Where Babies Come From: Deabirth - Real

"The experience of an event begins for its audience when they first hear about it and only finishes when they stop thinking and talking about it," says Tassos Stevens of interactive theatre gang Coney. I dig that. Many small games I like are big on that extended experience.

I suspect the best way to first hear about Deabirth - Real is to spot this freaky animated gif while looking through new releases on Itch and notice the game's made by someone named LOVE MERCHANT DEAD GHOST (their capitalisation). Eagerly click on through to its Itch page and enjoy the fine description there. Then download it - it's free - and oh gosh definitely read its readme file. If you read on through to the rest of this post, you're only spoiling your own fun.

Fine, whatever, I'll tell you about it anyway. Always read the readme file, because you never know what you'll find:

It's all goofy and trashy and fun, with that vague sinister edge leaving you asking "Who even made this and why?" Everyone's pretending to be a ghost Dracula's Frankenstein on the Internet nowadays, and I like it. As for the game itself, well, Cara cried "WHAT ARE YOU DOING!" when she saw me playing, which I think's a good sign - difficult to flap, that one. You sure do deliver a baby.

It all makes for a silly, strange experience. It also includes a passworded RAR archive containing mysterious words, picture, and sound. I will continue to experience Deabirth at least until I find a decent password cracker and break this baby open (or guess it, but I'm too impatient):