History VideoGame / TheLooker

Released by Subcreation Studio on June 17, 2022, ''The Looker'' is a {{Freeware}} adventure/puzzle DeconstructionGame, most heavily inspired by ''VideoGame/TheWitness''. Set on an island mostly occupied by a fancy castle, the player is tasked with solving puzzles in order to progress...and by "puzzles", we mainly mean mazes. Lots and lots of mazes.

* SpoofedWithTheirOwnWords: Five of the six FauxlosophicNarration tapes are made-up nonsense that parodies actual philosophical quotes. The sixth is an actual quote about the tangibility of prayer from a book by Creator/DeepakChopra.

* BottomOfTheBarrelJoke: [[spoiler:The final puzzle of the game, only accessible by completing all of the rest, is to draw a line from Start to End to form "The Obelisk of Knowledge"...which, as the protagonist immediately points out, is actually just a doodle of a penis.]]

* WholePlotReference: In addition to taking direct inspiration from ''VideoGame/TheWitness'', ''The Looker'' intentionally utilizes similar area design; it begins with a long corridor with tutorial puzzles leading up to the surface, the castle has a white energy-grid laser gate just like the first area of ''The Witness'', the OverlyLongGag involving a laser activating a puzzle is reminiscent of activating lasers at the end of each area of ''The Witness'', and [[spoiler:the mystical chanting of "obelisk of knowledge" followed by a live-action video at the end (involving waking up in front of a computer, a jar of yellow liquid, a stack of coins, and solving a puzzle in reality) directly parodies the original's ending]].

* FourOneNineScam: One of the FauxlosophicNarration tapes in the main castle area is about a letter Genghis Khan received from Marco Polo, about a city where everything was so communal that a visiting prince lost his crown and needs a small cash payment in order to regain it, with the promise of paying back tenfold. Khan considered the letter stupid, because it was sent from a man that traded all of his gold for paper.

** Parodied with the hint buttons. One provides useless platitudes when you activate it, and the other reminisces about better days.
* HonestJohnsDealership: Another of the FauxlosophicNarration tapes is a man who has long sought for fulfillment but feels nothing...and then it segues into an advertisement as he compares it to the 0 APR deals at a local car lot.

* JumpScare: In order to access the parapets, the player needs to enter a restricted area, solve some mazes where their red ink starts dripping like blood, watches a ghost walking through a bookcase, and then is given a shotgun while left to wonder where a large suit of armor has mysteriously disappeared to. One ScareChord later, [[spoiler:it turns out the armor is a fake-out that can't possibly harm you, and the gun's just used to solve a puzzle]].

* DeconstructionGame: The game is specifically a deconstruction of ''VideoGame/TheWitness'', but can generally apply to any puzzle game that uses FauxlosophicNarration, artistry, and unclear instructions to make a puzzle seem deeper than it is, replacing all of the grand speeches about philosophy with complete nonsense and the puzzles with mazes from the kid's menu of a restaurant ([[spoiler:literally, in one case]]).

** One of the game's puzzles is a game of "[[VideoGame/{{Snake}} Snek]]".
** Following the "Snek" puzzle, the player unlocks a room with a poster for "[[VideoGame/{{Braid}} Ponytail]]"; trying to connect the S and E in its subtitle (as the letters are used elsewhere as indication of a maze's Start and End) causes time to rewind and your line to undo itself while the appropriate sound effect from the referenced game plays.

* IronicEcho: In the parapets is a room overlooking the giant chess set on the ground, and in addition to one of the FauxlosophicNarration tapes, there's a two-part audio log next to a regular-sized chess set: the first about the beauty of chess, by Grandmaster Bobby Fischer...and then one that's just "''I hate chess, I hate chess, I hate chess.'' - World Champion Bobby Fischer".

* JadedWashout: On one side of the main castle area is a Hint Button that offers encouragement. Just around the corner, there's a rusty Hint Button in the trash with a cigarette and glass of bourbon nearby, which instead talks about how his time has passed in a PrivateEyeMonologue.

* CuttingTheKnot: Some mazes requiring an OutsideTheBoxTactic involve realizing whether the maze's walls are actually made of black lines, as that's the only color that can block your pen. [[spoiler:In the ending cutscene, the protagonist solves a maze made out of cookie crumbs on a plate by tilting the plate so the crumbs all fall to the side.]]

* JumpScare: In order to access the parapets, the player needs to enter a restricted area, solve some mazes where their red ink starts dripping like blood, and then is given a shotgun while left to wonder where a large suit of armor has mysteriously disappeared to. One ScareChord later, [[spoiler:it turns out the armor is a fake-out that can't possibly harm you, and the gun's just used to solve a puzzle]].

* {{Metaphorgotten}}: One tape of FauxlosophicNarration found on a rowboat is a parable of a man that took a boat out to sea despite warnings from his peers, and then profited from the insurance money when it indeed sank. The narration then starts to claim everything was a metaphor for something, like how the ship's captain represents Albert Einstein, before asking "What the heck was I talking about?"

** The story about different-colored gravity wavelengths giving people superpowers mentioned in FauxlosophicNarration is an indirect reference to ''Literature/GravitysRainbow''.

* VeryFalseAdvertising: The game's [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TvAJbmPHoHM official trailer]] begins with the statement "From the Mind Behind ''VideoGame/TheWitness''"...and then adds a few more words to turn it into "From The Mind that Was Not Behind ''VideoGame/TheWitness'' (he doesn't even know about this)". At the trailer's end, looking at the "awards" show that they're all meaningless, such as "PICTURE OF LAURELS with a number under it 2022" and "Winner of NOTHING this game isn't OUT YET".

* AllJustADream: [[spoiler:Beating the game plays a clip of a guy in first-person perspective waking up in his apartment, then flat-out stating he was in some kind of coma.]]
* BananaPeel: [[spoiler:In the clip of real life that plays by beating the game, the narrator ends up slipping on one as he walks towards a maze taped to his fridge.]]

* BottomOfTheBarrelJoke: [[spoiler:The final puzzle of the game, only accessible by completing all of the rest, is to draw a line from Start to End to form "The Obelisk of Knowledge"...which, as the narrator immediately points out, is actually just a doodle of a penis.]]
* CuttingTheKnot: Some mazes requiring an OutsideTheBoxTactic involve realizing whether the maze's walls are actually made of black lines, as that's the only color that can block your pen. [[spoiler:In the ending cutscene, the narrator solves a maze made out of cookie crumbs on a plate by tilting the plate so the crumbs all fall to the side.]]

* {{Retirony}}: [[spoiler:During the ending, the narrator mentions how he's about to retire from puzzle solving right before he slips on a banana peel.]]

* {{Retirony}}: [[spoiler:During the ending, the narrator mentions how he's about to retire from puzzle solving right before he slipps on a banana peel.]]

* DeconstructionGame: The game is specifically a deconstruction of ''VideoGame/TheWitness'', but can generally apply to any puzzle game that uses FauxlosophicNarration, artistry, and unclear instructions to make a puzzle seem deeper than it is, replacing all of the grand speeches about philosophy with complete nonsense and the puzzles with mazes from the kid's menu of a restaurant (literally, in one case).

* DeconstructionGame: The game is specifically a deconstruction of ''VideoGame/TheWitness'', but can generally apply to any puzzle game that uses FauxlosophicNarration or artistry to make a puzzle seem deeper than it is, replacing all of the grand speeches with complete nonsense and the puzzles with mazes.

* ElaborateUndergroundBase: The game begins in a high-tech metallic corridor before the player solves their first few puzzles and reaches the surface, a fantasy castle.

* JadedWashout: On one side of the main castle area is a Hint Button that offers encouragement. Just around the corner, there's a rusty Hint Button in the trash with a cigarette and glass of bourbon nearby, which instead talks about how his time has passed like the protagonist of a noir detective story.
* JumpScare: In order to access the parapets, the player needs to enter a restricted area, solve some mazes where their red ink starts dripping like blood, and then is given a shotgun while left to wonder where a large suit of armor has mysteriously disappeared to. One ScareChord later, [[spoiler:it turns out the armor is a fake-out and the gun's just used to solve a puzzle]].
* OutsideTheBoxTactic: Many of the game's mazes require this kind of tactic, such as drawing a line around the outside of a maze instead of trying to properly navigate it.

* VeryFalseAdvertising: The game's [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TvAJbmPHoHM official trailer]] begins with the statement "From the Mind Behind ''VideoGame/TheWitness''"...and then adds a few more words to turn it into "From The Mind that Was Not Behind ''VideoGame/TheWitness'' (he doesn't even know about this)". At the trailer's end, looking at the "rewards" show that they're all meaningless, such as "PICTURE OF LAURELS with a number under it 2022" and "Winner of NOTHING this game isn't OUT YET".

* BottomOfTheBarrelJoke: [[spoiler:The final puzzle of the game, only accessible by completing all of the rest, is to draw a line to form "The Obelisk of Knowledge"...which, as the narrator immediately points out, is actually just a doodle of a penis.]]

* FauxlosophicNarration: There are six voice recordings scattered throughout the game that start out sounding philosophic, but quickly degrade into hilarity, such as a discussion about gravity and wavelengths turning into a story about superheroes empowered by different forms of light radiation.
* HedgeMaze: Fittingly, solving all of the mazes in the castle's ground floor, the player unlocks access to one of these. [[spoiler:At its center is a book with mazes that indicate how to solve the puzzle that leads to the final challenge.]]

* OverlyLongGag: The cube at the end of the parapet section, which is needed to activate one of the game's final puzzles, takes over a full minute to open up into a smaller box, have that box open up to an even smaller laser pointer, shoot a beam in the wrong direction, somehow take multiple 90-degree turns to ''still'' miss the target, and then pull out a tiny mirror to make the final adjustment.