10 | LGG | BOO.
10 | LGG | BOO.
by: Lilie Bagage
Progress:
- I reached the end of the narrative in about 7 minutes.
Engagement with Horror Genre:
- This centers on a “corrupted childhood” theme. It takes place in an environment that you can deduce is a child’s bedroom due to the presence of a toy chest, and the creepy voices are familiar (cued, additionally, by the uncanny doll on the cover art). A “monster under the bed” or a “monster in the closet” in the darkness is a common childhood fear that is built upon here. Beyond the jumpscares, another horror element that is included is the plot twist role reversal—the ending that is designed to make you question who you even were while playing this.
Things I Appreciated:
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This piece does something pretty clever, I think. The blurb and presentation encourage you to focus on listening (since the audio design is the major focus), and after a while you expect something creepy to happen while you’re listening. The clever thing is, the piece surprise strikes with visual elements (the sudden appearance of shoes, keys, and bright white light) that cut across the player’s expectation to be spooked by the audio.
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Speaking of the audio, I really enjoyed the focus on sound, and how the whispers were sometimes easy to parse, and sometimes were overlapping voices that were harder to distinguish. I thought this created an appealing sensation of ambiguity that primed me to listen more closely and try to understand what the voices are saying. I also liked the background ambience and the build to the climax/ending of the piece, it was a great demonstration of how to use sound effectively in a short narrative.
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An element that I thought was thematically interesting was the use of light as a source of terror. At first, the dark is disorienting, but the player adjusts and starts to feel just a bit more comfortable navigating the space as it becomes normal. Then, the light—normally a source of relief for darkness, becomes a threat. It adds to the feeling that you might be playing as some kind of monster or ghoul for whom the light, rather than the darkness, is the real source of danger.
Miscellaneous Comments:
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There was one audio cue that I thought was off. When the text “The door is creaking” appears, the sound that plays is the sound of a door closing. While that still gets the “door” across, I feel like it’s missing the “creaky” quality that you’d expect from that description.
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An element that I’m curious about is the counter at the bottom (that goes up to 66). Because the player is shown this, it gives a sense of progression in terms of how much is left. My curiosity is around whether or not showing this to the player is a good idea. On one hand, knowing the I’m close to the end can add to the suspense, because it creates an expectation of a jumpscare/fright. On the other hand, it sort of goes against the sensation of being literally and figuratively “in the dark” about your situation. Why should the player get this warning about the end approaching, especially since the narrative is already building toward that moment?
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There are some very minor typos that could be edited (chick → cheek; suddendly → suddenly)
What I learned about IF writing/game design:
- The game is, along with being a narrative, a demonstration of software and audio tools. I’m not familiar with Moiki but I have been curious in general about including audio elements (in a Twine project I’m currently working on, I have toyed with audio elements but will probably scrap them because it seems really intimidating to code and I want to prioritize the actual narrative writing). I thought this was a good study in how to create a sinister atmosphere using voice cues and overlapping audio.
Memorable Moment:
- I got jumpscared by some freaking shoes.
