Game Diaries: Aurora’s Nightmare Demo P2
This is only the demo version of this fascinating game. Please visit this Kickstarter link if you want to contribute in making the dream of a full game in reality. And yes, this post is full of spoilers. My thoughts will always be in the italic throughout the diary. Happy reading!
Link to Part 1: https://medium.com/@fahme.minhaz/game-diaries-auroras-nightmare-demo-p1-f3124ce43f9e
As it’s a game (not life), I can afford a second chance. Well, fourth chance, in this case. Let’s go back to the last choice I have made.
There’s a fight going on and the cat looks cornered by 3 nightmares. Should I-
- Create a distraction?
- Wait for an opening?
This time I wait for an opening and it was wise as it seems. 2 nightmares start fighting among themselves and I take on the opportunity. I fly sharply, catch the feline and then fly away. The nightmares chase us, but we win the race this time. The cat is grateful, which is really weird for any cats.
After walking for quite a long time, we find a building. This is not a rubble, rather a clean and well shaped building. The cat says that the tear that can take us back to our world, is somewhere inside it.
I am eagerly waiting for a surprise.
We go inside and there’s a shadow on the ceiling? Oh my God.. what is that? Is that… an angel? One of my friends maybe? Or maybe that mad doc who created all these?
Oh it’s just mirrors!
As soon as I pull off a sigh of relief, we are being chased, once again. They have come back to chase us! The nightmares!
We keep running, the tear is really close. When we are almost there, I stumble. But this isn’t the end! The cat attacks them.
Finally! A cat who pays back favors!
The cat keeps them busy and I manage to gather the last bit of strength I have left in me to fly. Seeing me finding my feet again, the cat also comes and both of us jump through the tear- we come back…
Aaand the game demo ends! I have found the the only normal ending! The screen says,
”To be continued..”
Tia arrives with her witty words, once again. It feels all peaceful now.
But this is not the only way you can reach the happy ending. I will talk about the other way a bit later. Let’s discover the other dead ends now.
Should you choose not to help the cat in the previous scene, it won’t help you when you fall down. So, when you fall, it will just leave you because it has a mission to accomplish and it couldn’t find any motivation to risk that because of you. So you will just die at the hands of the nightmares as the cat leaves you behind.
It can be avoided in another way though. Think. The idea is to build up some sort of connection with the cat so that it considers you to be an important friend. There were a couple of occasions where the cat had given you the opportunity to ask questions. I haven’t asked the cat about itself in any of the occasions, which, apparently, wasn’t wise. So I went back and asked it about itself and this time, it helped me in the final scene!
This is really interesting, because most of us would think that those 2 occasions of choices didn’t matter in the game. But it did matter, just like how it should. This mechanism is so realistic. I love it!
Now for the last dead end.. I couldn’t find it myself. So, I had to cheat.
I have to thank the designer and writer of the game who was generous enough to provide me with the clue.
The dead end which I have missed, occurs before we end up in the nightmare world.
It occurs if I shut Aurora down when she tries to comfort me after Tia’s death. Slowly I approach the end of the world- the last dead end for me.
So, there it goes. 5 dead ends and the only normal ending. It has been an interesting journey. The reason why it felt so intriguing is that the mechanism was realistic. You can’t ignore the tiny choices we have to make in life. Tiny they may seem, but might have gigantic impact in the long run. Also, the logical outcomes were also present, with all the possible explanations in a very cute manner.
Can’t wait to play the full game when it gets out! All the best to Pen and Sword Games!
