Entertain Me by theminusel was an overall enjoyable play through that is probably best not trying to take it so seriously.
The game starts off very simply with the premise that you’re trying to get to sleep but your TV is too loud, so you have to keep going downstairs to turn it off. Every time you go downstairs to switch off your TV the circumstances start to change however.
Portraits found on your bed start to change.
I liked this game a lot because it reminded me of how drawn to distraction our minds can be during a time when we’ve ‘allotted’ to go to bed and try and rest up. Maybe I’m thinking too deeply into a simple game, but I felt the portraits on the bed were good allusions to the whack kind of shit that comes up when trying to sleep, the portrait of the demon reminding me of wrestling with my own issues or shortcomings, and the semi-lewd picture of an overweight shrek imposing thoughts of some kind of hot garbage found on the internet that day that I can’t cleanse from my mind. but moreover the constant drone of the television calling you to just watch one more cat video, check out one more gif —
this format quickly changes however as you’re requested to run away from the television into seemingly odd worldspace.
I really liked the staircase section and the further on instance of being in the same home but scaled down to a tiny size. It almost gave vibes of being a non-euclidean space while still very much adhering to norms. You’re pushed down a descending staircase with increasingly ‘weird’ imagery on each landing between floors. These models felt a little forced and like they were trying to be edgy, but the associated sound effects and the increased degradation of sound quality was a nice touch
this game ends with a full on music video. I have no idea who the band is. actually, I have to be honest, I’m not sure if this was the end of the game, but I couldn’t bring myself to watch the remainder of the music video as I just simply wasn’t in the mood for something like that at the time. a super bold choice, indeed.
Check out Entertain Me by theminusel on itch.io — I’ll be checking in on them to see what their future games bring.