(Half-Life 2: Episode 2 required)
Nestlings is a short experiment in story and mood. It emerges from a task I set myself: to write, design and build a single-player mod in just three days.
It is not a perfect project, by any means. If it weren't for the self-imposed time limit, there are things I'd change. Maybe I will, someday.
A lengthy developer commentary, in which I talk about some of the design and narrative decisions I took for the mod, can be found here. Beware: spoilers lurk within.
Feedback is, of course, more than welcome.
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Designed, written and built by Lewis Denby.
Music by Kevin McLeod, used under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.
www.lewisdenby.com
www.incompetech.com
It's a few months now since I made Nestlings in three days. There's been less press coverage than there was with the first version of Post Script Ep 1 (by the way: exciting news on that coming soon...), which could be due to its right-before-Christmas release, or maybe its short length, or maybe because I just threw it online with zero fanfare.
Either way, I've been generally pleased with the response, and most people's criticisms have been exactly what I expected. There have been a couple of "it's too short" comments, which I can't really get behind - I'm really interested in short-form gaming and how it works. Other than that, though, I basically agree. There are a few bugs and glitches. The "picking up notes" thing is tired and illogical. The ending... well, that's a funny one. The ending seems to have been loved and hated pretty equally. For the record, I don't like the very end - it's too abrupt and, on my new PC, for some reason doesn't even fade out. But the bit before it I was pleased with. I'm glad to see a few people saying the same.
One thing I've been delighted with is people's response to the atmosphere. I had no idea I'd managed to create something that so many people have found truly frightening. I wasn't going for fear, really. I was going for a sort of morbid fascination, which by the end had transitioned properly into classical tragedy. But so many people have talked about feeling frightened as they walked around the house. That I've managed to evoke such a reaction (with the help of Kevin McLeod's fantastic Creative Commons-licensed music, it has to be said) is just wonderful.
I've only found a couple of reviews so far. Did you like Nestlings? Did you hate it? Do you write for a PC gaming website or similar? Review it! Go on! Anyway, the two I've found are both interesting. One because, well, it's on a website I'm editor of. Yeah. For the record though, the reviewer - Fraser McMillan - wrote it off his own back and I had no input whatsoever. So I'm delighted when he says of Nestlings: "Short-form games can exploit certain elements of design in unforeseen ways, and the very fact of Nestlings’ truncated length allows it to be one of the most consistently psychologically intense and potent gaming experiences I can think of. It’s utterly captivating from beginning to end."
The other is a short write-up from Danish website Half-Life Portal, which is more mixed. They've settled on a score of 65% (how you can put a 1-100 score on something which lasts 5 minutes is totally beyond me), claiming players shouldn't expect too much, but that it is still "a very atmospheric pure-story-mod... very well done from an artistic point of view."
Anyway, further to all this, PC Gamer UK got in touch with me a few weeks back and asked if they could put Nestlings on their cover disc. Well, of course they could! So if you're in good old Blighty and picking up a copy of this month's Gamer, released today, you'll find Nestlings on the attached DVD.
Recommend Nestlings to a friend! Recommend it to a reviewer! And keep checking the Internet for - fingers crossed - a bloody exciting announcement about what I'm doing next. Well, I'm excited, anyway...
A short experiment in story and mood. The result of a task I set myself: to design, write and build a single-player mod in just three days.
William is alone this week because the recording was botched. He explains the situation and then goes through the week's news alone, it lasts for about...
A short experiment in story and mood, built for Half-Life 2: Episode 2.
Ugh, a 5 minute map does not a mod make. I'm getting tired of these pretentious mods where you walk around and do nothing besides read notes and listen to audio blurbs.
At least give us some puzzles to solve or some exposition through something besides notes (intro cutscene?).
You might be interested to read the developer commentary linked above to find out why things are the way they are. It's five minutes long because it had to be made in three days. And I talk about the idea of using game engines to tell stories in a way not usually associated with games.
I agree that the reading notes system is conceptually flawed, though, for various reasons. It's something I'd like to return to and brush up if I had a brainwave in the future.
Thanks for playing, all! And Merry Christmas!
Where did this come from? I certainly enjoyed this. The letters were all very well written. I actually assumed it would be more horror oriented, but it turned out to be stronger in a narrative sense. It was like a mini Dear Esther. The music was a nice addition, was it original? This mod was a short, yet engrossing experience.
Amazing mod
great atmosphere and also a good story telling. i had some trouble to make out the hand-written letter but they fit to the atmosphere, i really enjoyed it
That was a lot of fun. You captured the atmosphere excelently and it was a really good ending. Very heartwarming. I loved the music as well, it kept me on edge. 9/10! Wonderful mod!
Yeah, me too. I was constantly thinking the music would suddenly stop and something scary was going to happen. Still a nice experience.
Looks extremely sexy. Can't wait for the download to be authorized
Download is awaiting mod approval :(
Gave you a 10 to help offset that 1/10 the mod looks good
Cool mod!