Acrylic
is an Explorer Horror game made by WickedHardcorg inspired by other games in the genre such as Ib, Ao Oni, and The Witch's House. After a session of playing The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, senior art student Nicole Chapman is getting ready for a spooky movie night with her beloved sister Joelle when she realizes she has left her art portfolio at the 5th floor of the titular Acrylic Academy. She goes to get it, only to get attacked by a spirit. Meeting up with Joelle who followed her, the two discover that the school has become warped and haunted by the spirits.
It is said that those who die tragic deaths lose their memories of who they are and how they died, becoming spirits who seek revenge on the living. Four such spirits- the Shaded, the Carved, the Exposed, and the Collage- are wandering the academy, and if Nicole wants to get her portfolio back, she will have to discover the names and deaths of these spirits and help them remember to pacify them. In the process, she learns of a sinister man who was behind their unfortunate fates, and who may still be lurking in the halls...
The game world is split up into 5 floors, all but the first with a spirit. In order to progress, Nicole and Joelle must navigate, solve puzzles, and discover the truth behind each spirit.
This game contains examples of:
- Big Bad: Brittany/The Collage is the one who killed the girls and turned them into the spirits haunting Acrylic Academy and is keeping Nicole and Joelle Chapman trapped inside.
- Bittersweet Ending: All three of the endings are this. The Big Bad has been brought to justice and the spirits who were victimized can move on now that their murderer is gone. But Joelle Chapman died in the process and has to ascend as well, giving Nicole a tearful goodbye. Nicole then either discovers she is immortal and can never reunite with Joelle (Ending 3), tries to explain what happened to a cop but is mistaken for being insane and Wrongfully Committed (Ending 2), or either goes insane or gets to hang out with her sister's visiting spirit, but since no one else can see her everyone thinks she's gone insane (Ending 1).
- Book Ends: The game opens with Nicole playing The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past and text on-screen explaining snippets of her exploits. Ending 1 shows her playing and showing off the game to her sister Joelle, who is a spirit by that point.
- Earn Your Bad Ending: Ending 1, the normal/default ending, is the happiest possible ending as Nicole is shown happily playing her game while chatting with Joelle's spirit- or has gone so insane that she thinks she's talking with Joelle, but either way she's happy. The other two endings, which require finding all 15 pencils, have her either Wrongfully Committed or discovering she is immortal and crying because ehse can never be reunited with Joelle.
- Gotta Catch Them All: The 15 pencils are scattered throughout the Academy, and finding them all is required to unlock Endings 2 and 3.
- Guide Dang It!: Getting either Ending 2 or 3, depending on how many times the player has died. You need to get all 15 pencils, which is an intuitive enough requirement, but there is an additional condition that decides which ending you get that is not hinted at- if you died at least 20 times, you are permanently locked onto Ending 3 due to the game saving deaths outside of the save function.
- Invisible to Normals: Spirits and the things they create are invisible to most people. The spirits at Acrylic Academy can only be seen at night, and their works can only be seen by those who are dead. This is how the Collage delivers The Reveal of Joelle being Dead All Along- she gets Joelle to describe a painting she made that Nicole cannot see. In Ending 1, Nicole can see Joelle's spirit but Michael cannot, so he assumes Nicole has gone mad with grief when she talks to Joelle while playing a game.
- Old School Building: Acrylic Academy, by day, is a normal school, but by night turns into a dark and haunted place with murderous spirits wandering the floors.
- The Many Deaths of You: There are 20 ways total to die in this game, ranging from being murdered by the spirits to getting your head stuck in an oven or pulled apart by mannequins. Dying at least 20 times is actually required to get Ending 3.
- Multiple Endings: Three, depending on certain factors.
- Ending 1: "Insane": If you beat the game without collecting all 15 pencils, Nicole will be seen playing a game with what seems to be the spirit of her sister Joelle watching her, and Nicole speaking to her, while Michael thinks she's gone mad with grief, and it is left up to the player if she truly has.
- Ending 2: "Imprisoned": If you beat the game with all 15 pencils and less than 20 deaths, then Nicole will try to explain the supernatural events to a police officer, who is convinced she has gone insane and puts her in a cell... right next to Mr. Aaron, the killer of the girls who has gone mad himself.
- Ending 3: "Immortal": If you get all 15 pencils and died at least 20 times, then Nicole decides she cannot take being apart from Joelle and stabs herself to be with her again... only to discover she has become immortal and be brought to tears.
- Pink Means Feminine: The Shader's room is decked out in pink, with a pink couch, pink picture frames, pink mirror frame, pink carpet, and such.
- The Reveal: The endgame brings up several in rapid succession:
- The man who raped and killed the girls is Mr. Aaron, Nicole's favorite teacher.
- The final spirit is his daughter, Brittany, who was corrupting him into doing his deeds as revenge for failing to save her from drowning as a kid.
- Joelle has been a spirit all along and died in the supply closet.
- Shout-Out:
- The game opens with Nicole playing The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, complete with music and sound effects from the game.
- Checking her garbage can has Nicole say that this isn't Pokémon, where you can just find items in such places.
