. I got stuck at the looping shrubs/bushes. Regardless I still enjoyed the game!
Ah!!!!
If you ever feel like playing it again at some point, you need to continue through the cave entrance!
Glad you enjoyed it either way! Thank you for playing it! 💖