Products
The Longing (download): £7.79 (£12.99)
System requirements:
- Mac OS X 10.10 / Mac OS X 10.11 / Mac OS X 10.12 / macOS 10.13 / macOS 10.14 / macOS 10.15
- Windows 7/ Windows 8 / Windows 10
- Linux
- Internet access required to play the game
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The Longing
Unusual mix of an adventure and an idle-game
THE LONGING is an unusual mix of an adventure and an idle-game. The player controls a Shade, who is told to keep watch of a sleeping King for 400 days until he awakens. The catch: These 400 days start to count down in real-time.
The player will be completely on his own, in a giant underground cavern. Do you simply want to wait? Do you want to build a home for yourself? Do you want to find a way out of the cave? Over time, parts of the cave change - moss and mushrooms grow, spiders craft their webs, water is dropping from the ceiling, stalactites break and fall. It's a game about loneliness, escapism and the eternal search for purpose.
Concept
THE LONGING is a unique, slow-paced experience which makes excessive use of time as a game mechanic. The player only receives one task: to wait. But there are various ways how to play the game that the players will need to figure out themselves: You can speed up the time by collecting items in the cave and putting them in your underground living room. Or you can try to escape from the cave by taking the dark and dangerous path to the top. There are a number of obstacles the player has to overcome, each of them using the concept of time differently. You have to let a spider craft its web, which lasts days, or plant mushrooms in the right spots to let them grow bigger.
No matter how the player wants to play the game, THE LONGING guarantees a unique experience far from the hyperactive offers of today's entertainment. Unlike any other art form, games can make extensive use of time to tell stories - an idea that hasn't been explored enough yet. The game deals with the feelings of solitude and longing, which make their way into the players' hearts in combination with the overlong duration of the experience.
Trivia
THE LONGING was heavily inspired by the German Kyffhäuser legend, where a King under a mountain is waiting for the right time to awaken; The story is also described in a famous poem by Friedrich Rückert. Part of the graphics are a hint to the real Kyffhäuser caves and the 6.5-metre-tall Barbarossa sculpture.
As soon as you start, the game inevitably counts down the 400 days - even when you stop playing and exit the game.
It is now up to you to decide what to do with your solitary existence beneath the soil. Don't stress yourself, you have plenty of time.
Choose your playing style
Start the game and simply come back after 400 days to see how it ends. You actually don't have to play the game at all. But the Shade will be even more lonely without you.
Or explore the caves and collect items for your comfortable underground living room. Just send the Shade to take a stroll - the walking speed is slow, but luckily there is no need to hurry. 
Read tons of classic literature from Nietzsche to Moby Dick right in the game - or at least have the shade read them. After all, time goes by faster if you learn to keep your mind occupied. 
Ignore the king's commands and advance to the outer regions the cave. It will be a long and dangerous journey into darkness...
Features:
- Slow exploration of a vast, hand-drawn cave.
- Atmospheric Dungeon Synth soundtrack.
- Various endings.
- Lots of well hidden secrets.
- Time-based puzzles.
- A lonely but cute protagonist.