The Company of Myself

If you have a minute, I'd like to tell you a bit about myself....

The Company of Myself tells the story of a hermit who lives in a green, grass-filled world. He is the only human left for unexplained reasons, but there was once also a woman whom the main character loved. The objective of the game is obviously to reach the goal point, but unlike other platformers, the character achieves this by duplicating his very actions with the simple act of pressing the spacebar. Thus, he can create a doppelganger that will assist him with his adventures. He will be needing them later in the game.

The Newgrounds version can be found here.

A sequel (or possibly prequel, since Henry dies before the end of the existing prequel) is planned. It will be called Grief and since Jack's story has been already told we move on to his psychologist's story. Henry the arguably incompetent psychologist will learn he is dying. We will be able to play as Henry as he goes through the 5 Stages of Grief. The game will feature the characters Henry, Henry's doctor, Henry's daughter, and the Grim Reaper.

There is also a prequel, called Fixation. It focuses on Kathryn.

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I am aware of the tropes that populate this online game, so I wish to list them below:

• Bottomless Pits: At least you have infinite "lives".
• Downer Ending: Turns out, the protagonist, Jack, lost his will to socialize with the death of after killing his lover Kathryn, and became a mental hermit. We are encountering the last possible attempt by a professional psychologist to reach out to him, which like always is doomed to failure.
• Face of a Thug: The main character of the first game is said to have it by the main character of the second.
• Flash Back: To when the hero and his Love Interest in real life were once together. Includes intentionally coarse-grained video effects.
• He Knows About Timed Hits
• Last of His Kind: The main character believes himself to be the last remaining human. He isn't.
• Love Hurts: And how.
• Medium Awareness (It bewilders me to think that I would be dictating my life story to a TV Tropes editor, so that he may create an article for a game which I am in.)
• Mental World
• Mind Screw: The ending.
• Nice Hat
  • Fridge Brilliance: According to Fixation, Jack used to be a magician.
• Purple Prose: More so than in other games, too. Even the preloader and volume control are eloquent in their message!
• Reality Warper: The main character. At least, he thinks so.
• The Stinger: "The shrink leaves, and suddenly I don't even have a person to tell my story to anymore."
• Stupidity Is the Only Option: The level where Jack loses his lover.
  • YMMV, of course. If you didn't see the result of that level coming before Jack reaches the black switch, it can quickly turn into an "Oh, shit." moment.
  • Even then, it's foreshadowed. Kathryn can jump on top of Jack, but Jack can't jump on top of Kathryn. This seeming glitch doesn't make sense until the final flashback level, where Kathryn is the only one who can reach the black switch in the first place. You don't have a choice.
    • Kathryn doesn't have a hat. There's nowhere to stand.
• The Lost Lenore
• Title Drop: "I used to find joy in the company of others. Now, I have only the company of myself."
• Tomato Surprise: Jack isn't an actual hermit. He's in the crazy bin.
• Unexpected Gameplay Change: A mild variation; instead of creating duplicates, you have a partner to help you, who must also come with you for all but one of the flashback levels.

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The prequel, Fixation, has these tropes:

• Art Evolution: The characters have their own proportions now.
• Bastard Boyfriend- Thomas. Penelope puts up with it until Kathryn tricks him into badmouthing Henry as he did before so that Penelope hears it.
• Escort Mission- In some levels, the main character must get her companion to various levers she cannot pull.
• Foregone Conclusion: Fixation ends with Jack (probably) killing Kathryn.
• Hesitation Equals Dishonesty: In the last level of Fixation.

Jack: I'll take... this left path. The path to the right leads home.

• Malevolent Architecture- There are no smoking zones in caves and swamps, and deadly lasers in houses. Apparantly, they only appear for the main character to represent her struggles.
• Nostalgia Level: The final level of Fixation is also one of the last levels (but chronologically the first) of The Company of Myself.
• Sequel Escalation- The story is much more in-depth now.
• There Are No Therapists- There is, but when he dies, there is nobody else.
• Wham! Line: The music even stops when the line is said:

Penelope: Henry's dead.