Thursday 27 September, 2018

I've progressed further in Little Nightmares, and the creepy little game is actually growing on me. After learning that the creatures I had encountered wasn't a boss, and I progressed a little bit further, solved a few more puzzles and eventually cleared the first level! I surmised this when I earned the achievement "The Prison". Once I saw that, it was like everything snapped into place. Of COURSE Six was running around in a prison!

Anyways, as I progressed through more of the game, I'm starting to put its crafty narrative together. In the prison and in the new level, it seems that children had been taken to this facility only to be trapped for some yet to be revealed reason. Six is almost successfully trapped, as an evil monster with very long hands seemed to have lured her into a cage with the smell of food. As we see the peckish Six teeter over into the cage to feast, the monster locks her in! Thankfully, escaping is easy and Six resumes her quest in no time.

I take back what I said about this game not feeling like a child's nightmare. The more I learn, the more my opinions shift around, but I think I can confidentially say that I'm sold on Little Nightmares. The game seems to center around the struggle between the monster-under-the-bed type enemies who want to imprison children, and our cunning hero Six's goal to outwit and escape them. I'll definitely finish this game, as I don't think I've learned enough about this world to understand what sorts of ethical statements the developers are trying to raise. Having children involved is always touchy, so I'm excited to dig deeper.

Good work Ryan! You have a good analysis of how the game creates its nightmarish atmosphere and your statement that the game is about “the struggle between the monster-under-the-bed type enemies who want to imprison children, and our cunning hero Six's goal to outwit and escape them” is a great, concise description of the game. Additionally, your discussion about witnessing the suicide from a children’s lens brings up some interesting ethical themes of differing perspectives on trauma/tragedy. I look forward to see some of the ethical statements you find the developers trying to make as you continue to play the game.