NIGHTMARE VIGNETTE: A Horror-Episodic Story Based on the Game Dev Personal Experiences

Nightmare Vignette is a series of short-lived first-person horror simulation games that are being produced, on an episodic formats, by Valerie Dusk, known for her work on Apolysis. The first two episodes, titled Veins and Writhe, were published on October 29th this year, on the indie gaming platform itch.io. Apparently, the games are reproductions of game dev dreams (in my opinion) and the plot of each one is not very well defined (unless the next episodes connect the dots here). In Veins, the first game, you are a girl who dreams of her inner self, and feels that an malignancy, faceless or formless, is spreading through her body, seeking to control everything. The second episode, Writhe, apparently continues what happened in Veins, with this girl already taken by malignancy and is about to complete her metamorphosis.

In terms of visuals, both games use the good old aesthetics inspired by PSX games. They also resemble something similar to Silent Hill: symbologies, dirty environments and heavy climate are the main lines of the character here. The gameplay is very simple and matches the idea that the developer wants to convey (it's more of an audiovisual experience than the game itself).

Nightmare Vignette is an interesting experience for those who like very bizarre and crazy games. It remains now to know how the other episodes will be and what mechanics Valerie will put here. You can check both the gameplays of both episodes by clicking on the link below, and download the two games if you are interested. Links to them are on the itch.io page below.

CHECK OUT THE GAMEPLAY (in order of narrative):

1. VEINS: https://youtu.be/BKF8odmhvcY

2. WRITHE: https://youtu.be/syP4_bUxxvY

DOWNLOAD THE GAMES HERE (in order of release):

1. WRITHE: https://valerie-dusk.itch.io/writhe

2. VEINS: https://valerie-dusk.itch.io/veins