Quick Look: Beyond Eyes

I must be blind, because I don't see any other comments here.

That's a shame.

Really cool imagination of blindness, makes you think. Oftentimes i say to myself i would prefer whatever handicap or inability the world can throw at me before being blind but this makes it look rather pleasant.

Looks like a classy version of Grimm

Correctly Communicating With Kitties

I must have been like 7 when I had free reign over my town. I walked to school with friends in the mornings, which was two or three miles away. On weekends we'd bike EVERYWHERE, doing jumps in the woods, going into caves, exploring graveyards, buying candy and ice cream, seeing movies... That's childhood to me. It's sad that it's not like that anymore.

Looks incredibly boring. A constant narrator would probably do wonders for the game.

Where we're going, we don't need eyes.

Is she Daredevil?

Looks great.

I hope this game ends with her finding a hammer.

Neat!

Reminds me of

Out of Sight

Dogs > Cats

I appreciate what they were going for visually, but the gameplay seems like it could get positively maddening after a while. Just wandering around at a slow walk until you stumble into the trigger for the next cutscene? No thanks.

Looks very pretty and very boring.

@bceagles128: That is not true.

Such a great discussion in this vid. Going from understanding the basics, the gameplay drawbacks to really getting deep into what the intent of this game is, everyone had a great point to make.

Vinny's idea in particular about playing through as the parent and seeing the world as "it actually is" would definitely give this game a much more grounded artistic intent (while still remaining sympathetic towards the reality of a blind person), and a much more well rounded insight regarding our inherent blindness, one that we all share, a blindness with regards to our understanding of, and perspective on, reality "as it actually is."

Thanks!

Check out the Invisibilia podcast, Batman episode, for a blind man that would absolutely let his child run around by itself.

http://www.npr.org/programs/invisibilia/378577902/how-to-become-batman?showDate=2015-01-23

"Do you get a sword?"

I was just down in Long Island for my first time, and keeping an eye out for Vinnie the whole time (saw a few people that looked like him!),

The traffic there is still bad enough Id be worried about my young kid, but i saw a few young kids by themselves. Also literally saw some crazy bad driving and people not stopping at stop signs (cameras on every light), and even a few asshats in BMW's sideswipe stuff and drive off (rich people on coke?)..

Back in the 80s I was allowed to walk to school and be "alone" outside as a real young kid (5 or 6). I had to let them know where i went, and who I was with etc... (usually I had a buddy with me). But we had fields, an lots of other little kids, and really quiet suburban streets in upstate NY.

Id be more worried about traffic than kidnappers. But yeah, I think the abduction thing is a little overblown. I'm probably more likely to be mugged as a grown man, as a kid being abducted.

Jones beach!

A couple days ago I saw a Twitch stream running of this game. I had no idea what the gameplay entailed, so I brought it up to check it out. 15 seconds in, I saw the ending of the game. So much for that.

"Grant her eyes...grant her eyes!!!"

When are people going to start calling these non-games out for what they are? A game is more than just interaction and an artsy-fartsy concept. Games should have game play. I'm not saying that there isn't room for interactive art pieces, but don't make something like this and then pretend it's a game and sell it as such. For example, with a premise this thin you might sell it as an interactive music video for a hit new song that lasts the length of the song. That would be cool as a smartphone app or something and wouldn't overstay its welcome.

But as a game, there are a million interesting things you could do with the idea of a blind person finding their way through the world that would involve much more than aimless wandering. And to be honest, the graphical technique they spent their time on would probably be better suited to a game about dreams or imagination anyway.

I saw the trailer for this and loved the art style but the gameplay really looks lacking. I enjoyed Gone Home because you were taking information from the environment and creating a narrative, this however looks you're aimlessly wondering around until you hit a trigger to get to the next area without much else. I actually really liked Vinny's idea. I'd be interested to see something like that. I don't know anyone that's blind so for me, it's hard to understand what it'd be like just because I already have information about the world and what things look like. So how does someone who was born blind perceive the world and how could you show that in something like a game?

That cat is soooo not gonna return.

Is this a sequel to Beyond: Two Souls?

trying to make sense of the video description

Although I don't like these sorts of games because the gameplay is half-baked, you'll have dozens of people tell you you're wrong.

When Journey rereleased, I played it again and decided it was still frustrating, boring, and trying to coast on art and music. But whenever I mentioned all its mechanical and design flaws, the response seemed to be that I'm not looking deeper into what it's representing and trying to accomplish.

And I didn't give a shit, I wanted it to be a fun game first. I think art games can be done very well with interesting gameplay. Braid, Unfinished Swan, Brothers, even something bigger like El Shaddai. I think those games nail a vision with cool gameplay to back it up.

But not everybody feels that way, and I'm not going to tell them they're wrong. Thought Dear Esther, Gone Home, Journey, and many other praised games were crap, but people still like them. And you know what? That's fine, everybody doesn't have to go to games for the same reasons.

Beyond Eyes looks like a neat creative work, and I'm glad the developer got to put their vision out there. But I definitely won't play it because the gameplay just isn't there. Oddly enough, people are less receptive to this game than many others that seem pretty similar on a mechanical level. I don't understand video games anymore, apparently.

@bathala: They accidentally put a second 'the' there. It's not so hard to make sense.

@csl316: @plasticpals:

Well, what are they supposed to sell something like this as? There's no category for Interactive Art Pieces on Xbox. Moreover, why do we care? The argument over whether or not it's a game is more meaningless that the arguments over whether Pluto's a planet. Do we have something to gain from it? Are we afraid calling this a game will weaken games as a whole?

If that was a legitimate concern, I'd point out we don't have these arguments about F2P games, which (usually) have a modicum more gameplay and yet are churning out such a high profit:cost that companies are coverting their "actual game" divisions to make more of them. People are arguing more vehemently over "artsy-fartsy games", which are more of an addition than a replacement to the games they love, while crummy F2P games are doing potentially-irreversible damage to the gaming landscape, and that realization just gives me a conniption.

When people care about the idiotic crusade against "not-games," that is, never.

I'm going to be beyond eyes after the relentless bright white everywhere burns my retinas out

That's why I'm saying that it's fine. Personally, I don't wanna play these games but a whole lot of people do.

My response was to the previous poster calling these non-games. I grew up on 8 and 16-bit games, so that's what I want out of what I play. Others are fine just losing themselves in an experience without twitch action, puzzles, or challenging platforming. Modern games encompass such a broad range of different ideas, and I'm all for more variety for a variety of gamers. It's a cool time right now.

I just get pissed when anyone that disagrees about something like Journey is "wrong," "narrow-minded," or "doesn't get it." I get it, but that's not what I'm looking for.

Wow, the similarities in style are astounding. Except this short succeeds where the game fails, I think. There are so many neat touches where thinks change with the perception of the main character. Really cute animation, thanks for sharing! :D

Who cares what people call them if they enjoy them? If I buy this game and enjoy my time with it how does it take away from the games you like?

Also the dictionary definition of the video game is electronically manipulating images on a screen.

Huh, tell me. I can't think of any glaring design flaws or ever being frustrated with the game.

In regards to the concept of 'nongames' I think this might involve video games growing beyond what they originally intended to be when they were first conceived. Namely, video games were intended as just that, a type of 'game', a video-based equivalent to a 'board' game or a 'card' game, and some of them did not even strictly keep track of win and loss conditions on their own so much as they simply provided a video-based play area. However, both video games themselves and the way we perceive them and other forms of media have evolved; even within this sentence I refer to games as a form of 'media' - a medium used to convey concepts, ideas, thoughts, experiences, information, and so on.

The issue with referring to something like this as a 'nongame' isn't so much with thinking that this isn't a game (though it does still have general rules and a clear way to finish it and 'win' which requires direct interaction and input rather than the indirect interaction of something like a movie or direct interaction without input like with a book) as it is with thinking of 'video games' as 'just games'. Even when it comes to video games with more typical 'gameplay', sets of rules have evolved into dialogue and tutorials, silhouettes and generic pixels have evolved into actual characters, and basic background settings have evolved into plots.

While I love all the fun a good action movie has to offer, sometimes I just want to watch a sad movie or read a good drama or listen to a relaxing song because entertainment, amusement, enjoyment, and satisfaction can be created by things which aren't necessarily 'fun'. It is perfectly fine for the primary focus of a video game to be simply letting the player have fun, but by calling a video game a 'nongame' simply because the experience it provides has a primary focus other than creating 'fun' I believe you are devaluing all the parts of other video games which aren't raw gameplay (Bastion would not at all be the same experience without its characters, its narrative style, and its visual flair even though the combat part of the gameplay is the primary focus) as well as how video games as a whole have evolved as a medium.

With that out of the way, I do have to say that Beyond Eyes itself really does just look unfortunately boring largely due to a lack of much in the way of area design judging by this Quick Look. I am fine with it being a game simply involving exploring by walking around, but the areas seem far too big, empty, and unfocused; for every moment when a fountain turns out to be a drain pipe or a car turns out to be a lawnmower there is an agonizingly long amount of time spent on following an unchanging dirt path surrounded by a handful of different types of trees. While I get that they're pulling inspiration from stories like Alice in Wonderland with the whole 'child venturing into the unknown' thing, I think the game would have worked a whole lot better with more focused areas, such as wandering around a new house (so the character would still be unfamiliar with the layout) or a clothes store, places which aren't particularly big but which provide plenty of ways in which the character can use her imagination and ways in which perception and reality can be different. That said, I will say that I like how this game tries to incorporate senses other than hearing; other games have tried to represent playing as some sort of blind person or creature in the past and they often consist of pure darkness and sound, but this game seems to do a pretty good job of conveying how the protagonist is also utilizing touch and possibly even smell to uncover the general shape of the world around her.

Gonna echo the same thoughts as others. Super pretty looking, but the lack of actual gameplay and more narration makes this seem super boring.

Yeah, I was going to say when I saw that cat, cats never look that happy, and most are not that social. Also, as mentioned, it's weird she just gets to walk around; that's not that realistic when it comes to children, and also, shouldn't she have a cane? I suppose that's not too unrealistic depending on the person though. I'm not sure how far it gets into it, but it'd be nice if as a mechanic, they used the clicking one would make just to know their surroundings, perhaps making the environment briefly show more.

Non-game or not, this looks really lovely and relaxing, and I really like the way it uses a visual medium to illustrate what it's like to contend with blindness.

I'm not here to go into a deep critique of Journey again. I'll direct you to this thread if you want to read about why some people don't like it. My response here was that I don't like a game, other people liked that game, and I'm glad there's diversity in games for all sorts of tastes nowadays.

But while we're here...

You guys are getting way too caught up in practical, real-world concerns about this girl walking around without parental supervision, etc. Which is a shame, because I think it's preventing you from enjoying what is otherwise a really neat experience. Maybe because the game is so heavily rooted in the real world? But how many other games would be absolutely ruined if you started thinking about the practical implications of everything you were doing? Maybe you can't stop yourself from doing it, but I approach this game without those niggling concerns and can enjoy it on its own terms.

seems like a videogame to me. People need to quit being little bitches. just don't buy it.

I think this style would make a rad kid's game, but this game is really slow with not a lot of feedback. Most kids would probably be really bored.

I'm playing the game and think I am a little behind Alex (at the point where I'm feeding some birds) and am struggling to finish. The movement speed is just really tedious. Very pretty and interesting though.

Chickens are fucking scary.

So, this is basically Daredevil. Gotcha.

that was amazing, thanks for sharing!

Recent history has shown that videogames are not always... "videogames" Such as Her Story. Or even The Graveyard.

I imagine that being blind is rather difficult and probably leads to a mundane real life. I don't see a blind little girl going on an epic adventure. Not every game is for everyone.

I think this game looks really interesting.

and Alex, does the other person know the girl is blind?

Finally, the Event Horizon sequel we've all been waiting for.

The animated short which inspired this is brilliant. Unfortunately the primary gameplay of using trial and error to find an invisible path appears to greatly dilute the experience.

I'm creating a new drinking game, bottoms up whenever Austin mentions a study, article or book he has read on a particular subject.