I played the demo for Goodnight Universe, where you play as Isaac, who has the intellect of an adult but the body of a 6-month-old baby. Interested? Keep reading!
The Backstory of Goodnight Universe
In the demo, I was allowed to play 6 representative chapters from the game Goodnight Universe. Even though the demo was only 20 minutes long, I feel that I got a good feel for the full game. I was advised to play the game with headphones, I assume because there are tons of conversations going on in the background, and it’s almost always people bickering. The family in this game is very dysfunctional. I felt like a fly on the wall of this home, witnessing it all.
The game developers aren’t giving much away at this point; it’s all very mysterious. Goodnight Universe opens with a really cute baby named Isaac looking in a mirror. He’s at the pediatrician’s office with his Mom having a check-up. The game is voice-acted and, surprisingly, Isaac has the voice and intellect of an adult man. He goes on about how darn cute he is right now. But then he looks at posters on the wall of children at various ages and decides he likes the age he is right now. He decides that as he gets older, he’s probably not going to be so darn cute, so he should try to stay this age. I’m not sure if this is significant in the full game, but after that, this Mom picks him up and tells him the doctor has decided he is a “perfectly normal baby”. Well, that’s all going to change soon!
In one of the early chapters in the demo, Isaac was in the attic of his home with his mother and sister. I was able to use his baby hands to pick up things while at the same time, Isaac was narrating what he is thinking to me, in his adult voice. How odd. I found out that Mom is clearing out a lot of Isaac’s grandfather’s items from this attic. Isaac’s sister wants to keep Grandpa’s journal, but Mom wants to throw it out, and in the scuffle, it falls to the floor open in front of Isaac. He looks at Grandpa’s mysterious writing and symbols, and something clicks for him. I was able to hover over the symbols, causing them to light up. I guess the symbols somehow release Isaac’s special powers.
The Plot Thickens
In the next chapter I played, Isaac is watching TV when, suddenly, he realizes he has these new powers. We can hear the adults talking in the background about mundane adult stuff and bickering again when Isaac learns to change the channel on the TV with his mind and move some objects around the room, also with his mind. What???
In another chapter, Isaac is lying in his crib, his Dad reading him a bedtime story. Isaac is really bored with the story – and Dad is too!! I learned that, as Isaac, I can hear what Dad is thinking. As he’s reading that boring book, he is overwhelmed with money issues – how much food costs, day care, and diapers. He really wanted to start his own business and quit his job, but his wife wanted another baby. And now he’s stuck in the job he hates to pay the bills, and yet he does love his new son. He’s very conflicted. It’s a really interesting thing to hear someone else’s brain ruminating.
In Goodnight Universe, Isaac’s sister Cleo is often tasked with watching him. She seems to be about 12-13 and isn’t the best babysitter! She gets distracted easily with her own interests.
In a later chapter, she is supposed to be watching Isaac, but instead she is playing the guitar. So Isaac decides to be good to her and do all the chores she’s also supposed to be doing. But he does them with his mind! There’s a nice list on the left of the screen with all my objectives, and as I complete them, they are crossed out. I saw this in previous chapters and really appreciate it.
Isaac manages to keep his powers hidden from his family, but soon he cannot do that any longer. In the final chapter that I got to play, Isaac woke up in his crib, but something seemed different. It looked like his bedroom, but not. Instead of a family member being there for him, he was given his bottle by a robotic-looking contraption. Then all the walls fall down, and he was wheeled in his crib down what looked like a hospital corridor and into a darkened room.
At the very end of the demo, he was spoken to by one of his toys, Gilbert the truck.
What is going on here? I want to know. Isaac wants to know. I need to play this game and find out!
Final Thoughts
Goodnight Universe is the most unusual game, and I am really intrigued by what is happening. According to the Steam page, a secret tech corporation wants Isaac for their own, I’d guess so they can take advantage of his special powers. Goodnight Universe was developed by Nice Dream and was released on 11 November.
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