I would call it other things apart than dark....

I like the game but im having serious bug issues and the ending...oh the ending.

The ending was terrible and left me feeling like I'd wasted a lot of time and effort for absolutely nothing. The game was really difficult in parts, but after trying and trying, I'd managed to kill FOUR lynxes and both daws, ALL magpies and many buzzards, leaving me free to float peacefully from scene to scene, carrying shards unimpeded. Then after all that, the developers rewarded me with ... nothing. I completed what was a brilliant, unique game and got absolutely no sense of satisfaction, because the ending was a big pile of nothingness. Seriously - if you're reading this, don't think I'm exaggerating, or perhaps the ending "just wasn't to my liking" - the ending was NOTHING!! Waste of time

Yes, the ending is dark. It made me feel uncomfortable every time I had to test it and I did it as little as possible during development. But that's what I like about it.
Sorry, it doesn't work for you at all!
But now I'm curious, what where you expecting? What kind of ending would have rewarded you?

Originally posted by mml:

Yes, the ending is dark. It made me feel uncomfortable every time I had to test it and I did it as little as possible during development. But that's what I like about it.
Sorry, it doesn't work for you at all!
But now I'm curious, what where you expecting? What kind of ending would have rewarded you?

I was expecting there to be some hidden method to release the animals, like maybe that secret power-up you get from the black and white shards, and even that power seems completely pointless. We go through so much of what we are to interprite as story; the foxes and how they disappear, the buck that stole the shard, the living tree, and in the end it's all just pointless because after killing all the animals, we get nothing. Was the whole point of the game so that the Bird could play freaking Pong? Is killing off all the animals like a Quarter you put into a machine at the arcade, so every time he loses at Pong, he has to "Put another Quarter in"?

I agree with the published above. I don't know if there is other ending, but the one I have about killing the animal didn't agree with me, it is basically counter intuitive to everything I stand for and how beatiful your game is and how such a good nature depiction you created there, just to squash everything down. I get why you did it, but i just didn't liked it that much. It's also very cryptic (the pong thing)

I understand your emotional reactions to the ending and...I have to say I find them really interesting! Yes, @LightStarNexus, the point of the birdMAN is to play Pong. Yes, @Donnie_dunn, it is counter intuitive to the beautiful nature depiciton of our game.
For me Secrets of Raetikon is about the area of conflict between nature and human technology. An area of conlflict we all are in today. I'm sure that almost everybody can enjoy the rough but beautiful alpine landscape, Clemens has build. But how do you feel about harvesting this exact nature, about using its animals, about killing the dangerous wildlife in this world. When does it feel ok for you and when not? These are the questions Secrets of Raetikon wants to ask you.
I also think that @buzhende brings up a good point. How it feels morally ok to kill all the wildlife that directly opposes you on your quest - the quest we send you on - but it feels wrong to kill them in this industrial machine. We think that these thought provoking moments are the best reward we can give you.

I just finished the game and (I hate to say) I was also quite disappointed. After reading through the devs' reasoning I understand what they wanted to provoke - I think the idea is actually decent enough. The execution, however, doesn't please me as much.
When I killed the animals in the first cage I thought "Dangit, did I do something wrong? Could I have saved it somehow?". After a while of looking around I just kept going for the other animals, not caring so much anymore, since it was a done deal anyhow. I was hoping for a good explanation why this happens. So the bold graphic effect got me quite excited, but then another disappointment - it's just a game of Pong.
I mean, I get the symbolism here, but does it fit with the overall game? I don't think so. It doesn't feel rewarding, or meaningful enough, to count as a true ending for me personally. My first actual thought was "OK, maybe they just wanted to get the game done quick." I hate having such thoughts, especially with overall awesome games like this one. I also hoped there could possibly be a second ending in ways like LightStarNexus explained. I was actually hoping for a NewGame+ where I could read through the story runes with all letters unlocked. But now I don't really care so much to replay the game, so I looked for answers on the web.
I think if you had a way to give more hints at your reasoning within the ending itself, it would seem more bittersweet instead of just bitter. I don't really know how to accomplish this - maybe by showing a couple images of what happened to the world before. Or maybe concentrating a bit more on the bird - maybe reveal that it (or the one who controlled it) is actually the evil guy in this world. Maybe it's also a robot like the wolves? Give the player at least some idea, or a hint to take a closer look and think back. I like surprising moments and unforeseen revelations that strike your head. But Secrets of Raetikon's ending was a bit too shadowy and confusing that I didn't really get to think about a meaning here.
Ah well, now at least I know what it's all about. And the rest of the game is perfect! Really!

I finished the game and wow that ending came out of nowhere. I was dying from laughter at pong but so uncomfortable that I helped contribute to kill all the animals that were trapped but also in the forest. Even though, I was being attacked by everything I thought I was possibly helping them. Only to find out I was being a total ♥♥♥♥ by beating the game. I enjoyed the ending.

How many hours did it take y'all to finish the game?

I thought that part where you start activating the final sequence was a fairly strong moment, actually. I realized what it was the machine was doing, and how it gets the right energy.

What comes after, though, is just kind of silly. The only thing I could think was, "Okay, I guess this is why they put in that warning about seizures." Then there was the pong game, and it seemed the machine just didn't really do anything. I dunno, making the Pong game play out on the swirling background of the machine would make it far more real, because otherwise it seems like some kind of developer secret tacked onto the game. It's removed from the narrative.

Afterwards, I went around and noticed there were too many life shards laying around, and I realized a lynx I had left alive now wasn't. That was an interesting moment, but was entirely unlinked to anything. This machine destroys all life everywhere? With no lead-up? For no real apparent purpose? If there was any kind of narrative involved, that might have helped. The stone tablets basically say, "There were people before, and they left some weird technology, I guess!" Nothing else. Overall, it seems like there really isn't any story, and no point to the runes, but then there are a couple huge plot points tacked on outside of any existing story. It would have been really powerful with the right context. Just setting up the birdguy as a greedy treasure-hunter or something would add lots.

After all was said and done, I was left feeling like there was a reason everything died. There was also one power conduit dead, but that might have been a glitch. I decided to commit suicide. Nothing happened.

the idea we as players are killing the world with all that is required to make our trivial entertainment possible is a pretty clear message, but it feels like a cheap shot, and a blow below the belt.

did you not consume more resources in the production of this title than we as players did in playing it? yet we're the ones saddled with the burden of our choices.

be careful of your such high horse as the fall may hurt you more than your proselytizing affects us.

Haven't played a game similar to this since Ecco the Dolphin... Equally silent and mysterious sharing a unique worldview for the player to explore..

But, oh, the Pong ending... oh the Pong ending...
........... So much potential with this game! :P Anti-climatic imo.
I thought I read the game was supposed to be in three chapters at one point? I wonder how things might have been different... Instead of ... Pongageddon!

I do respect the amazing work you've created however, and the message. I personally felt strongly about this work of art. Don't think I've enjoyed a game in such a relaxed way in a long time. (.., except for the occasional magpie ... lol)
Mmmm...

...
...
...Before I activated the machine, I was thinking, I really should translate the runes. It's too ominous. But in the end I was lazy; I didn't and I suffered the consequences. I ended the world. (except for flies and vegetation...) D:

I went back after the "ending", hoping that after seeing what I had done, I could decipher what was written, and find a way to undo the damage, or go on a journey to do SOMETHING, now that I had a real goal. It was the REAL start of the game I hoped. ... I hoped to find a different ending.

Sadly, the secret meaning of Raetikon is :

"A strange game. The only winning move is not to play."
You should have put tic tac toe at the end :P

i have a few questions.
1) Why pong, i just don't understand that, pong I mean you go from a completly naturea envierment but for hte few, like 7 , stone things (that look like you could pray to them and something animal realted would happe) to digital game of pong.......
2) where did hte fox queen go, Did she die to0?
3) I would love to try and decifer all the rune tablets but hoenstly i would reather as you got the rune some visual effect let me read them. not so much just replace the runes but jsut but the english let kind of glowing over the rune after i know what it is because i would love to read them, but I am lazy..
4) what am i spoust to do now. Ever thing is dead, i am only missing the P rune, there nonthing left for me to do then look at all the inocient animals tat died, i hated the lyxn but i didn't want te stag to die. Maybe a sequal would be the opposite
a human runing aroudn sshuting down lots of machien, then humasn die and nature takes over

Not to say i didn't like it. It was fun to fly around as a bird. Get lots about 10 times. find all the cool places and only notice the line that shows how far i can fly up, when i had almost beaten the game. It has an amazing art style that is cool and kind of fun droping birds and fish into spiky stuff to get the life foce out of them

Originally posted by fidelio:

the idea we as players are killing the world with all that is required to make our trivial entertainment possible is a pretty clear message, but it feels like a cheap shot, and a blow below the belt.

While I don't agree entirely with fidelio, he does have a point. The message definitely felt out of place. I came to enjoy the awesome nature and the mystery of the world of Rætikon. I didn't come to hear yet another message that I'm killing the planet. Besides which, it didn't at all feel like that's what the game was leading up to. I got no impression that that is what I was doing. Hell, I didn't even know I was a birdMAN up till just now.

But aside from that it was a great game, and I had a lot of fun playing it. I LOVED the magpies.