Smile For Me

Mechanics

The gameplay of Smile for Me is shown from the first-person perspective. The Habitat consists of six locations, between which we can freely travel. The player will encounter its residents, learn what troubles them and help them solve their problems. Conversations with NPCs are rather unusual; the protagonist is mute and can only communicate by nodding or shaking their head.

Our objectives are rather varied; they range from finding a superhero costume to more outlandish requests, such as making a steak out of... wood and bolts or retrieving a CD stuck in a pool of acid. There are also numerous puzzles to solve. In addition to simple puzzles requiring finding a specific item, there are also some more complex ones; a number of them also incorporate the time of day. The day and night cycle plays a large role in the Habitat. Nightfall means a curfew period and not abiding to it may end rather unpleasantly. Even disregarding that, we should still return to our rooms for the night as to not faint from exhaustion.

Over time we earn the respect of the local community and draw Doctor Habit's attention, the good leader being rather displeased with our work. He thus vents his frustrations during successive broadcast, bringing to mind Eastern European science programs from the communist period.

Technical aspects

The visuals of Smile for Me make use of a distinctive cartoonish artstyle, combining 3D environments with 2D characters. Though the game mostly looks as if it was cut out of paper or cardboard, there are also some realistically looking objects present.