On January 6, the horror suspense puzzle game "Dark Notes" was launched and ranked fourth on the iOS free list on the same day.
Image taken from Seven Mai Data
According to official sources, the "Black Book Studio" that produced "Dark Notes" is a newly formed team. According to the investigation, the software copyright of "Dark Record" is registered in the name of a wholly-owned subsidiary of Xindong Interactive Entertainment. In the past two years, the popular Chinese horror suspense puzzle game "Paper Wedding Dress" series is produced by the team of Xindong Interactive Entertainment.
Xindong Interactive Entertainment started as a live-action love Galgame in the early years, and later transformed into a horror puzzle game with the experience accumulated in film and television content, and launched five works in the "Paper Wedding Dress" series. And now, Xindong Interactive Entertainment seems to be trying to expand its territory in a new direction.
"Paper Wedding Dress 4: Red Silk Entanglement"
In an interview with TapTap, the "Paper Wedding Dress" production team said that there were "a lot of experimental designs" in "Dark Notes", although the details were not disclosed at the time.
At present, it seems that the biggest experiment of "Dark Notes" should be the first time to set the stage of the story in the West. How can Western horror culture be applied to short suspense puzzle games, and will it be "unsatisfactory" in China? This attempt by "Dark Notes" is quite remarkable, and there are lessons worth learning.
Hint: There are a lot of spoilers in the text.
The scene and atmosphere are shaped correctly
"Dark Notes" tells the story of two protagonists in different times, through a notebook to achieve communication spanning ten years, cooperate with each other to escape danger and find the truth. Threatening their lives is a demon-possessed cultist, and the protagonists need to discover the truth about their dead family, purify their ghosts, and find a way to stop the devil's plot in an abandoned mall.
A good visual experience is a highlight of Dark Notes. In line with the Western cultural background of the story, the game also adopts a Western-style realistic thick paint style. The game's graphics are delicate, the scenes are exquisite, and the dark and dilapidated environment sets off the horror atmosphere of the game well.
The game is also very careful in terms of graphic details, and the player's behavior in small scenes will also be reflected in large scenes. The tent in the lower left corner of the figure below changes accordingly when it is opened or closed in a small scene.
The production process of the game must also pay special attention to visual expression. From the list of production staff at the end of the game, it can be seen that the production team invested more manpower in scene design than in other aspects. In the past works of Xindong Interactive Entertainment, this tendency to focus on film and television content has been very prominent from the early Galgame to the recent "Paper Wedding Dress" series. Even from the latest "Dark Notes", excellent scene shaping is still one of the winning weapons of Xindong Interactive Entertainment's suspense puzzle games.
Corresponding to the theme, "Dark Notes" is also more Western-style in terms of horror techniques. There are quite a few jump scare (literally translated as sudden startle, referring to sudden sounds and pictures that can frighten people), with haunted house-like dark and terrifying scene pictures, and ghost NPCs that are easy to cause the uncanny valley effect, focusing on direct sensory stimulation such as vision and hearing to convey horror effects, and overall have more Western-style horror characteristics. This is very different from the Chinese horror that the "Paper Wedding Dress" series has been quite successful, which focuses more on rendering a weird and ominous atmosphere in the storyline to create a sense of psychological horror.
The ghostly little boy suddenly appeared up close several times
The delicate scenes and the horror atmosphere integrated with the theme are the strengths of "Dark Notes". In terms of marketing strategy, "Dark Notes" also focuses on these two aspects. The advertisements placed on various platforms of "Dark Notes" can be roughly divided into two categories: one uses memes and humorous language to explain game clips, mainly highlighting the twists and turns of the plot, and the unexpected horror effect of the jump scare part; The other type rarely uses text, mainly showing the realistic main style and exquisite picture details, including some animations during the interaction, which is intended to directly show the quality of the game from the visual aspect. These two directions are indeed the more successful places of "Dark Notes", and they can also accurately attract the corresponding audience.
On the whole, for the Western-style horror theme that domestic players are not familiar with, "Dark Notes" deviates from the framework of the existing explosive "Paper Wedding Dress" series, and tries to restore the Western-style horror in its original form from the picture style to the horror technique, which seems to be seamlessly integrated with the story itself. With point-and-click puzzle gameplay gradually homogenizing, Dark Transcript once again proves that a good audiovisual experience can still add a lot to the game. At least for the first work of a new studio, such qualities are enough to pass.
The depth of the story and the cultural context are slightly lacking
For all suspense games, narrative is the core driving force. Despite the beautiful graphics and appropriate horror packaging, "Dark Notes" still has some shortcomings in the shaping of the core of the story, which is a shortcoming of this game that cannot be ignored.
Compared with the "Paper Wedding Dress" series, "Dark Notes" continues the characteristic double-line narrative that appeared in the former, unfolding the story from the different perspectives of the two protagonists. And further use it as the main line, so that the behavior of the protagonists in different time and space can influence each other, gradually establish a close connection between the two main lines, and connect the whole picture of the story. This may also be one of the "experimental designs" mentioned by the team.
This narrative method can make the story content present more layers, while also getting rid of the boring feeling of traditional linear narrative, so that the player's puzzle thinking process has more room for evocation, which is quite innovative. In an interview with TapTap, the production team said that the two-protagonist perspective was set from the beginning of the script outline, and all the game and puzzle design were arranged according to the plot.
But adopting such a narrative approach also requires attention to the problems that come with it. The most immediate consequence is that such a multi-layered narrative may make the main story line seem cumbersome and confusing. In order to avoid such consequences, "Dark Notes" chose to emphasize only one main line, that is, to focus on a series of truths surrounding the cultist family, while describing less of the protagonists' own stories, and the exploration process of the two is more passive. This leads to the lack of vivid and three-dimensional personalities of the two protagonists, almost becoming a tool for telling the story of a cultist's family.
The character's personality and motivation are not clear enough, which makes his actions easy to make the player feel unreasonable. For example, the motive of the male protagonist stepping into the abandoned mall was originally to lift the curse on his body and try to survive, but at the end, he suddenly chose to sacrifice his life to save a little girl he had never met, and in the absence of proper explanation, the plot direction inevitably seemed blunt and difficult for players to empathize. It is precisely because of the lack of necessary foreshadowing that many details of the story seem to not stand up to scrutiny, and the ending is hasty and leaves more white space. Just like a bare tree, it only has stable branches, but there are no leaves or flowers to fill and embellish, it will inevitably appear insufficient to be plump and three-dimensional.
Some players have also analyzed that these unreasonable plots just hint at the truth in the protagonist and are paving the way for the sequel. But even so, "Dark Notes" itself, as a complete game, does not round the story logic, which is still unconvincing.
In terms of the experience of puzzle interaction, it may be to avoid the above problems of redundant information, or it may be that the production team itself is not mature in puzzle design, and the puzzle design of "Dark Notes" is generally moderately difficult, but it fits the theme of the story very well. Many puzzles have a stilted feeling of "solving puzzles for the sake of solving puzzles", resulting in sometimes the puzzles and the narrative rhythm being a bit separated, which is not conducive to storytelling and wastes the opportunity to cram in detailed information. For example, to open the box in the figure below, you need to count the total number of hangers, dummy heads, and posters in several large scenes. This design has nothing to do with the story, and it seems a little inexplicable.
Between redundant information and too little detail, it seems difficult to explain this "degree" in three words.
If the information is too complicated, it would be good if the content presented was grand and exciting, as in "Disco Elysium", while the huge amount of text dissuades some players, it can also attract another group of players with a very deep and wide story capacity; If the quality of the content is not good enough, it will only make players feel more tired and bored the more they play.
Disco Elysium is a worldview detail mixed with the text
The "fragmented narrative" of soul games such as the Dark Souls series and Elden Law Ring is the other extreme that can be borrowed. These games often provide very little information directly in the main plot, but hide the story in various details such as prop descriptions, but players can still piece together the whole story bit by bit.
The story hidden in the description of the equipment in "Elden Law Ring"
The Witcher 3 is an example of a compromise. In addition to the rich main plot, the game also adds many side stories to books, letters and other props. The stories themselves have little to do with the main story, but they can complement the worldview and give players an idea of the world in which the protagonist lives.
The story from the "The Witcher 3" book, the image source is shown in the watermark
The narrative rhythm of suspense puzzle games is relatively tighter and more focused, and the experience of other games cannot be completely copied. The above successful cases can only provide reference, and small games may be able to learn some of the experience. At present, if "Dark Notes" can embed more story details in the puzzles, it can not only strengthen the sense of substitution in the puzzle solving process, but also supplement the story content or character image, which will be a good improvement for the game.
In terms of cultural background, "Dark Notes" also suffered a big loss. In the "Paper Wedding Dress" series, players originally have a certain understanding of the funeral culture of the mainland, and the relevant cultural background does not need to be explained too much, as long as players see paper people, copper coins and other related elements, they can naturally feel the ominous atmosphere. Unlike Dark Notes, which is set entirely in the West, players do not yet have in-depth knowledge of specific cultures about demons, sacrifices, witch doctors, etc., and it is difficult for players to feel the horror atmosphere if they cannot be explained or interpreted enough in the game. Without cultural accumulation, the horror effect that the cultural background could have brought with it is greatly reduced. This is also one of the issues that requires special attention when adopting Western themes.
In the game, the sacrifice of the demon and his followers is the main line throughout the story, but the game does not explain more about the relevant cultural knowledge, mostly relying on some jump scare and uncomfortable visual elements to express its evil atmosphere, more like just a symbol to express malice. The goat's head pictured below, after solving a puzzle that clicks on the horns in order, the goat's head will suddenly change into a terrifying image, but there is no further explanation.
Ultimately, apart from the main sacrificial ritual itself and the medieval witch doctor knowledge involving a puzzle, there is no specific content of demonic culture elsewhere. For example, the goat's head mentioned above, if the game can insert some details somewhere, briefly describe why the goat is regarded as a symbol of the devil, or insert a few excerpts from relevant religious texts, it will surely deepen the player's understanding of the dangerous and strange environment in which the protagonist lives.
Compared with "Paper Wedding Dress", "Dark Notes" is much inferior in the research and performance of cultural background. When players compare the two, they will inevitably feel that they do not feel the enthusiasm for studying.
In terms of story and content details, "Dark Notes" makes a bold attempt with a close-knit two-line narrative, and there are certain innovations. But at the same time, the game fails to properly deal with a series of problems caused by this narrative technique, resulting in shortcomings such as characters not being prominent enough and not detailed enough. While these flaws can't be said to be fatal, the game could have performed better both for the genre and for the team.
For content-oriented products, content should include more than just the story itself.
epilogue
As can be seen in the list of production staff at the end of the game, the list of operations personnel is exceptionally long, even exceeding any function in the game production process.
Considering the entire publicity process of the game, including the purchase of materials, the official almost never took the initiative to mention the "Paper Wedding Dress" series, "Dark Notes" is likely to continue to operate this IP independently and continue to launch sequels. "Dark Notes" suddenly reversed at the end, leaving a lot of doubts and white space, and also prepared enough for the sequel.
After the name of Chinese horror puzzle games has been launched, Xindong Interactive Entertainment has begun to enter other subdivisions. As an "advance team", "Dark Notes" laid a qualified foundation for subsequent works, but there is still much to be improved. From this point of view, the sequel is worth looking forward to.