Video games are capable of communicating uniquely immersive and affecting narratives thanks to the inherent differences between games and other forms of media, but GoodbyeWorld Games has kicked that concept up a notch with its debut game,Before Your Eyes.Focusing on life"flashing before your eyes,“Before Your Eyesuses an innovative blink detection systemto tell a powerful story.
Using blink detection to tell a story opens up a huge set of challenges, but also provides narrative opportunities that change the way the story can be told. Game Rant sat down with theBefore Your Eyesteam to discuss how they approached some of these challenges and discovered new storytelling techniques tocreate a gaming experienceunlike any other.
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InBefore Your Eyes,players take on the role of a person who has just died. When they are confronted by a mysterious ferryman, they must recall moments from their life to convince the ferryman they are worthy of entering the afterlife. The player experiences these moments, but blinking can result in the moment fading away.
How Before Your Tells a Complete Story with Blinking Controls
One of the biggest challenges the developers faced was writing a complete story when someone might just blink through the whole thing. When thefirst game prototype was madeand presented at IndieCade, players skipped forward in time with every single blink, meaning that if someone got an eyelash stuck in their eye, they’d probably miss the whole game and not get anything from the story.
Although an eyelash can definitely create some problems for a player trying to hold onto a moment in the current version, the team realized that the original system wasn’t going to work with a full narrative. It doesn’t matterhow powerful the story isif people don’t actually experience it, or if they can’t experience it for whatever reason. The feeling of possibly missing out was important to hold onto, but obviously missing out on everything isn’t ideal. According to Writer/Creative Director Graham Parkes…
“It was an amazing thing to do in a 10-15 minute show. But when you thought about actually trying to tell a two-hour-plus story and build something that felt cinematic and full-bodied as a narrative, very quickly it was clear that wasn’t going to work.”
GoodbyeWorld Games tackled that challenge and discovered new ways to use the blinking mechanic along with it. When players enter new memories, there is a short period of time when the most important parts play out. During that time, the developers discovered that they could actually use the blinking for more than going back and forth in time. Blinking can also be used to interact with the environment and make choices, some of which havegenuine stakes for the ending of the game. Once the scene gets to a certain point, a metronome appears at the bottom of the screen signaling that, even if something is still going on, the next blink will end the moment.
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Before Your Eyes is About Processing and Accepting Mortality
Before Your Eyesexplores subjects and themes that are not for the faint of heart.One thing all humans have in commonis the inevitability of death, but it’s not something anyone likes to think about very much. It’s scary, so instead of facing mortality, many people go through life denying the inevitable and refusing to accept it.
Accepting, or at least processing mortality, is at the center ofBefore Your Eyes,and GoodbyeWorld Games didn’t shy away fromthemes of regret and loss. It’s injected into every moment of the game, manifested by the blink detection control system.
In many ways, blinking serves as a parallel for the theme of death. That’s part of what makes the mechanic so powerful. Blinking is inevitable, no matter how hard players attempt to hold onto the moments. Most of the time, they will blink, and there will always be a sense of regret and a feeling of missing out. Death is the same in that regard.
Ultimately, however,Before Your Eyesis not a dark story even though it does explorethemes that can be difficult to process. Through accepting the reality and inevitability of death, GoodbyeWorld Games hopes that players will learn to be more focused on appreciating the present and fully living in whatever moment they’re in, because nothing lasts forever. As mentioned by Parkes,
“It is very much a little parable, which is really about bringing you back into the present. Hopefully, it makes you grateful for the present and a little less anxious about how you’re going to become or attempt to fight against the future.”
Along the way, the developers hope that players learn to see the extraordinary in the ordinary. People who are worthy to enter the land of the dead, in the ferryman’s eyes, aren’t necessarily the ones who lead the most impressive lives.
Before Your Eyesuses its blink detectionsystem to create a one-of-a-kind gaming experience, every second of which ties back to the core themes of the story. While the blink detection definitely posed some challenges, both on the technical and narrative sides, it was well worth it and allowed GoodbyeWorld Games to tell a powerful story about processing mortality and the importance of living in the present. These moments won’t last, fictional or otherwise, so enjoy them while they do.
Before Your Eyeswill release for PC on April 8.
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