Will rallied a bunch of old friends and new together to make this thesis project and he ended up submitting that to IndieCade. It ended up getting in, and then when it got in we all rallied again to do a bunch more work around it, and it ended up winning the Developer’s Choice Award at IndieCade.Īs the game got more ambitious we took it to GDC where it won the Student Award. After that, there was some actual outside interest and so we decided ok, let’s make the real version of this thing, and we went to Kickstarter.īy the time that we get to the Kickstarter we’re starting to get on track to the game that you play now. Will brought me in to write the story and Ollie to do the music. There were also a lot of great collaborators at USC that were working on it, and our old friend Griffin who’s doing the art. I was at NYU at the time studying playwriting, I had a minor in game design, and Ollie was at school studying music composition. He discovered there was technology in most commercial webcams that could do eye tracking and he had this idea to do a narrative game about life flashing before your eyes using actual player blinks. Will studied game design at USC, and this began as Will’s thesis project. And then Will, who’s sort of the third lead, was a friend of mine from middle school. We all went to different colleges. Graham: I’ve known Ollie since we were three years old, we were neighbors. How many people are working on Before Your Eyes, and how did you all connect with one another on the project? Here’s what we learned… Before Your Eyes | Interview With Oliver Lewin and Graham Parkes of GoodbyeWorld Games Speaking with Oliver Lewin (Game Director/Composer) and Graham Parkes (Writer/Creative Director), we were given key insight into topics like the formation of GoodbyeWorld Games and the personal experiences that helped influence the game’s story.
Dig a little deeper though, and you’ll find there’s a lot more to the game than meets the eye.Īfter playing through the game twice, we found ourselves eager to learn more about the game’s inspirations and development, and so we reached out to the team at GoodbyeWorld Games. Skybound and any related marks or logos are registered or otherwise protected trademarks owned by Skybound, LLC and/or its affiliates.If you’re looking for a unique, one-of-a-kind experience unlike anything you’ve played before, we highly recommend checking out Before Your Eyes from indie developer GoodbyeWorld Games.Īt its core, the game centers around blinking as a gameplay mechanic, allowing you to fully immerse yourself in a story of life, death, and memories. So he will force you deeper into the dark recesses of your most repressed memories, ultimately revealing a heartbreaking truth.īy combining its innovative blink interaction mechanic with a charming world and a fully voice-acted story, Before Your Eyes is a deeply emotional and relatable journey-one about the impossible expectations we place on ourselves and the regrets we carry with us.Īn earlier version of the game, titled Close Your, received the Game Developers Choice award at Indiecade and the Student Award at the Independent Game Awards (IGF), before receiving funding through a successful Kickstarter campaign.ĬW: Before Your Eyes deals with themes of death, illness and grief But soon the Ferryman will suspect you aren't showing him everything he needs to see. You will learn to control the flow of the narrative with your actual eyes–blinking through precious memories of family, first love, and the rise of an artistic career. The game uses your webcam to immerse you in this story in a way you've never experienced before. And so, he sends you back to relive your most important moments. In order to help you pass on, he must first learn the story of your life.
The story begins after your death, aboard the ship of a mythical Ferryman tasked with shepherding souls to the afterlife.
Before Your Eyes is a first person narrative adventure which tells the story of a soul’s journey into the afterlife using a new and innovative form of interaction-your real-life blinks.