Eyes Wide Shut: See No Evil
Hearing and speaking some evil is fine
See No Evil, currently Kickstarting, is a puzzle game in which the main character shouts at blind people. He's not just going around being a git though, far from it, because these people have chosen to be blind and oppress anyone who keeps their peepers open. They don't want to bear witness to the truth of their world, you see (yes you do), so they've all agreed to dwell in darkness. Development duties are led by Gabriel Priske, formerly of Dungeon Defenders studio Trendy Entertainment, and the team have almost finished the game. That explains the $2,000 target, although even given the apparently near-complete state that's a miniscule sum. I've played a build and the isometric puzzling starts simple enough but with potential for complexity.
You're going to be pushing a lot of blocks. I've never wanted to be a warehouse manager and if that were my fate, I'd probably demand a forklift truck. Sure, I'd still be pushing crates around (that's what warehouse managers do, right, ensuring that they don't become separated from the exit at the end of a shift?) but I could at least pretend that I was preparing to fight a particularly crappy Alien Queen.
I'm allergic to block-pushing puzzles but See No Evil has other tricks that make the levels more engaging than I'd expected. Enemies are blind but they can hear footsteps and shouts, which are triggered by a key press. Every sound that the player makes causes a visible ripple, alerting any character that it touches. Then they scream and run toward the source of the nose. It's alarming and creates a fine tension as fleeing from a pursuer noisily will provide evidence as to your movements.
The game is half-way to Kickstarter success and the demo build that I played was made available at the $1,000 mark. Gabriel has made the decision to remove the download as the weekend drew to a close though, having declared that such would be the case when the demo went live. It seems an odd move because the current state of the game is good - atmospheric, creepy and fairly polished - and a demo is an attractive prospect.
With an interesting setting and the possibility for clever level design, See No Evil is appealing, and it should release later this year whether the Kickstarter succeeds or not. The money is being sought to assist development rather than out of necessity. Here is Gabriel on the origin of the game:
See No Evil is my first attempt at making a game that means something. The game concept came to me as I sifted through various religious and non-religious arguments searching for something that seemed logical and passion-worthy to me. The game doesn't preach any specific ideology, it merely suggests that you consider truths you may have been unwilling to open your eyes to.
I think Gabriel is saying that we should ignore the advice of the wise. See No Evil tells us to read all of the comments.