Surka night. ABSENTION

Robert Bruce, head of Dream Wave Games, said that he often dreams of the same unusual dream. A secluded mountain valley, the purest lake, in which the sky is reflected, a house stands on the shore, a beautiful, cozy, beautifully furnished. It is great to spend summer vacation or weekends in such a place. But for some reason, the idyllic landscape does not inspire peace, but a strange alarm. Something is wrong with this place … But what?

A year later, when, on the basis of a vague dream, a slender concept of a debut game began to form, the developer began to involve other specialists to work. The name of the new studio, by the way, reflects not only the source of inspiration, but generally a view of the games as “on conscious dreams, in which experiences are completely real and can be controlled by what is happening”.

Wake up and die

► Judging by the yellowish shade of vegetation, summer is running out. And the water in the lake, it seems, is already cold, you will not bathe.

In addition to Robert Bruce, a governing development, over Absention only two people who are engaged in design and technical programming work. And, of course, the composer of Christopher Yabley, whose very decent work we could appreciate the first trailer.

But the creators promise that the small state and limited funds will not affect the result. Thanks to their efforts, enthusiasm and capabilities of the Unreal Engine 4 engine, we will fall into the very places that Robert Bruce once dreamed: the surroundings of the mountain lake surrounded by the forest, and a luxurious mansion on the shore. We will be able to take a walk along the picturesque locations, admire the rays of the sun break through the foliage, and the glare of light on the lake surface.

But only before the onset of twilight.

“I deliberately invite a player to a wonderful house located in a beautiful place – a house in which anyone would agree to live. I inspire a false sense of security. So that later, when everything changes dramatically, the contrast would turn out even more striking, ”Robert Bruce shared with us.

When the night comes, the main character (while nameless), as expected, goes to the bedroom to make out the bed and enjoy the rest. But it is only an old clock in the lobby to break through midnight, as a calm vacation by the mountain lake turns in a nightmare in reality. The hero suddenly wakes up, the light in the whole house goes out, and we hear someone's approaching steps ..

A bright flash grabs a terrible figure with burning eyes from the darkness, and our hero dies.

For the first time.

► some rooms look empty and even non -residential. But it can still change to the release.

Under the battle of the clock

Absention – This is a thriller with horror elements and the opportunity to quickly and painfully die with any oversight. The developers promise that the hero will die very often.

Well, the resurrection imminent for game realities is set up here unconventional and causes an old comedy with Bill Murrey in memory. Each time after death, we wake up from the battle of the clock, and it all starts first: a dark mansion, creaks of floorboards and rustles in the attic, and then the burning eyes of an unknown monster and death again.

“The monster is a constant threat,” Robert Bruce scares us. -You will constantly have to hold your ear openly, listening to the sounds of steps, and look around the corner before taking a step ”. Any meeting with the monster will end the same: the player will awaken under the ringing of an old watch.

For the second, third or tenth time, he will try to hurry something hastily: he will rush to look for matches and candles, jump out of the bedroom through the window or hide in a wardrobe … and the danger will actually retreat for a short time.

Next, the player will take to inspect the rooms and corridors of a rather big mansion in the hope of finding the answer to the main question: what is happening here? And along the way, he will try to solve another riddle – where the father of the protagonist disappeared, who was by profession ..

We are fighting about the lay that you have already guessed. Of course, the writer, the author of numerous thrillers.

► almost photography. How many indie games can boast of such a picture?

House with a secret

To break the vicious circle of the “Surrots” and get out of the mansion, you can only be the only way: to live until dawn. But this is hindered by an unknown monster with deer horns, whose shadow constantly as if followed by the hero on the heels.

To survive, you need to go around all the rooms, find all the keys, notes, evidence, evidence and find out why the hero’s father left the family at one time and why did he need this old mansion inherited by our alter ego in inheritance. Involuntarily, I remember Gone Home, After all, here we also collect in pieces of memories of a certain family tragedy.

► The lower the sun falls to the horizon, the more comfortable the chairs in front of the fireplace seem.

► The very clock that will count for us the rounds of damned night. Death after death ..

Each failure, every death of the hero will make you go all the way first. Even if you die before dawn. This may seem like a controversial solution, but the creator is sure that if you do everything right, it will turn out great. We will constantly learn from our own mistakes, build an increasingly cunning action plan and, if successful, rejoice https://xl-casino.co.uk/ that everything has finally developed as it should and the hero managed to get ahead of death by a couple of steps.

"IN Absention There will be places that you can run very quickly if you already know the location of objects and furniture or a way to solve a riddle. The solution of a complex puzzle can take about twenty minutes, but if you did it once, you will not have to repeat the whole process at first ".

However, no matter how carefully the player investigates the mysterious mansion, with each next passage, the traces are confused, because after awakening the main character falls into the changed space. Let's say the room will remain the same outwardly, but it will be in another part of the house. The same applies to the intricacies of corridors. Every time you have to study the layout from scratch.

► everything looks different at night. By the way, in this trimmed letter, it seems, the code for some castle.

Puzzles will also change. The set of tasks awaiting us in key places will be generated randomly. The same applies to their decisions – having stumbled upon the previously seen cache, you can not expect that the old key will suit it. We'll have to look for another.

* * *

But if architecture and stone walls in Absention changeable, like the weather, then an oppressive sense of danger accompanies us always. Among his favorite works, Robert Bruce calls "Shine" Stephena King, films about a stranger, series Eternal Darkness, Resident Evil And Silent Hill.

They are going to scare us not by garlands of bloodied giblets and suddenly jumping screamers, but by a viscous atmosphere of growing fear and the way a cozy dwelling suddenly turns into a gloomy and extremely dangerous place, and the most ordinary things are not the same as they seemed to be the light of the day. Familiar motives since time Silent Hill: The Room.

And given that the game will support the virtual reality helmet Oculus Rift, a walk along a secluded mansion promises to become a particularly memorable.

► who haunts us? Man, demon, spirit? The materialized hatred of the boy to the father betrayed him?

► one of the options for "floating" layout of the house.

Success factors

Risk factors

• The authors are inspired by classic horror;

• the opportunity to live in a luxurious mansion, and even with a changing layout;
• the mechanism of the temporary loop justified by the plot;
• constant mortal threat in the absence of conservations;

• A temporary loop may be an annoying need to repeat the same actions again;

• Will there be constant redevelopment with a sufficient incentive to go through the game again?
• Small campaign, modest budget, long development process.

We will wait?

Fidelity to the ideas of classic horror films and a bet on a random number generator can provide good game experience. True, you will have to wait a long time, the game is still in the early alpha studies.