Pillow of Stone
A downloadable game for Windows and macOS
Pillow of Stone is an experiential music medley game about a man who escapes prison to give his daughter a teddy bear.
Use HEADPHONES for the optimal experience. A large part of the game's themes and story points are explored through the lyrics of all the songs.
Pillow of Stone takes ~25 minutes to complete and is designed to be played in one sitting.
FEATURED SONGS
Prisoner’s Song Version by Eoin O’Sullivan
Prisoner’s Song Version by Pabrizzer
Chain Gang Sam Cooke
Outcast Christine Fellows
Drive Ross Bugden
Raised All Wrong Jim Bryson and the Weakerthans
Orange Sky Alexi Murdoch
Hurt Hyona Park (Cover of NIN version)
Departure Arrival Mischief Brew
CONTROLS
WASD = move
Space = jump
E = interact / pickup
Mouse = look around
Left Mouse = throw (when applicable)
Escape = return to Title Screen to Quit.
MEDIA COVERAGE
The Edge Guard Podcast discusses Pillow of Stone.
A review of Pillow of Stone on JayisGames.
More from this developer: https://johnvanderhoef.itch.io
Download
Click download now to get access to the following files:
Comments
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such a bittersweet game...
It really is. Thanks for playing!
Here's my video:
I don't know if the songs will be okay to show on YouTube, so I'm gonna mute them just in case.
It's always a worry, but others haven't had their videos taken down yet. Just do what you need to for your channel. Thanks for playing!
So this was all right, but the frustratingly slow walking times during certain scenes irritated me, and I really dislike how if you don't complete the scene before the song ends, it just moves along and loads the next scene anyway. I had to stop playing for a minute to answer some texts and suddenly I realized it was loading the next area even though I hadn't done anything... you couldn't just loop the song? It'd be fine if you could pause the game, but hitting escape just brings you back to the title screen. Finally, I wish there was a way to confirm that you'd finished reading the text during the phone call and on the note at the end, so you didn't have to just wait for the game to arbitrarily decide you'd had enough time to read it. Fix these things and you'd have a decent little game, but they annoyed me enough to spoil the experience for me, sorry.
Thanks for the suggestions!
Played the game, ending got to me honestly. Why I have no idea. Loved the art style it was gorgeous to play. Keep up the good work!
Thanks for playing. I'm glad the experience had emotional resonance with you.
3D TV VR box google cardboard video side by side sbs stereoscopic 3D
This is really cool, Mitch. Luckily, I have a Google cardboard lying around here, so I was able to watch this.
I use Windows 7 64-bit, which file will I have to download to play the game, the first one (Pillow_of_Stone_x86_Data.zip) or the second one (Pillow of Stone.app.zip)? Sorry but it's not very clear with the given instructions...
Hey Stavros. You'll want to download Pillow_of_Stone_x86_Data.zip. Cheers.
Thank you, so the other download is for Mac?
Beautiful. If you ever have the inclination, would love to see this as a full-scale project, if you know what I mean. Really enjoyed it as is, though.
Thanks. Other than some minor tweaks, though, I'm not sure I'll do much more here. I had a simple idea, and I more or less executed it. Future projects will grow in complexity.
Incredible experience. Bummer that it is an instant copyright strike but you're ability to wield melancholic feelings was masterful
Thanks. Yeah, it's a shame Youtube has draconian policies like that.
Thanks for playing! And it's just me. I used purchased Unity assets to design an original game. That's why it's an "everyday-developed" game, because anybody can do this, and more people should!
Ever have a pillow of stone? I wonder how comfy it would be?
This was a pretty cool game. I really enjoyed the music and the characters. This wasn't what I thought this game would be, but it was really cool none the less.
I really like the idea behind this game the entire thought of breaking out of prison to give your baby girl a teddy bear is very intriguing. Because the game was released a few days ago I don't know how much more you plan on changing or adding but these are some things I would love to see. More of a process to escape the prison (whether that means getting a key or finding/crafting items to make a pick with, etc.) Maybe a flashback of the incident to show why we are in prison, I really want to know how we got here. And lastly I'd like to see some more story (If the flashback has family story in it then great) I loved the concept but I didn't have as much of a connection to Sarah as I wanted to, *SPOILERS* I felt defeated when Heather left with Sarah, but if you make us love the character, the leave of Heather and Sarah with hit 10 times harder. *SPOILERS OVER* I thought the visuals were great I really liked the way the trees and sky looked! I did have trouble with the walking pace at times and the area with the boxes that you have to jump on to get out of the prison, but besides that the rest of it ran beautifully. I think if you could clean this game up a bit you'd have something that could really tug at our heart strings. I look forward to seeing what you do in the future! :)
Thanks for playing and for the suggestions. I plan on updating it eventually, so I'll keep these comments in mind.
Awesome! I look forward to it! :D
This game was oddly very very calming. I really like the little story behind it and the music choices for the game were amazing! great job!
Thanks! It's designed to be a short meditation for players, so I'm happy to hear it was calming for you.
Thanks for playing!
Rubbish. This beats most of the crap that comes out on gamejolt and Itch.io. As with most games on here it has some issues but nothing that 'spoilt' the atmosphere of the game. I enjoyed playing it and it had nothing to do with hurting anyone's feelings.
Everyone is entitled to their opinion. This kind of experience isn't for everybody. I'm glad you enjoyed it. Others may not (see above). But that's fine. I made it for specific kind of person. Not every song, TV show, or movie will appeal to everybody. So it is with interactive experiences. Maybe it's not much of a game, but I'm happy with the experience I crafted, flawed though it may be.
Played the game, however as stated through the video some changes could help!
I would love to do a play for my channel but, I feel I would be riddled with copywrites for songs. Good project though!
It definitely wasn't designed for Youtube Let's Plays, but this is something I'll keep in mind for the future. Thanks.
Loved the game and just the whole concept of the game. I thought the gameplay flowed very nicely with the music! The game hit me right in the heart. Thanks!
I'll be looking forward to your games in the future.
Thanks so much!
Great game the song are fitting but I have 5things i would recommend first, add sprint.Second, have a more background story and get rid of the loading and have it flow more.Third, make a hunting and gathering for food and water.Fourth, make the police scene harder and have people and a helicopter around.Lastly, make the cornfield shorter or have something to do during it like driving.I would rly like to see this on steam and a second game or an add on when he gets back to his family.Great job!!
Thanks for the suggestions and for playing! Getting rid of the "Loading" screens is something I've been thinking about. I'll see how the game flows. The other suggestions, while they would make the experience more "gamey," for lack of a better word, do not really work with the experience I am trying to craft. This is very much a concentrated, minimalist, short story in game form. I am glad the story, as vague as it is, engaged you. Cheers.
Thank you for this amazing, nice, melancholic little masterpiece! Great soundtrack! Well done!
Thank you! I really appreciate that.
:( too sad for me
I have a tendency to make sad or somber games.
Good mix with the music (even with the copyright claim). :) I should have mailed the bear.
Thanks for playing and for the let's play.
Wonderful. Music and story work great. As a tester it works very well. Good Job... :)
Thanks for recording your playthrough, Kevx. You're the first person to ever do that with one of my games.
mac:
A. main menu doesn't scale with resolution, minimal screen-size for buttons to be accessible is a bit too laggy.
B. Need to jump to get free from backing into a wall. (collision detection should push character to the closest valid position, not just halt movement)
Thanks for the feedback. I'll try to implement these changes in upcoming builds.