It Doesn’t End: Closure

It Doesn’t End: Closure

Making full use of dafont.com, presumably.

Yeah, I know I’ve already done one indie game post today, but this one is extra special. Tyler Glaiel, the co-creator of Aether, the Edmund McMillen classic, has made a game that’s easily the creepiest and genuinely scary flash game I’ve ever played. It’s called Closure, and it’s all about the light, or lack thereof. It’s Sam Fisher’s nightmare; a world where the only things that exist are those that are illuminated. Well, that and the things scrawled on the walls. And what I think are blood stains. I didn’t look too closely.

Closure seems to be an incredibly clever game. The art style works incredibly in its favour, with the twitching sketches providing the impressions of darkness and candlelight without even needing those things present. You have a basic objective: reach the doorway at the end of each level. Sometimes you’ll need a key, but you’ll always need to make use of the orbs that litter the levels. You see, orbs provide a halo of light, and that light makes the level real. If it’s not visible, it’s not there. This means that a seemingly inescapable box can be evacuated just by making the walls disappear into shadow.

Of course that wouldn’t work too well if you could only hold the orbs. Luckily there are contraptions that transport them around, meaning you can follow them, traversing impossible terrain as you breeze your way to the door. The introduction of different orbs mixes it up a little, but the base mechanic stays the same, often becoming infuriatingly, but rewardingly, hard.

It’s hosted on Newgrounds, and I strongly urge you all to play it. Even the music is excellent, helping to reinforce the creepy atmosphere. It would be rather nice to see this concept expanded, as it would easily work in 3d too. You can play it here.

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