Smile For Me

Smile for Me is an FPP adventure game with an unusual sense of humor and plenty rather disturbing moments to offer. It was developed by an independent studio LimboLane and published by Serenity Forge.

Plot

Smile for Me is set in a place called the Habitat. It's where unhappy people head to regain joy in their lives. Even at first glance, however, there's something wrong hiding under the surface - the buildings are long past their glory days, while the mysterious Doctor Habit who runs the place rarely shows himself to anyone, using a puppet to represent him during late-night TV broadcasts.The main protagonist's task is bringing smiles back to people's faces and uncovering Doctor Habit's true intentions.

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.

Last updated on 23 March 2023