Video Game / So uh, a spaceship crashed in my yard.

The yard, the spaceship, and her holographic representation.

So uh, a spaceship crashed in my yard. is a 2D freeware RPG for PC, made in RPG Maker VX Ace by Archive Entertainment. The original version was created for a game jam and released on November 22nd, 2014. Version 5.0 was eventually launched through Steam on August 6th, 2018.

A spaceship named ARIA crashes in your front yard, ruining your garden, and enlists your help in repairing her. The game is very short, taking around half an hour to complete, and is full of humour.

Tropes present in this work:

• All in a Row: ARIA joins Mark's party when he opens the yard door with his access key, and she walks behind him.
• Big "NO!": Played for Laughs.
  ARIA: Well, you better help me get out of here, because a terrible fate will befall you if I remain!
  Mark: What's that?
  ARIA: Each day I remain in your front yard... you will receive a $30 fine from your homeowner's association!
  Mark: Nooooo!
• Blatant Lies: When Mark asks ARIA if the "Dancing hula-hula dashboard ornament" is really necessary, the "Suuuurrrreeee." is printed out real slowly, to give the implication that she's lying. But it is still necessary to complete the game:
  Mark: Is [Dancing hula-hula dashboard ornament] really necessary?
  ARIA: Yes, it's uh... a gyroscope.
  Mark: Really?
  ARIA: Suuuurrrreeee.
• Cast of Snowflakes: The non-animals; they all have unique sprites, unlike the dogs, who all use the same sprite, and the Jellyfish, which doesn't speak:
  • Mark: Blond, light-skinned, yellow-eyed grinner.
  • ARIA: Girl of blue coloration in everything, due to being a blue hologram.
  • Aquarium Manager Girl: Blonde, Blue-eyed, Dark-skinned.
  • Man outside Jack's house: Black handlebar Moustache and Black hair.
  • Welcomer at Rosco's Gas Station and Pet Store: Green-hair, tired looking.
  • Mad Scientist: Long-haired, black-haired, yellow glasses wearer.
• Curtains Match the Window: Mark has yellow eyes and blond hair.
• Cute Little Fangs: Aria's hologram has small fangs.
• Downer Ending: Referenced at the end, which isn't fully the end, when the Mad Scientist appears:
  Mark: What are you doing here!? I was already doing the whole extended slow walk while fading to black unhappy ending thing.
  Mad Scientist: I HAVE NO CARE FOR YOUR ARTSY ENDING.
  Mark: Aieee!
• Easter Egg:
  • In your backyard is a question mark. Interacting with it yields the message "You found the secret! ...It doesn't do anything useful, though."
  • Use the compass on a dog (either Fido or any of the pet shop dogs), and it will follow you until you leave the screen.
• Exactly What It Says on the Tin: "So uh, a spaceship crashed in my yard" is both the game's name and its plot.
• Flavor Text: Multiple:
  • The description of the Jellyfish is "Squee!". Presumably it's ARIA's reaction, given how she wanted to touch it.
  • The description for "Pants" is: "Their purpose eludes you."
  • The description for the Access Key is: Lets you out of your yard.
  • Tremont Statue's description, only fully visible by analyzing game files because of being overly long:
    Miniaturized statue of Daniel Termont, Mayor of Ghent, Belgium
  • Tremont Hula Dancer's description, only fully visible by analyzing game files because of being overly long:
    Dancing hula hula dashboard of Daniel Termont, Mayor of Ghent, Belgium
• Groin Attack: When using Trouser Space to store a Jellyfish:
  • When you pick it up the first time:
    You pick up the jellyfish and stuff it in your pants.
    Mark: Ow, the burning.
  • When returning it to your pants after slapping it on ARIA:
    You return the jellyfish to your pants.
    Mark: Ow, more burning.
• He Knows About Timed Hits: Multiple sentences:
  • Mark:
    Something is telling me that I can move around with the arrow keys and interact with the world by pressing Enter.
    I don't know what any of that means though.
  • Aria:
    You can use items by pressing A!
  • Some man right outside Mark's house:
    "I like to move fast by holding down SHIFT. I don't know what that means though..."
• Hint System:
  • As the HINTS.txt in the game's files, says, interacting with the spaceship serves that purpose, "FYI for in-game hints on each part to get, you can talk to Aria (press enter on the ship outside your house)". Interacting with the spaceship gets a description of "It's a mildly broken UFO." and then Aria says: "Want to know what parts I need? [Yes] [No]"
  • Speaking to the hologram of ARIA, immediately after it's possible to interact with her, gets:
    ARIA: You can use items by pressing A! For instance, find the access key and use it to open the gate to my right.
    Mark: I know how to get out of my own yard!
    ARIA: Did you really though?
    Mark: ... no
• Hologram: ARIA, the spaceship, uses a blue hologram of a woman to communicate with Mark.
• Hit Points: Both characters in the party get them listed, even though there's no combat in this game.
  • Mark starts with 562 HP.
  • ARIA has 450 HP.
• Life Meter: All characters in the party section of the menu have a red meter of HP.
• Mad Scientist: Subverted. He's not insane, he's just angry. Partially because you steal his Shrink Ray.
• Mana: Both characters in the party get their MP values listed, even though there's no combat in this game.
  • Mark starts with 41 MP.
  • ARIA has 90 MP.
• Mana Meter: All characters in the party section of the menu have a red meter of MP.
• "No. Just… No" Reaction: When trying to apply Pants to ARIA's spaceship, the dialogue is:
  ARIA: No
  Mark: ...
  ARIA:: Just, no.
• Only One Name: All the named characters.
  • Mark, because his last name just not said.
  • ARIA, because she's not human, she's a spaceship.
• Painting the Medium: Multiple instances, by changing the speed that text is displayed, to indicate things about how something is implied to have been said:
  • When the girl running the aquarium is talked to:
    Girl: Welcome to the Aquarium! Please feel free to try our new petting zoo.
    Mark: Is it safe to be keeping Jellyfish in there?
    Girl: No [pause], but we're going out of business anyway, so we kinda just said 'fuck it' this morning and decided to go all out.
  • When ARIA says "Suuuurrrreeee", when Mark asks if the "Dancing hula-hula dashboard ornament" is really necessary, the letters are printed out slowly, the implication that she's stretching out the word in a Blatant Lie.
• Running Gag: [X] WHISPERING!, where that [X] is usually Dog, but is also Binary, and Human, at times:
  • The latter two happen in the petshop:
    • When a dog says "(01110111 01101111 01101111 01100110)", which is "woof" in ASCII, and ARIA exclaims "BINARY WHISPERING!".
    • When Jack says "woof" to a dog, the dog says "(HUMAN WHISPERING!)"
    • When a dog recites Hamlet, Mark exclaims, "HAMLET WHISPERING!"
    • Dogs also say other things, like:
      (I'm worried about the recession)
• Shout-Out: To Hamlet, when a dog recites part of the Ghost's lines from Act 1 Scene 5:
  (O Hamlet, what a falling-off was there!
  From me,whose love was of that dignity
  That it went hand in hand even with the
  Vow I made to her in marriage, and to
  Decline upon a wretch whose natural gifts
  Were poor to those of mine!)
• Shrink Ray: Property of the Mad Scientist. Used to render a statue portable as part of the main quest.
• Spaceship Girl: ARIA, the spaceship who crashed in your yard, manifests herself as a hologram.
• Speaks Fluent Animal: Mark is a "semi-professional dog whisperer," and capable of understanding when a dog recites Hamlet at him.
• Squee: It's the Flavor Text of the Jellyfish. Presumably it's ARIA's reaction, given how she wanted to touch it.
• Take Me to Your Leader:
  Aria: Greetings Earthling. Take me to your leader.
  Mark: What, seriously?
  Aria: No. Your leaders are arseholes. Take me to your hardware store. I require parts to fix myself.
• Take That Me: As Mark says, Dog whispering doesn't sound glamourous, but it still pays better than indie game development.
• Tempting Fate: Multiple times:
  • First time, when going inside for his gardening shears, your character has says "I hope nothing comically implausible happens to [my garden] when I go inside for a minute." Immediately afterwards, a spaceship crash-lands on it.
  Mark: FIDO, WHAT DID YOU DO?!
  • Second, Book Ends time to get out of a bad situation: "I hope nothing comically implausible happens to my location when I go inside for a minute."
    Fido: ...
    Mark: ...
    Mark: Fido, I'm looking at you. No weird unexplainable events directed at getting me far away from here while I go inside.
    Fido: ...
    Fade to Black as Mark walks inside his house
    Fade In to ARIA's spaceship]
• Trouser Space: How Mark stores the Jellyfish, which also is self-inflicted Groin Attack because it causes burning.
• Violation of Common Sense: You store a jellyfish by stuffing it down your pants.
  Mark: Ow, the burning.
• Visible Silence: Multiple instances, such as:
  • Aria responds with "..." when the protagonist says that their dog-whispering job hasn't taken off yet.
  • When picking up the Jellyfish:
    ARIA: I want to pet the jellyfish!
    Mark: You're a hologram.
    ARIA: Pft. Well, bring it back to me and dump it on top of my hull. Pretty much the same thing.
    Mark: ...
    You pick up the jellyfish and stuff it in your pants.
    Mark: Ow, the burning.
  • After giving the second of the three things ARIA needs for repairs, this conversation happens:
    Mark: So what's it like flying the galaxy solo?
    ARIA: Ever been on a road trip by yourself?
    Mark: Yes.
    ARIA: For a year at a time?
    Mark: ...
    ARIA: ...
    Fido: ...
  • After giving the final item to repair ARIA:
    ARIA: Yeah! So... I guess I'm going to go then. ... Back to space... alone...
  • ARIA leaves:
    Mark: ...
  • Mark's portion of the "No. Just… No" Reaction when trying to apply pants to ARIA's spaceship:
    ARIA: No
    Mark: ...
    ARIA:: Just, no.
  • During the ending, with ARIA in her spaceship, and Mark, both facing the bottom direction, then turn around at the end of their scenes:
    ARIA:: ...
    View changes to looking at Mark.
    Mark:: ...
• You All Look Familiar:
  • Lampshaded with the pet store dogs, all of which share the same sprite as your own dog, Fido. Talking to the shop owner will have your character remark on this.
• Your Mom: When interacting with one of the dogs in the pet store, it says: "woof.", and ARIA says:
  Hey! My mother's weight is entirely normal for a freight ship of her class.

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