Player
Non Player

Player Non Player (2024) is a narrative game about a mysterious villa and four people who need help to rest in peace. You explore the world, but not like other games. Here the interactions focus on holding and caressing the things and characters you find. It stands out not only for the unusual interactions and themes but also for being developed alongside a music album of the same name.

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You explore a melancholic island with stark buildings and meet four people suffering from loss. As you control the motion of your hand to touch and interact with them they tell you about their dreams and nightmares. You can also find secrets on the island while playing with the sound structures or walking and listening to the musical landscapes. In this way, you work to help these people process their loss and finally rest in peace.

To progress you get to know each character's story and, like a dating game, respond to them in ways that unlock each chapter. Sometimes this is something of a puzzle, at other times it is simply by caressing or holding them. You work to earn their trust so they can finally talk about what happened to them.

The result is a disarming game about mature topics including grief, sexual and gender identity, friendship and love. It invites you to engage with these themes in unusual ways that escape platitudes and stereotypes, often requiring destruction or intimacy as much as wisdom and common sense to move through grief.

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Our examiner, Andy Robertson, first checked Player Non Player 6 weeks ago. It was re-examined by Jo Robertson and updated 3 weeks ago.