by Ewan Wilson
Echolocation-based horror game Perception gets funded
Perception is a first-person haunted-house horror game that recently ran a successful Kickstarter campaign (scraping by its $150,000 goal). Today’s crowd-funding environment is odd. It's one where new, creative ideas are often much less successful than nostalgia-driven projects attached to big names. Perception is refreshing in that it seems to be something entirely original and approaches a familair genre from a unique angle and perspective. The game’s protagonist is blind and “sees” using echolocation. It has an evocative visual style where sound, including the knock of the player-character's cane, paints an eerily chilled picture of the haunted environment that surrounds you.
The game's echolocation looks to be a tense and interesting mechanic. When dark entities come closer players are driven into a vulnerable darkness. Hitting your cane against objects to bounce sound waves off of nearby objects will light up the area, but you also run the risk of making your presence known to dangerous presences. If you’re a fan of horror, there’s a good chance that Perception and its video below will pique your interest. I think we can all be thankful that Kickstarter is still making good on its original promise of crowd-funding more innovative and new projects from independent studios – projects that that aren’t simply based on fan obsessions and well trodden ground!