Narrative
The game's narrative is an adaptation of an original short story. It was first written in a screenplay format and then transferred into prose, before it was restructured to create F E A R. The story is about a young man trying to overcome childhood trauma, presented through dialogue with a therapist and flashbacks. Since the story had no previous visual form, it was made to fully embrace the interactive format.
The game's setting is Brazil, in three important spaces to the boy's life: his room, the therapist's office and the long corridor in his house, the place that created immense fear in him during the night.
The main character is "the boy", a middle class Brazilian with a wild imagination, sometimes too much so. Because of that, he believes he sees monsters in the shadows, especially in the dark, and was sent to therapy for treatment.
Universe
The game's setting is Brazil, even though that is not explicitly mentioned. At the beginning of the story the protagonist is a child, exploring his memories at two points in time. Later, the boy is a young adult, ready to confront his fears.
The atmosphere of the game is of horror/suspense, with some elements that seem normal and others not so much, coming from the child's imagination. The art is detailed, with a lot of cross hatching and noise, aside from using a desaturated color palette.
Main Gameplay Concept
F E A R is a 2D narrative experience, presenting a linear sequence of scenes limited to movement, dialogue and simple non-repeatable interaction that is sequential in the last scene. Although the achieved result serves as demonstration for what a complete game could be, its shortness serves as a differential from other, similar games. It sufficiently transmits a direct, linear and complete story with elements of conflict. Games like Sally Face and Fran Bow, which have similar explorations of theme regarding fear, childhood trauma and the questioning of reality, leave more space for interpretation.
Game Flow
The game flows linearly, focusing on the narrative experience of the original text, which is why the game's interactions are limited to point-and-click exploration of the spaces and key elements.
There is no rising challenge or learning curve to be mentioned. The player navigates through the boy's memories, interacting with the space and being accompanied by a mysterious narrator. With the story unfolding the player is instigated to question if the shadows he encounters in the house are really just shadows.
In the end, the player will not be rewarded if he does not discover the first answer to the mysteries surrounding him.
Obstacles
The closest the game has to obstacles is the connection of dialogue and action that has to be realized to move forward. Aside from that, the creepy graphic elements of the scenery are supposed to serve as an antagonizing force coming from the context of the story.
Mechanics
There are only mechanics for moving and the completion of objectives, which are object interactions that unlock the next scene. The dialogue of the game complements the mechanics, guiding the user through the story as to what should be interacted with next. The environment also has parallax mechanics to create the illusion of depth as the character moves.
Interface
Since the intention of the game is to serve as a demo or teaser, the menu only appears at the end to strengthen the sense that this is an introduction that throws the player right into the experience.
However, there is a dialogue interface. It is simple and follows the dark, mysterious aesthetic of the game, with the same texture and noise from the other game assets.
Character and Controls
Since the character is just a boy, there are no control inputs aside from moving in the space (WASD), interacting with objects (E) and moving the dialogue along (Spacebar). The boy is a dark skinned boy with even darker, curly hair. He wears tones of green, red and white, his main item being the jacket that strangely resembles a monster.
W -> move up
A -> move left
S -> move right
D -> move right
E -> interacts with object
Spacebar -> moves dialogue along