Sleep is Death Review

JudoChinX

April 23, 2010

You might remember Jason Rohrer from his 2007 indie hit: Passage. For those not in the know, this was a five-minute game that took you through a character's lifetime while dealing with the issues of life, death, and the passage of time. If you've not yet had a chance to experience it, please give it a shot. Each time I play, I'm left with a somber feeling unlike I've ever experienced with another game. It's graphically dated, but the point comes across strong. Jason Rohrer has made a name for himself in the indie development community because of the artsy and innovative nature of his games. His latest game, named Sleep Is Death, continues this trend by focusing on player interaction and creativity to a degree that has never been seen before.

The idea of the game is simple. First, you must play with two people. No more; no fewer. There is no AI in this game. Every action, every conversation, and every scene is created and controlled by a real person. For the sake of this discussion, we'll call that person the narrator. Then there's the other person involved who controls the main character in a scene. We'll call this person the player. So, you have two roles. The narrator is there to tell a story. They're responsible for creating scenes, placing items, and controlling the speech for anything other than the main character. This process is really only as complicated as you want to make it.

There are resources built into the game, so if you're not keen on the idea of creating objects and environments, you can use what's already available, or look into getting player created resource packs to bolster your selection (more on that later).

After the scene is in place, the player then has a chance to move their character, talk, and interact with objects in the environment. These are all done using a few clickable buttons (one for speach, one to select your character, and one to perform actions) and your mouse. Once the player has completed their turn, the narrator then responds to their speech and actions, and the player again takes over. This cycle continues until the story has met its natural ending, and both players quit.

Players only have 30 seconds for each turn, meaning you need to be quick on your feet to respond to the other player's last turn. This seems to be a decision Jason Rohrer made to encourage these stories to be more improvised and fast moving than they'd be if given more time. This design choice creates a chaotic but very entertaining environment that seems to reveal the player's true personality.

After you're done telling your story, the player then has a copy of the tale in the game's installation directory complete with images and html files to view the story at a later time. It's a fantastic feature that allows you to share your stories with the world. The developer created a great little slide show that demonstrates this process.

For one of my first games, I narrated a story about a father and daughter who discover that they have the ability to destroy things with their minds. Soon after they made this discovery, the father's dead wife makes an appearance telling the two that they need to kill. Obeying, the father and daughter go to the local meeting place and destroy nearly everyone there. Suddenly, god, in the shape of a handgun, reveals himself to the father as police watch in confusion. The father then discovers that both his daughter, his dead wife, and his god were all just pieces of his sick and deranged mind. Knowing that he'd just ended the lives of innocent people, he turns god (the gun) on himself and ends his life. Granted, it's not the most original of stories, but the fact that I was telling this in collaboration with another person made it an intimate experience that made me question my own sanity. That's a pretty incredible feat for a game that appears to be so simple on the outside.

Any game like this is either going to live or die by the hands of its community. I'm happy to report that as of now, the game's community is going strong. Very strong in fact. I urge anyone with a copy of Sleep Is Death to visit http://sidtube.com. There you can find an amazing selection of resource packs containing new scenes and objects to use in making your own stories. Quickly browsing through the list, I found packs for Chrono Trigger, Half-Life 2, and Star Trek: The Next Generation. The game has only been out for a week, but already we're seeing some amazing content being provided by an awesome community. Beyond content for the game, you'll also have access to a community IRC channel where you'll find people wanting to try out their latest narration with you. I even spotted Jason Rohrer personally addressing questions that chatters had. It's a very inviting place that makes an already great game an even better experience.

If you enjoy videogames and a good story, then you're going to want to get Sleep Is Death. Get it now. It's available for direct download at http://www.sleepisdeath.net/ for $14.00. This includes two licenses so that you can play with a friend without having to worry about needing them pick up a copy as well. In addition to the game, you'll be provided with updates as they become available and special resource packs (one of which was created by Spore artist Shannon Galvin). You can play the game on Windows, MacOS, and Linux (provided that you compile the given source code), so if you have a computer, you should be able to play. Jason Rohrer was so kind as to provide me with a review copy of this game, but having fallen in love with the game, I immediately turned around and purchased my own copy. If that's not a testament to this game then I don't know what is.

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