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How the story make me feel: definite "ugh too real" feelings! Of course I have a hard time not seeing things from the point of view of the professor, and I'm also mad at the professor for being too boring and rushing through questions. But it's grim.

The art and music reinforce this "droning" feeling -- like everything has had life leeched out of it, or is reduced to a simple waveform / black & white lines. The most lively part is the gallery of faces -- of course, that can be draining too (the wall of Zoom faces) but everything else is so stark and low-personality that it stands out, for just a second before we don't see it any more.

As the player, we don't have much choice in whether to look at classmates' faces because the character doesn't spend long on it. I'm not sure whether this feels deliberate ("character is zoning out because it's hard / awkward to feel like you're staring at other people's faces") or like something I wish the game gave me more control over.

The choices feel very sparse -- like there's one of significance, then a single-choice (call mom) near the end. This is doing a little bit for the "just march ahead in a straight line... try to hang in there..." desperate-boring-circumstances feel, but it's pretty subtle. As a player, I don't know if there are few choices because it's meant to feel that way or if there are few choices because it's a quick early prototype. To get a deliberate feel, you'd need more choices that reinforce monotony, or feel futile, etc. (I also find myself wondering if audio might alter based on choices, which would be interesting because some of the audio definitely feels like it's in the character's head, reflecting feelings!)

Where's the story going to go? Well, I do know it's meant to be dark. I don't know exactly how. Maybe more weird stuff happening while looking at Zoom. Maybe dreams where the hotel room changes? A little reminiscent of Silent Hill 4, maybe? (Probably less gory / hellscapey though.)