You Will (Not) Remain

You Will (Not) Remain is a 2.5D exploration game inspired by the Cthulhu mythology. It was developed by the Bedtime Phobias team in 48 hours as part of the Women Game Jam 2021 and later released as a free-to-play project, just like their previous game: Shrinking Pains.

Plot

In You Will (Not) Remain, the world is coming to an end. The city seen in the game has been almost completely overrun by an ancient creature straight out of H.P. Lovecraft's texts. It's not a problem though, because the protagonist has everything he needs to survive. Water, food, even electricity - our charge will not lack anything. He just has to stay at home with his dog Lambshank (quite strange, by the way), don't go out and don't let anyone in. But for how long?

Lovecraftian horror is in fact only a background for the story of a man forced into sudden isolation, admittedly devoid of risk, but also locking a man inside four walls. Thus You Will (Not) Remain also refers to the situation in which many people found themselves during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Game mechanics

Unlike many games filled with ancient horrors, You Will (Not) Remain is a relatively quiet production, though not devoid of a disturbing atmosphere. We don't find here any battles with the servants of ancient evil or sneaking behind their backs, nor puzzles to solve.

The whole gameplay comes down to living through the days in the convention of a point-and-click adventure game: we wake up, interact with the environment and Lambshank, and after exhausting the options we go to bed. We don't even have to care about supplies: the protagonist has everything he needs to survive in his apartment.

The game relies on a claustrophobic but relaxing atmosphere rather than complex gameplay or rich content. Less than an hour is enough to complete the game.

Technical aspects

As befits an game jam project, You Will (Not) Remain is based on simple, pixelated and monochromatic graphics, reminiscent of the first arcade games. The game also uses minimalist, relaxing music.