It's the Simple Things That Drive You Mad: Insomniac, 2013

Until last night I was convinced that the Silent Hill series were the only games that could truly scare me. However, after experiencing Insomniac, my perception has been drastically changed.

I decided to play through Insomniac in bed last night. My wife lay beside me; it is midnight. The lights are out, and all there is to see is the dim glow of the laptop screen. I begin the game.

Without giving away too much (which is very easy to do), I would like to talk about a couple of things that stood out to me. First, the game simply and forcefully directed and manipulated my emotions through the use of brevity and expressiveness in dialogue. Although there were numerous grammatical errors, the storyline did not suffer (albeit distracting me a bit from the thrust of the game). Second, the game capitalized on fear by its use of music. Oh my wow. Insomniac was terrifying for this reason alone.

Another thing the game did well was knowing its limitations -- that is, Insomniac never seemed too drawn out, nor did it stop before full maturation. I concur with the author's decision of the length of the game.

Although amateurish in some ways, Insomniac pushes through its shortcomings and delivers an exceptionally terrifying experience, and a horror-inducing storyline to boot. Play this one with the lights off, with headphones, and late at night.

Insomniac was created by AidanAK47 for the Ludum Dare 27 competition.

platform utilized: mac
genre: visual novel, horror
where to find: Download Insomniac for mac or pc.

Brief Yet Potent: The Elevator, 2012

The Elevator is a brief yet enveloping visual novel (more of a novella), taking place in a not-too-distant dystopian future, centering around a washed up detective-turned-private eye. The game itself is mysterious, though its story lacks any real mystery. By the end of the game you realize just how little influence you have in the movement of the plot, with only a few decisions available to the player, scattered atop the total storyline. Considering this fact, the storyline is surprisingly well written, with a strong development of characters throughout. the language used is at times raw, and at times amoral; though, as is the case with many dark future, steampunk narratives, this seems to be the default, as if what the future is certain to hold is a post-moral, post-religion society.

Still it remains that with such a short storyline to work through, the total product was incredibly moving. I found myself empathizing with the concerns of the protagonist quite well; I may have even begun falling over myself for that shy, cute elevator girl.

The music is sleek and interesting. I especially enjoyed the sort of upbeat track which had a glittering spanish-style guitar line. It was very moving, as was the rest of the soundtrack.

All in all, The Elevator is an interesting play, worthy of interest by any that take pleasure in seeing a gripping story unfold, regardless of how little control over that story one has.

platform utilized: mac
genre: visual novel
where to find: The Elevator can be downloaded here at Cyanide Tea's site, for either pc, mac, or linux.