Bad Milk is a rare, obscure, "artsy," and extremely surreal 2002 indie video game made by Dreaming Media. In the year of its release, it won the Seamus Mcnally Grand Prize at the Independent Games Festival.
The game begins with a man drinking a small quantity of expired milk and apparently blacking out. The rest of the game takes place in a black void with a few different floating pictures for selections that lead to clues or puzzles of some kind.
You can download a free demo of it from Dreaming Media's ancient website here
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This game series provides examples of:
- Anti-Frustration Features: You don't need to go through all the hint challenges again if you end up crashing or stop playing before the ending. You can go straight to the final two puzzles right away if you wanted to.
- Artistic License – Biology: Needless to say, a spoonful of spoiled milk that's been diluted by a cup of hot coffee is not going to kill you instantly. At worst, you might get very slightly queasy.
- Blackout Basement: There are two instances of darkness mazes that you can only go through with audio cues.
- Dead All Along: The main character's "blackout" is actually him dying instantly from the spoiled milk... somehow.
- Gainax Ending: To quote Brutalmoose:"I'm sorry... Did I just play a game where I die from a tiny bit of spoiled milk in some coffee, and then, while in some strange afterlife, I solve a series of puzzles to receive clues so that I can unlock a spinning head and spell out two types of birds, so that I can be REINCARNATED AS A BABY!? ...Yes, yes I did."
- Reincarnation: The entire game is based around this, apparently, with the main character dying, going through what must be purgatory, then returns as a baby.
- Shout-Out: At one point, an audio clip plays, that when reversed, states that the walrus is Paul.
- Sdrawkcab Speech: Inverted. One person states three words backwards, but says them while talking normally. You're supposed to click on him to reverse his audio, which turns into "Number is seven".
