How do you follow up an innovative game in which time passes when you blink your eyes? For developer Nice Dream, it’s getting the whole face involved! Back in 2021, the studio debuted the aforementioned Before Your Eyes. Now with their next game, Goodnight Universe, they aim to expand their narrative and face-tracking combo collection with a tale about a baby developing their psychic powers. Playable at NYC’s Tribeca Games Gallery this past weekend, Goodnight Universe took home the 2024 Tribeca Games Award. This baby’s going places.
Opening Their Eyes to More Possibilities
“We were committed to a very specific set of uses, blinking and passing time,” Ollie Lewin, studio director and co-founder of Nice Dream told me in regards to Before Your Eyes. While developing the title, they expanded on some uses of their technology like having players hold their eyes closed. During that time, they had even more ideas of things they could do with facial tracking and eye detection, which they decided to implement in Goodnight Universe.
In coming up with the concept for the game, the team immediately thought about media involving psychic powers. The reason being? These often manifest through someone holding their eyes closed or staring towards something. So this would prove a natural fit for a game involving face-tracking. Think Eleven from Stranger Things but with more facial concentration and fewer nosebleeds.
Goodnight Universe, Hello Wide-Eyed Newborn
In Goodnight Universe, psychic powers prove the means for the gameplay to manifest. But what would be the way into that gameplay?
“When you start a game you’re kind of like a baby. It’s all new,” explained Daniel, Nice Dream’s art director. “Here, you’re actually a baby.” It seemed like the perfect metaphor to the team. But initially, too easy. Then, lead designer Bela Messex had a baby and the team found that the perfect inspiration.
Questions that arose then had answers. How do you replicate teething or eating messily in first person? How do you convey these things with one’s eyes closed? And how do you animate with a kind of clumsiness or lack of muscle control? The team wanted to make sure it felt like the first time someone had done something.
But as those who’ve played Before Your Eyes already know, Nice Dream isn’t content with just creating vibes. The studio also create emotionally enriching narratives. Lewin explained that similar to Before Your Eyes, Goodnight Universe has a universal theme about feeling like an outsider. And of course, it also has a plot about the government trying to capture a psychic baby, voiced by Lewis Pullman from Top Gun Maverick.
As such, the baby delivers hyper-intelligent monologues written by creative director Graham Parkes as the player explores their surroundings. This also lends itself to the concept of perception, as the baby picks up on unseen moments in family dynamics. You don’t expect a baby to be thinking critically about you, right? So maybe you let your guard down. But this baby sees all.
Playing Psychic Peek-A-Boo
That said, players can choose whether or not to play Goodnight Universe with the facial-tracking technology employed. Lewin stressed that for the upcoming title, the team deliberately didn’t want people to feel left out. “Making this, we very much feel like this game can be played without a camera.”
For those who do want to use a camera, Goodnight Universe can be played on camera-equipped devices, such as a computer, a phone via Netflix, or PlayStation VR2. VR isn’t required, neither is a camera for that matter. Before Your Eyes also didn’t require a camera, but for this one the team wanted to make sure that a lack of a camera wouldn’t detract from the experience.
That said, the camera does add something special, and the facial calibration is quite thorough. It asks if you’re wearing glasses and has you move your head in each direction to ensure accuracy. The game tracks even the slightest movements. The demo starts off with you as the cute little baby staring in the mirror. It was eyebrow raising (literally!) to see the tech track the movement of eyes, mouth, and other facial muscles.
Stay tuned for when Goodnight Universe arrives sometime next year. Until then, you can wishlist the title here on Steam.
