A downloadable game for Windows and macOS

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Your name is Ume. You are in a world. It is a familiar yet unknown world. Stretch your legs and go for a walk.

Created for Dream Diary Jam 3 and updated for later jams. I Cannot Drown is a traditional Yume Nikki fangame with 11 available effects as of Version 0.03. This game is still in development, so more content will be on the way in the future.

Want to support the project and have your name in future updates? Donate to my Patreon here!


Edit: 8/28/21-

Fixed a bug that let players reach one of the endings way earlier than intended.


Edit: 8/19/21-

Oh boy, it's version 1.0 time. This means that endings are now accessible in-game with plenty of other surprises lurking inside.

With this, I'm gonna hang I Cannot Drown up unless there's a big push to add more. I'm planning on releasing an even spookier project this fall that's completely original and I want to put my time into that. Thank you to all who've played and enjoyed this game :)


Edit: 6/26/21-

Version 0.03 has arrived. This was meant to be the last big update, but another update will be coming soon. The full list of updates and changes can be found in the changelog file.

There's a lot with this one to celebrate the newest Dream Diary Jam! I look forward to seeing everyone else's entries!


Edit 7/21/20-

Version 0.02.1 is out with some bug fixes. Nothing major has been added and the full changelog is available within the game's zip.

If you would like to move your save file to the new version, simply go into the game's files and copy and paste your old save file into the new save file folder in the new version. If the folder isn't created yet, simply create a new save in the new version before transferring the file.

Edit 6/25/20-

Version 0.02 is here for Dream Diary Jam 4. The full list of changes is available in the file.

A lot has been added in this update including a chaser, new areas, new effects, and a new type of collectible. Of course there are also new events available as well as various bug fixes.

I hope you all enjoy this updated build. I hope to eventually have a build with endings, but I think you all will get hints about the ending conditions with the new content in this update. A lot of things are well hidden, but experimenting with both old and new effects could lead to some interesting things!

Edit 8/5/19-

Version 0.01 has been released! Changelog can be found in the .zip file.

This was mostly bug fixes and quality of life improvements. I did add a new small area that will open up into more places during the next large update.

Also, we now have over 200 downloads! Thank you all for playing and I hope you enjoy what's coming in the future! I have a lot of fun things planned for you and Ume. :)

Edit 7/6/19-

Thank you for over 100 downloads! Your support means the world to me!

StatusIn development
PlatformsWindows, macOS
Rating
Rated 4.4 out of 5 stars
(36 total ratings)
AuthorPureiceblue
GenrePuzzle
Tags2D, Abstract, Atmospheric, Horror, Period Piece, Pixel Art, RPG Maker, Singleplayer, Spooky

Download

Download NowName your own price

Click download now to get access to the following files:

I Cannot Drown 2021.zip 671 MB
I Cannot Drown 2021 Mac.zip 807 MB

Development log

Comments

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sorry but is there any ways that i can play using wasd instead of arrows keys
my arrows keys are dead and i really REALLY wanted to play this game
wish you all the best.

I really like this game, I played it about a year ago and I still think about it. I've played your other games on steam and hope this one comes there too so I can get my friends to try it out

Greetings. I already announced it on twitter, but I thought it might come handy here: 

I made an Spanish patch of the game (meaning, you have to download the original game first, then apply it( 

https://poserspaposers.blogspot.com/2023/09/i-cannot-drown-parche-de-traduccion-...

It was a very enjoyable experience, thank you for making it.

My favorite Yume Nikki Fangame. It resonates with me on so many levels.

Music, Art, Story, Creepiness, just love it.

Hello PureIceBlue!

Just finished all endings of this game, very delicate and surreal experience that you devised here. I honestly found it scarier than Lily's Well XD I recently saw that Lost Cartridge came out a while ago so I'll definitely check that one out too :D

A few questions: I noticed that there was an area (in the map with 4 students and a fire) that was accessible via using the eigetsu haiyu effect, where there were 6 rooms each with dens and a canvas (except the last one that had 6 canvases). Is this part a mere easter egg? I don't think there was a single walkthrough that covered what this part was for, as it didn't have any effects or parts to find.

Also, was there ever an "uncensored" version that you had? I did notice that the first ending had censored images of what seemed like hanging corpses on meat hooks, so I was wondering if there were "original" images of those.

Thank you for your work :D

great game, all of ur horror games like this are so much fun to play, and i love them all, i hope u upload more games like this and lillys well, bc i will play them al

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This was so well. The visuals, the music, and the horror aspect is unsettling. It was fun trying to piece a story together. Great game! 

When I first entered Club Cherri, I heard the music which was kinda hard to hear and had sounds of chainsaws and cars mixed in. But when I started a new save file, the music changed to a much clearer version with new instruments and no chainsaws or cars.

Is this intentional?

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love this game 

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Full play through here: 

T
This game is pretty great it took me a hot minute to figure out what was going on, but once you start rolling it's pretty rewarding figuring out everything. I definitely cheesed a good bit of it with the wiki, but it was still great to see the story play out.
Deleted 1 year ago
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Thank you so much! So that is a bug you found that will definitely be getting fixed soon. 

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This game is great! I've definitely still got a lot to explore but I'm enjoying wandering around as a spooky blindfolded bride. Also, your music choices were excellent!

Deleted 267 days ago
(2 edits)

How do I get the two new effects?


Also, what do the mermaids in the effect room say? I don't understand Japanese.

(3 edits)

Very interesting game and a great atmosphere! I had played this for a while and walked around and found a mask effect, as I got to the mermaid by the water I didn't know what I was supposed to do so I tried pressing a few different things and ended up with an error. I had to restart the whole game again and I tried finding the error.

In the menu if you press on options and then "X" you will get an unknown error. I don't know if you're aware of this so I thought I'd tell you about it :)

edit: I played the game on a Mac

Other than that I really enjoyed the eerie feeling to the game and the art style was very fitting.

I don't know if you've heard of Game Development World Championship before (gdwc2019) but it's a competition for indie game developers where they can submit their games and it's free! It's great if you want some more visibility for the game and it only takes a couple of minutes to join :)

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Thanks for the feedback! I was unable to replicate your error, but I'll try it out again when I have access to a mac. 

I'm glad you enjoyed the demo so far and I'll be sure to check out the competition. :)

That's great! :)

Seems beautiful.

Thank you! :D

However, I have trouble downloading it. It'd be nice to actually enjoy it.

Oh! Can you please let me know what went wrong so I can fix it?

"Failed - Network Error". The fault is probably in my computer, but you should check it.

Solved it by using Firefox.

Okie dokie! :)