The Sound of Flames

Oh god, oh god... how to begin?

The Sound of Flames is Liberty's entry for RMN's Weekend Gaming Binge Q1, theme: FIRE. The point was to make a game in around 4 days within the specified theme. Quite a challenge, if you want to make something decent. When I heard Liberty was making a text/adventure/sound only game, I have to confess it was sort of a smart/lazy choice. I mean, a game with no graphics, no custom systems, just stuff you record out of your own voice?

I expected it to be an interesting little game... just like a typical text adventure, only with sounds instead of text. The Sound of Flames is interesting, it is smart, but not in a way I expected.

This is a game you'll either love or hate completely. You can either take it as a slow, repetitive, annoying and boring experience, or you can set your mind to enjoy it as an immersive and discomforting experience.

The things that make the game so interesting are the same that may make it feel annoying, namely:

Lack of graphics: Most of the time you'll be just staring at a black screen. In my case, I turned the lights off and closed my eyes. Doesn't get any more immersive than that.

Lack of sound effects: Apart from the constant sound of fire on the background, there are no sounds other than Liberty's voice. Feels somewhat hypnotic.

No skipping: If you die, you have to do it over, listen to everything again. No skipping. That can be very demotivating, because sometimes you'll die after listening to 20 minutes of "oh god oh god it's so hot". But I dunno. Maybe it adds to the whole immersion/discomforting thing. I have no clear position on that. But if I was to change one thing about the game, that would be the thing.

Utter lack of objectiveness: Liberty is not just narrating, she's roleplaying. There's much more than just the description of what's happening. Much of the talk is intended to portray the feelings of the main character, her anguishes, discomfort, doubts, heat, tiring... mostly doubt. The main character is very confused, all the time. "Oh god, oh god, it's so hot, what should I do?". You'll get a lot of that. It is at the same time annoying, slowing, but heavily contributes to making the game an interesting experience, makes you FEEL something as a player.

Lack of proper story pointers: The story starts when you wake up and your house is on fire. The city is also on fire. Everything is on fire. That's all you know. Choices don't happen often, and it's not clear whether they're leading you to something good or bad (until you actually die). You never know how close you are to the ending, or to a solution. It keeps your anxiety up at all times.

Overall, I really liked this game. It was a very interesting enjoyable experience. I died quite a few times, some of the deaths were pretty amazing, and I think I played this game for over an hour... no lights, no images, no interruption. I liked it. Or at least I think I did.

Only things I would change: being able to skip stuff (maybe?), and a better ending. The story definitely needed a twist.

Congrats to Liberty on the concept and on the voice acting. Quite a performance. I loved the pre-suicide laughing.