Nuign Specter by Jake Clover is an interesting example of indie gaming and storytelling. It almost completely dispenses with text, only using one cryptic sentence at the beginning and another at the end. There is no dialogue either, and so the only way of learning anything is through observation during gameplay. Here, the game does a wonderful job at building up atmosphere: you start with the dead body at your feet and a shotgun on the chair as the only interactive object. Immediately, you know that you’ll have to shoot, but whom and when? Numerous details help keep you immersed in the events: the protagonist smoking in detail at the beginning, the cracks in the floor and the dilapidated feel of your building, and the fact that not only do shotgun pellets leave bullet holes in the walls, but they never disappear either.
The entire game can be finished in less than ten minutes, and the player is left to make their own conclusions about the narrative. Unfortunately, there isn’t much of said narrative at all, and what is there is quite obtuse even by the indie game standards: even now, I have no idea how many of the events were real and how many were symbolic, and whether some are Faux Symbolism or not. In some ways, it’s much like the recent Gone Home: lots of atmosphere and suspense that doesn’t really lead to anywhere in the end. If you’re fine with this, then download it now and you won’t regret it. Even if you don’t like this turn of events, the game is entirely free, and since it’s so short (again, less than ten minutes once you figure it out), you don’t really lose anything by playing it. And of course, many indie greats started with very simple stuff (Edmund Mc Millen’s spider game comes to mind), so I think Jake Clover definitely has the potential to become a big name in the industry in a few years’ time.
VideoGame Very interesting, but overly short.
Nuign Specter by Jake Clover is an interesting example of indie gaming and storytelling. It almost completely dispenses with text, only using one cryptic sentence at the beginning and another at the end. There is no dialogue either, and so the only way of learning anything is through observation during gameplay. Here, the game does a wonderful job at building up atmosphere: you start with the dead body at your feet and a shotgun on the chair as the only interactive object. Immediately, you know that you’ll have to shoot, but whom and when? Numerous details help keep you immersed in the events: the protagonist smoking in detail at the beginning, the cracks in the floor and the dilapidated feel of your building, and the fact that not only do shotgun pellets leave bullet holes in the walls, but they never disappear either.
The entire game can be finished in less than ten minutes, and the player is left to make their own conclusions about the narrative. Unfortunately, there isn’t much of said narrative at all, and what is there is quite obtuse even by the indie game standards: even now, I have no idea how many of the events were real and how many were symbolic, and whether some are Faux Symbolism or not. In some ways, it’s much like the recent Gone Home: lots of atmosphere and suspense that doesn’t really lead to anywhere in the end. If you’re fine with this, then download it now and you won’t regret it. Even if you don’t like this turn of events, the game is entirely free, and since it’s so short (again, less than ten minutes once you figure it out), you don’t really lose anything by playing it. And of course, many indie greats started with very simple stuff (Edmund Mc Millen’s spider game comes to mind), so I think Jake Clover definitely has the potential to become a big name in the industry in a few years’ time.