Is this game time based? (Minor story spoilers)

[Serath]

I'd like to know if this game is structred around "Days," beginning new chapters whenever you sleep and wake up. It certinally seems so, due to the nightmares Dropsy has everytime. However, and someone please correct me if I'm worng, I'm beginning to think sleeping advances the progression of the story and effectively makes uncompleted main quests fail, making for possible bad endings since you didn't do everything.

The only reason I think this, is due to the first main quest. Due to the "Simlish" speak between characters, (which addmitley is charming but can sometimes be confusing and basically alludes to all the following,) I could only assume that the first main quest was to get a birthday present for one of Dropsy's friends, the blue haired girl. But after clicking on many things I came to realize this didn't seem possible.

I then looked on the world map and saw her face there, so I proceeded to go there, or at least the best way I could think to navigate there, thinking that maybe I already had the present and just had to go to the party? But when I got there there wasn't any house, instead there was a graveyard with a mourning man, who didn't have much to say.

I left, came back later and he was gone, (which at this point I discovered characters are at different places at different time) and found the gravestone at the very end. I put the picture I had at the gravestone and....quest complete? Failed? Did I take too long? I have no idea, because the girl's face on the world map was gone. This seemed more like a quest to say a heartful fairwell to Dropsy's parents than to go to a party.

Then Dropsy's dog tells me to go back home, that bird thing steals the farmer's tire or something, (which seems to of started the next main quest) and then the blue haired girl (I think) is sleeping in the tent. So she's a fellow circus co-worker? Was the party at the tent and I missed it? I go to sleep for the first time, have the first nightmare, and wake up. Girl is gone. To test, I tried sleeping again and had a brand new nightmare.

So is sleeping just fast forwarding the game and I'm wasting time, or am I over thinking this and doing just fine?

[Morrinn]

Hi! As you correctly surmised, the time of day advances slowly as you transition between scenes or sleep in your bed, and different characters will move to different locations depending on the time of day. However the plot will not advance on it's own, you need to show up and interact with whatever object or individual is required to progress the story, so you can take as much time as you want wandering the world before showing up where you need to be.

While much of what happens in the game is intentionally left vague (we're seeing the world through Dropsy's eyes, and he's just not like other clowns) I think a fair surmise of the story you've witnessed so far is;

About a year ago a fire erupted in the circus where Dropsy lives. The fire killed some people, including Dropsy's adoptive mother (Blue Haired girl), and the town blames him for the accident. The day you start playing the game, Dropsy is going to visit the grave of his mother to deliver the picture (Dog's gift is the dirty sock). Once you've delivered the gifts, Dog suggests you head back home...

The story then advances as you perform whatever "main objective" shows up on your map screen, but there is never any time limit, and the only restraint on some actions is the time of day.

The game may often seem confusing, and intentionally so, and it can be a little difficult to overcome the initial puzzle of how exactly the game mechanics work, but once you realize you dont need to rush your objectives (there is only one point of no return when it comes to collecting achivements and collectables, and its at the very end of the game) you begin to enjoy it much more. Even though the world is viewed through the warped mind of its unreliable narrator, there is a very clear (I think) plot going on underneath, and half the fun is piecing it togeather.

[Serath]

Ah, thanks so much. So the picture and sock the dog told me to use WAS the gift, and the girl was actually the mom, and Dropsy is now seeing her grave on her birthday to add to the sadness, so now it makes a lot more sense. (She looked really young, so I thought it was just an aquaintance that was either younger or just as old as him, like the one and only person that's kind to him in a Quasimodo/Esmeralda kind of way ) And it's not that people just don't like clowns, they actually know who Dropsy is and what he, supposedly, did thanks to the news report. (Something that for some reason didn't dawn on me.) And the person sleeping was...just someone else I'll probalby figure out later. I was putting off on playing it because I wanted to start over before I got too far if I was correct about missing things.

Yeah, the lack of dialogue (or words and letters altogether in general) had me puzzled on a lot of things on what was going on, particularly with the game's UI; it took me 30 mins to figure out clicking the dog in the hotbar on top actually meant CONTROL the dog and not "use item on dog." (The silhouettes leave me to believe there are more unlockable characters.) Another example is reading signs, like the one near Dropsy's refigerator. (An appointment for something?)

But I understand the intent of the design, but now that I know there's no need to rush and or fear of missing out stuff due to it, and the bed is simply there to change the time quickly, I'm no longer worried.

[Morrinn]

The strange language can actually be decyphered, and has some interesting additional backstory to the world. I won't give away anything here, but if you are so inclined, you can check out my Dropsy Guide where you can read all the translated text that appears in the game. Of course, I'd suggest finishing the game first, as it's littered with spoilers.