No matter how early your first memory is, it’s probably not as far back as Isaac’s. The upcoming Goodnight Universe opens with a doctor’s visit when its protagonist is just six months old and already talking — at least, talking to you in his head. Following 2021’s Before Your Eyes, developer Nice Dream is returning with another idiosyncratic story told with a unique set of controls, this time centered on a telekinetic baby.
Before Your Eyes is an experimental narrative game played with your webcam. The game takes place over a series of vignettes showing the most important moments of its main character’s life as they’re ferried into the afterlife. There’s almost no way of interacting with them except for moving from one scene to the next, which happens when your webcam detects you blinking your eyes. It’s a treat as much for its emotional story as its unorthodox method of interaction, both of which Nice Dream is building on in Goodnight Universe.
It’s immediately clear that Goodnight Universe isn’t just a rehash of Before Your Eyes, despite both using the webcam as a controller. This time, in addition to your blinks, your camera will detect your facial expressions and you’ll also make more use of your mouse.
In a demo launching October 2, Isaac learns at his doctor’s visit that there’s something different about him. Namely, that he’s far more aware of his own selfhood than your typical baby, and he can somehow communicate in full sentences, at least in his thoughts. Shortly afterward, when he gets a glimpse of some strange symbols in his late grandfather’s journal, he finds that he can use mysterious new psychic abilities — which is where you come in.
Rather than watching scenes unfold as in Before Your Eyes, Isaac has a lot more control over what’s happening, most of which you control through your webcam. Symbols appear on screen showing you when you can blink, close your eyes, frown or smile, or use your mouse to interact with the scene. In the few vignettes shown from the early game, Isaac uses his powers to try to help his family with chores. Clicking and dragging on dishes sends them into the sink then puts them away in cupboards. Blinking at a light switch turns of the light, and later, blinking at a series of balloons pops them. In one particularly emotional scene, closing your eyes lets Isaac listen in on his father’s thoughts. With your eyes open, you’ll hear him reciting a rote bedtime story, but with your eyes closed, his internal monologue takes over as he ruminates on his dead-end job, his rocky relationship with Isaac’s mother, and his ambivalence about fatherhood.
In a technical sense, Goodnight Universe is even more impressive than Before Your Eyes. Switching between two different dialogue tracks by closing and opening your eyes is both a fun mechanic and a clever way of portraying the disconnect between a character’s inner and outer world. Blinking to affect the environment feels particularly magical, as if you were using some telekinetic abilities to control the scene yourself just as Isaac is.
Goodnight Universe’s story, too, is more complex, as Isaac is taken into custody by a strange science lab wanting to exploit his powers while he also deals with family drama at home. But part of what makes Before Your Eyes special is its simplicity. As a story told through memory, you have no power to change what’s already happened, making it all the more poignant that you’re not even fully in control of when scenes change. Sure, you can prevent yourself from blinking to a certain point, but eventually, you’ll find your fictional life flashing before your eyes more quickly than you intended due to your simple physical need to blink.
By telling a more straightforward story and giving you more control over what’s happening, Goodnight Universe runs the risk of making its webcam controls seem a bit more gimmicky, a feeling that I already had by the end of its roughly 30-minute demo. That could change when the game is asking more of you than helping your family tidy up, but it leaves the impression of an extremely clever control scheme used to underwhelming ends. The sheer magic of changing the world by blinking makes the Goodnight Universe demo well worth checking out, but so far, the adventure of its telekinetic toddler isn’t quite as compelling as it might sound.
