Indie games can do some really interesting stuff. And this one developed by GoodbyeWorld Games fits the bill.
Before Your Eyes is a narrative-focused game with one neat trick- you control the passage of time by the blink of your eye. Like, your actual eyes. The game requires a webcam and will check for your eye blinks.
You will navigate through the story this way, seeing how time affects people. See a story of one’s life, the happy and the heartbreaking moments, pass through in a blink of an eye.
You might have heard this as “Close Your”, a Game Developers Choice award winner at Indiecade in 2014, and also the winner of the Student Award at the Independent Game Awards (IGF) in 2015. This is that student game, developed further into a full commercial product.
“We’ve been working on this game since college- for the better part of a decade- so it’s really the definition of a labour of love,” said Oliver Lewin, game director and composer.
“We really can’t wait to get this into the hands of players, so they can finally experience this completely new way of using tech to tell human stories,” added Graham Parkes, writer and creative director. “It’s really something you have to experience firsthand.”
The gimmick sounds nifty and could be a promising setup for an emotional journey, should the story of Before Your Eyes lives up to the promise.
Before Your Eyes is coming to PC (Steam) on April 8.