A downloadable game for Windows

Buy Now$9.99 USD or more

📢 NEW! Headspun is now available as a reward via the Superstring Patreon at ALL reward tiers $2 and above.

📢 NEW! Looking for advice marketing your game? The Zero -Budget Game Marketing Manual, also from Superstring, is available now!


Cortex is in ruins. 

After waking from a five week coma, Theo Kavinsky finds his life in disrepair, and with no memory of the accident, it’s up to Ted and Teddy – the conscious and subconscious voices in his head – to work out what happened, and put his life back on track. 

Headspun is an FMV/Adventure hybrid which puts you in the shoes of Ted: the Director of Cortex - the rational, intelligent voice in Theo's head. What Ted thinks is best for Theo isn't necessarily a view shared by Teddy, however; the primal, emotional subconscious voice... 

In the process of repairing Cortex, re-hiring a team and finding out what happened the night of the accident, Ted and Teddy must cast aside their differences and learn to work together. Headspun is a game about recovery, discovery, and the ongoing battle between logic and emotion. 


FEATURES

  • Rich FMV story-telling
  • Branching dialogue - sway the outcome of your interactions
  • Rebuild Cortex - earn Neuros to hire staff and commission renovations 
  • Retrieve Lost Memories and work out what happened the night of Theo's accident
  • Original Synthwave Score from Soho Loop

THE DAZED EDITION

The Headspun: Dazed Edition is exclusive to itch and includes the official OST by Soho Loop as standard. The MP3 files are included in your download. 


TRACKLIST

1. Press On
2. Drift
3. Synthesia
4. Function Shift
5. PAUSE
6. The Expanse
7. Go Explore
8. Temporal
9. Headspun 


FAQ

SO HOW IS THE DAZED EDITION DIFFERENT, EXACTLY?
The Headspun: Dazed Edition includes the official Headspun OST  and is exclusive to Itch. 

DOES MY ITCH PURCHASE INCLUDE A STEAM KEY?
If you decide to purchase the game, drop us a line and I'm sure we can help you out. 

IS HEADSPUN AVAILABLE ON OTHER PLATFORMS?
It is! Headspun is available on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch and Steam. 

LINUX?
A Linux version isn't in the *official* roadmap, but we'll be updating this page with a Linux build shortly after launch. We're a small team, however, and updates/supports to this version will be sporadic. We'll do our best. 

I'M DIGGING THE SYNTHWAVE MUSIC - TELL ME MORE!?
Headspun's OST has been composed by UK-based electronic outfit Soho Loop, with composer Stephen Willey also looking after the sound design in the game. 

I'VE FOUND A BUG / GOT A PROBLEM / WANT TO TELL YOU SOMETHING!
Great! Sling us a line at support@superstring.studio, or drop us a note on any of the channels below. 


FROM THE SUPERSTRING STORE...


More.


SUPERSTRING

Superstring is a London-based studio dedicated to abusing the boundaries of genre. Headspun released on PS4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch and PC on August 28th 2019. 

Don't be a stranger...

Purchase

Buy Now$9.99 USD or more

In order to download this game you must purchase it at or above the minimum price of $9.99 USD. You will get access to the following files:

Headspun_DazedEdition 3 GB
Version 18

Development log

View all posts

Comments

Log in with itch.io to leave a comment.

i cried. im still crying. its been a while since ive been socked in the face by a video game. but like, in a productive way. thank you.

I'm having a lot of problems I can't handle.
I'll list them here as they continue:
*Where is the save button? In an emergency I have to restart the day from scratch which isn't suitable due to the reasons below.
*Losing background so I can't tell where my character is, they're just in the void of between 2 colours.
*Unresponsive screen.
*Black screen.
* Settings unresponsive, and when I try to get out of the settings it begins altering the settings, changing parts of it to Chinese!

(+1)

I don't think I got a reply to this, but if there have been updates in any of the bugs above, I'd love to know, as I enjoyed the game and wanted to continue.
But due to certain disabilities, I am already limited in what games I can play and find bugs stressful as I'm not tech-savvy enough to understand what is happening most of the time!
I'd love to know if it's more accessible to navigate now.

Deleted 3 years ago
Deleted 3 years ago

Great game. Truly. You have a pretty bad bug that needs sorted though. Basically every single day except the first one during the shift the game would get a bug where the clock wouldn't advance. I would need to save & quit + reenter several times for it to work.

(+1)

Played, finished, and recommended the game. The concept of the headspace being run like a business is really interesting. I also ran into all the bugs mentioned in previous comments.

Bugs I didn't see already mentioned:

  • I assigned a staff member (Hugo) to the Atrium but his progress was stuck at 0%.
  • Frank's final dialogue (about ideas) gets stuck if you talk to him in the Control Room. It's fine when it's outside the Control Room.
  • I had finished the Blow Off Steam task but I'd still get task update pings when I continued the game file.
  • The Left and Right Hems were fixed but I couldn't get the task fully completed. There was nothing I could find to "inspect" or prompt a description in the task list, leaving those tasks with "???" on the side. Not sure if that's a bug or just me missing a detail.

Other things I'd like to note, for anyone checking the comments:

  • If you get stuck somewhere (dialogue bugs, shift/time not progressing), I was usually able to get out by hitting ESC > Save and Quit > Continue. Usually took 2 of these to fix the the shift. Spoiler: I don't think this worked during the Jack dream. Had to forcibly close the game here.
  • Likely broke the shift by doing the same activity twice in a row. (Had it break on me by doing Reading or Sudoku twice.) Napping repeatedly is fine.
  • To "fix" shifts starting with a 1x Neuro bonus (and low stress), I just did some Exercise to build up his stress and then worked on sleeping it off.
  • I was able to finish the corpse task by walking through the Cortex and talking to the staff member I assigned it to.

These little bumps made the game feel less smooth, but my opinion at the end remains: Great game, great plot, great music.

(+1)

Hi there - thanks for playing the game and taking time to feedback. Apologies you had a few bumps along the way, but glad you enjoyed the game!

heyo, i got this game from the bundle and it really stood out to me, the concept is very intriguing and i love the look and feel of the game. big problem though: the game's incredibly buggy, to the point of being just about unplayable. i tried to make note of all the bugs i encountered but i'm probably missing a couple details to be sure

  • dialogue is bugged in a lot of places, namely during the event where theo picks up the second get-well-soon card. after the first dialogue bubble the game seems to freeze, and i need to quit the game and continue in order to be able to play again
  • this also seems to cause another bug wherein time ceases passing and i have to manually move time forward in order to finish the day, and theo only gets a 1x neuro bonus even at low stress. this may or may not be related to the above or just happened to coincide on the same day i got the other bug
  • around day three, teddy appears by your bedroom to thank you for having fixed the dream theater, regardless if you've done it or not, and stays there for the rest of the game seemingly (maybe actually fixing the theater fixes this but i didnt play far enough to find out)
  • the corpse removal task seems to be bugged from the start, as it registers as finished before you even start it, and this prevents you from being able to finish the task and get your reward
  • at some point fast travel became locked for some reason? this happened on day three which was also when i first encountered the get-well-soon bug so it may be related to to either or both of those bugs
  • the guy in the memory zone (forgot his name) repeats the same dialogue from the second visit at you after recovering more memories and visiting him again
  • the dialogue in the bathroom seems to be bugged? it seemed to loop in some places

that's all i can remember for now but there were plenty more minor ones. it's a real shame, this game is plenty fun and i'm intrigued by the story, but the experience is just ruined by all these bugs. hope they can be fixed soon, best of luck to the dev

(spoiler alert?) The game was really glitchy for me the whole time but then when it got to the point with the dream where Jack explains things, when I tried to exit the dream theater, the screen just went black and wouldn't transition out of the room. I rebooted the game a few times and I had to watch that sequence over and over again but it just won't work, so I can't finish it.

Hullo - sorry to hear you've had an issue here. I do remember a bug similar to this, actually, but believed it to be fixed.

So when you try to exit the room, the screen fades to black, but the scene doesn't change back to the corridor? Can you still bring up menu? I remember fast-travel being a work-around fix to the old problem here....

No it’s just completely black :( I have to force quit the game.

(+2)

I was stuck on the very first room because apparently with an ultrawide monitor and your graphics options maxed out the leave button is off the screen! lol
Had to drop the graphics down to have the ability to leave the room. Incredibly confusing for a first time player as I didn't even know what I was supposed to be doing to leave the room in the first place.

(+1)

Ah, I've not tested the game in ultrawide, so that doesn't surprise me actually. Apologies for this, but glad you sussed it!

(2 edits)

I can only turn on subtitles in English and Chinese in the DRM-free version. Also I noticed that the audio of the FMV is by far not loud enough (especially in the beginning) and a key rebinding function would be great. Also I never understood why somebody would want to use keyboard and mouse at the same time ... especially in a point and click. I really like the idea behind the game though.

Edit: It seems as if the DRM-free version is outdated since the Steam version does in fact list all those other languages. @SUPERSTRING: Could you please update the DRM-free version as well?

(+1)

Hello! You're right in that the additional languages are only available in the Steam version right now. If you can reach out to us here, we can help you out on that front... 

The separate volume sliders should solve your volume issue -- you can drop the music vol as you need. 

Key-rebinding isn't an option though sadly. Wasn't within my scope to achieve this; apologies. One for next time! 

(1 edit)

That was a fast reply :)
There are tools with which I can implement key-rebinding myself .. so that's not a big issue .. just a bit unfortunate since the game seems to be quite nice. The missing languages is a different thing though ... is it difficult to bring the Steam build to itch.io DRM-free? DRM-free has become quite a thing today so that would be nice. I guess right now using the Steam version would be the only way to get these files?

How do I "reach out" here? I am quite new to itch.io (usually I am a GOG user).

Ping me at jamin[at]superstring[dot]studio

Done :)

(+1)

Did you get my mail or do I have to send one again (maybe there's a problem receiving from this adress - I have others in case needed).

(-1)

Is the game is  free  to play?  I also played  gacha life in my  pc.

(+2)

It's not free I'm afraid, no. It's $9.99 / £9.99 standard, but I've heavily reduced on itch (75% off) while the world is in turmoil. If you're big into narrative games, self-isolating, and in a questionable financial situation, please reach out to me privately and I can try to help. 

(+1)

OK , Thanks superstring . I will let you know soon as possible.. Thanks for your response

(+1)

It 's a creative game with exquisite images and good music:D. 

I think it would be better if there are subtiles when listening to the real people (Althouogh it's  little influence on game  ,I 'am not  very good at listening  to English😂. Maybe I should  practice more.).I also hope that I could review the dialogue and plot.

(1 edit) (-1)

The game now has subtitles and in multiple languages!
(English, German, Russian, Turkish, Simplified Chinese)

Enjoy and rejoice!  ^_^

Great! Thanks for telling me XD

Deleted 3 years ago
(+1)

I got the game during the free period and I must say, I am very happy I found it. This game has an amazing story, and seems to balance gameplay and story perfectly. However, I would suggest that the arrow keys and the other shift key also be made controls as it is very hard to operate solely on the left side of the keyboard.

(+2)

Thanks for taking the time to play and leave a note. 

Good feedback on controls - if there's an update down the line, we can absolutely take a look at this. 

Thanks again!

(-2)

Chiming in to support this project (and the free giveaway) with my heartfelt kudos to the devs and all those involved :)

(+1)

Big thanks - hugely appreciated!

(1 edit) (-2)

Your Discord link is broken.  Please post a Discord invite link. 

It should look something like this: https://discord.gg/MPGWjgb

Shameless plug; that's the one for my community server ;)

(+1)

Ah, must've expired. Will update page. Also here: https://discord.gg/JW6MUUk

(+1)(-10)

This game has pornography, Leaf you can delete this proyect!

(+1)(-2)

GTFO, Reddit trash.  Go home, you're drunk :P

(-1)

Amazing Game! Unblocked Games 76

(+1)

I may not have time to play the game yet (though I'm looking forward to it!) but thought I might listen to the soundtrack sooner - any chance you could add the soundtrack as a separate download so I don't have to download all 3GB before I can hear it?

The OST is sold seperately on their website if you JUST want that.  There's issues with licensing and distribution that tie their hands and prevent them from offering it here separately even if you purchased the game.

That said, the 'Dazed Edition' includes the OST within the game download itself.  If you really want to, just grab the game and then copy the OST to another directory for your playlist :)

Yes, I've already bought the game here, and I'll play it eventually! It just seems a waste to download the full 3GB so I can listen to the soundtrack before I'm ready to install the game. If that's more complicated than just adding an extra file the the appropriate box, no big deal :)

Hullo @phlebas - please email me at jamin[at]superstring[dot]studio (with the email associated with your payment) and I'll sort you out :)

(+1)

Weird how a majority of users who commented all created their account on the same day hmm...

(+1)(-2)

They're Reddit trash that flood into game pages looking for freebies.  They don't actually play anything they grab and just hoard it.  They care not for the devs behind the games or actually helping them out.

I'm gonna give this a quick go and help the devs out how I can.  Gotta offset the trash with a great deal of positivity :)

(1 edit) (+1)(-4)

Just because people from Reddit are here, you don't need to call them trash.  Atleast the game is more popular now since downloads increased.

Edit: For the record, I'm one of the so-called 'Reddit-trash' and if you could direct your eyes away from your bulging ego, you could see that I have left a pretty big review.

(+1)(-6)

This is hardly the place to defend such a grotesque mockery of a website on the internet.
Reddit is filled with trash and they (unfortunately) outnumber the handful of decent people on the site.
Reddit 'free game' subreddits often promote ASF (afk automatic farming of Steam cards on multiple accounts without acually playing games) and thereby directly promote a culture of hoarding games without actually playing them (or exploiting the systems for profit above all else).

It is the very worst of 'min-max' gamer culture combined with the very worst people on the internet.
I stand by my statement when I proclaim that Reddit is trash.  Having a tiny handful of diamonds inside a steaming mountain of filth doesn't make the filth any less filthy.

The dev needs promo but they don't need Reddit trash spewing on their game page.  Just play the game or bugger off because there are no trading cards or achievements or other crap to exploit here.

(+1)(-4)

Then of course Reddit was one of the most prominent places to find promotions for G2A/Kinguin/etc key-reseller sites that engage in rampant wholesale criminal activity and theft that DIRECTLY impacts indie devs by putting the devs on the hook for massive chargeback fees!

It wasn't until some prominent YouTubers got the word out (most notably TotalBiscuit) that awareness finally got people to stop seeing those types of key-reseller sites as anything but illegitimate trash.

(+1)

love it!

(+1)

This title seems very interesting.

(+1)

Awesome! I love games with the mind.

(+1)(-1)

Hi this is jack a passionate content writer. Check my work for Interior Designers In Pune and i really like it.

(+1)

Great  game and concept.  Music sounds fab

(+1)

Really interesting concept! Loving the visuals and music too

(+1)

Bugs? Need support? Just fancy a chinwag? 

We've set up a Superstring Discord channel for just that reason -- https://discordapp.com/channels/482316489916022784/482316632752914433

Alternatively please use support@superstring.studio if email is more up your street. 

(+1)

love it already

(+1)

love the concept!! 

(-5)

1st!