Some horror games hand the player a gun, while others force them to run and hide. The Night That Speaks goes another route: flipping your middle finger.
Inspired by Augustâs GBJam, whose theme was Nintendoâs archaic handheld, Adam R. and Guy T.âtheir last names arenât listed on the gameâs siteâcreated The Night That Speaks. Itâs a short but sweet horror game thatâs surprisingly effective at creeping you out, despite the limited visual palette itâs working with.
The game even provides a âreasonâ the middle finger is so useful:
Good enough for me.
Thereâs no limit to how often you can deploy said finger, so I went right for it.
Take that, lamp
Screw off, cemetery.
I feel better.
The real usefulness of the finger, however, was outlined at the start of this piece, when the enemy disappeared once Iâd exerted my âwillâ on them. Youâre forced to navigate a dark ân creepy church in The Night That Speaks, and youâll run into different kinds of enemies while working out the layout. Sounds are a good way to make note of a nearby creature, but your finger is the real weapon.
Sometimes, two enemies can find you at once, and you only have one fingerâŚ
Drat.
Simple or not, Iâm willing to admit it got me to jump at least a few times, which is way more than I expected when booting up a game inspired by the Game Boy.
If youâd like to watch me actually play (and scream) at the game, have at it:
You can reach the author of this post at [email protected] or on Twitter at @patrickklepek
