Monuments To Guilt

This was a fascinating experience. I'd been aware of the concept of hostile architecture, and have pointed it out to friends as I see it in the city I live in, but I found the point of "these monuments don't even serve as the benches they're supposed to be" to get me to look at a bunch of them in a new light.

Also, the attention to detail in the museum setting is phenomenal - from open/close times on the opposite side of the door, to a maintenance door, a lot of small things to really help feel like you're in an actual museum!

Hi, I wanted to visit this museum because I was very interested in the subject, but I ironically had a bunch of accessibility issues:

• No native Linux build. I don't know how Unreal Engine builds work but I'm pretty sure it's possible to build for another OS. I managed to play it through Steam's Proton after a bit of configuration, but this is probably what caused some of the other issues.
• Keyboard layout somehow locked to physical WASD, it makes it unbearable to use classic FPS controls on any non-QWERTY keyboard (AZERTY in my case), changing my keyboard layout to Engish (US) somehow didn't solve the issue. Again, I don't know how UE works, but I know that this is very easily solvable in Godot by switching "physical" keycode to "virtual" keycode, I can only assume (and hope) that UE has a similar feature. The mouse controls were welcome to be able to explore the museum, but I would have preferred being able to use mouse + keyboard.
• Very bad performance, this is probably due to not having a native Linux build, but it was way worse than anything I've experienced on many games I played through Proton. On default settings, I had a weird visual glitch that looked like the game was displaying a buffer that wasn't done being rendered to. Playing in Windowed mode with lowest resolution managed to reach 20fps with no visual glitches.
• Changing from Full-screen to Windowed broke the game, giving me a white window with shading at the edges. Thankfully restarting fixed it, I am glad that the museum saved my settings. This is very likely to be caused by playing through Proton because I've experienced many other resizing issues on other games, but getting a white screen with no UI is a first.

Thanks a lot for collecting all these designs and data and recreating them for this museum, it was really informative.

If you are open to the idea, I'd like work on a French translation to reach more people, because I'd like to share it with people I know, but I know that a lot of (older) French people don't understand English.

Also the website version is utterly broken on Firefox, with images overlapping the text everywhere.

This was an amazing museum exhibition! Both the objects and the space itself were so carefully designed to limit and constrict. Best representation of hostile architecture in media I've seen (other than the hostile architecture itself of course). Thank you very much for making this game

Great game, I am a history teacher in Argentina, and I often reccomend this to my students. Here in Buenos Aires, there are these kinds of benches. They deceive the eyes and seem quite comfortable, but they are made of concrete and are truly uncomfortable to sit or to lay (they can even be found in Tecnopolis, a museum dedicated to tecnology). The first experience with this bences is usually one of surprise, rage and then laughter at the "trolling" of the ones that made the bench, but putting it in the context of exclusionary design redefines my perspective on these monstrosities.

This is a beautiful little experience! Thank you sincerely for making it. I love all the little touches, like the limited view and the odd numbering of the benches.

I wonder if you have any art for the game, as something like a poster? I ask because you can add non-steam games to your steam library (which I have done with this) and then assign them custom cover art so they look just like any other game in your library. If not, I'll probably whip something up and post it on steamgriddb.com.

By the way, in case you're curious, the game was mentioned in a recent video by a popular youtuber named Jacob Geller (where I heard about you from!), here.

   I've been mad about this trend in benches for a while, these horrible things cluttering the last livable social spaces we have left in the world, turning a spot that brings peace and brings people together into another point of separation and misery. 

   I've been kicking around the idea of a digital museum for my own point of interest, seeing this really makes me see how it could be done. I'm inspired for sure. 

Stunning- excited for the eventual website version

Breathtaking. I understand why ultrawide support might not be considered, but it would be appreciated.

Any chance for a VR release?

This is really amazing and well done, incredible detail on the benches and just a really well laid out museum walkthrough and theme. Loved it. It's amazing to think this only covers the benches and how many more types of exclusionary design there are.

I remember when I first saw a bench with such a disconnector on the seats and thought how his doesn't make sense and mades sitting uncomfortable if you are not super slim all while not really looking that much better. Only years later I realized what these designs main purpose were. Cruelty is the point.

Great virtual museum.

This was a phenomenal exploration of hostile design! It's amazing how far designers have gone to try and mask their intent by working some sense of "aesthetic" into their benches.

With how uncomfortable they are to even SIT on, it's reached a point where you have to wonder why they'd bother installing them in the first place. Is it just a formality now? Are the benches just there to create the vague sensation of a public space without actually contributing to it? The most mind boggling design has got to be those spherical benches. I can't even believe those are meant to be sat/leaned on.

I appreciate the small details around the museum that mesh in with the theme, like the sealed fire door that doesn't have a proper knob, the museum-wide warnings not to touch the walls, and most notably the game's viewport being set in an aspect ratio that crops the viewer's perspective into a small gap to peer through.

I also admire the work you put in to painstakingly re-create all of those benches. The final presentation is super crisp, and I am genuinely amazed.

Awesome showcase and great information!

Really interesting trip around a museum.  Lots to think on and uncomfortable too, like the benches included.

Thanks for making look again at this.