How We Know We're Alive

released on May 01, 2021

A free hour long melancholy, point-and-click narrative mystery set in the bible belt of Sweden.


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A short free game about a girl who left her small town in Sweden for good reasons, and returned for bad ones. Another free Itch game that astounds me with its quality.

Joguinho curto, artezinha simples mas legal
historia bem feels bad, mas é pra se refletir um pouco em como você julga as coisas e que toda história tem mais de um lado, não só aquele que você enxerga...

De aconchegante não tem nada, jogue para ficar deprimido. É uma história que ajuda muito a gente enxergar as perspectivas alheias e sermos menos arrogantes. Ele é curto, mas vale a pena. A trilha sonora e a arte são muito lindas e o contexto da história da um tom nostálgico ao game.

A gorgeous little pixel art game that basically functions like a miniature Night in the Woods, and all it takes is one click on my profile to see how I feel about that game.
How We Know We're Alive is a short and sweet little melancholy adventure about guilt and nostalgia, and while it isn't exactly ESSENTIAL playing for narrative fans, I found it to be a solid experience with a good atmosphere and short but relatively poignant story. Other reviews here seem to be upset that the game advertising itself as a free hour long, melancholy point-and-click adventure is in fact a free hour long, melancholy point and click adventure. Not sure what other expectations you guys had, but I think the game does enough to function like a neat little bite-sized experience. If you want a longer (and better) version of this, by all means please go play the phenomenal Night in the Woods. But as for this one, I'd say its pretty cool for the price of Free-99.

I'm sorry because a hint of atmosphere all things considered it's there, but there's really almost nothing in this annoyingly linear game that ends before it can begin.
Whatever, no big deal.

A lovely story about guilt and loss.
How We Know We're Alive has a wonderful atmosphere that does a great job at capturing the protagonist's loneliness and grief. I really loved the soundtrack, calming and kinda melancholy. It's short but I feel like it does a lot in its 30 minute playtime.
However, I feel like this could have been much more than it actually was. The plot is simple and yet the game feels the need to explain every notion in great detail, as if it was afraid the player wouldn't quite get the implications. In a way, this really ruined my experience - I think letting the player interpret and figure things out themselves would have been the better choice here.