BACKSTORY
GAMEPLAY
An immersive first-person experience about being kidnapped and locked in the trunk of a car. A journey in which sound is the main focus designed to be played using a standard controller (mouse) in a different way.
CONTEXT & BACKGROUND
A short experience inspired by the sole survivor of the "backpacker killer", Ivan Milat, a serial killer who murdered at least seven hitchhikers in the 1980s and 1990s. Their bodies were found buried in the Belangelo forest, Australia. The killer abducted his victims by car, killed them and buried them in the woods.
The survivor managed to escape from his car and call the Bowral Police Station, belonging to one of the nearest cities, where over the years different testimonies about attacks on the road arrived.
His testimony was crucial in convicting Milat in 1996.
IMPORTANT RECOMMENDATIONS
- A mouse with a scroll wheel is required to play.
- Headphones are HIGHLY recommended. You might miss out on the experience without them.
- For the full experience, hold the mouse like a lighter and start the game with your other hand behind your back.
- If you want to go further, play the game lying on your side.
A GAME BY
Rocket Raw
Naburo
Endorth
Made in 6 days for the GUNSCREEN HORROR JAM.
Thanks for playing.
Download
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Comments
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Diossss que pasada. ConseguĂ pasarmelo a la primera. Me encanta todo. Que buenas ideas con los controles de verdad no hace falta que lo diga me han puesto mucho en situaciĂłn. Felicidades!!!
Is Backstory coming to Steam in the future?
Great game but it would be better if we can skip cutscenes
i like how like in the bad ending the kidnapper seems like he's standing tall and looming over you and the shadow of the hoodie covers his face making him look monstrous but in the good ending the police lights light up his face and let you see that he's literally just a dude
Ătimo design de som, uma experiĂȘncia diferente de jogos comuns e a experiĂȘncia do tempo limite Ă© aterrorizante.
If random routes can be implemented, there must be great potential
Absolutely amazing game! The gameplay is super fun. I'd love to see more maps, level difficulties, differant car trunk styles, color filters and more added in future updates. Great work!
Hi. Do you plan on developing this further? Bigger maps with randomized routes/starting location could be fun
This is a really fun and unique game. As a sound person, it gave me a lot of ideas!
Very fun! I loved how the mouse mechanic works. To make things more tense maybe the lighter could have a fuel or randomly go out at times?
I get stuck at [Press any button to continue] when playing in browser.
Hey! Which browser are you using?
This was a very creative and unique gameplay! It was fun, not too easy, but not too difficult ether.
I think a skip button at the beggining would be useful, so that people replaying could just begin the game without listening to the dialouge again
But it was a good game, I loved the mechanics and I even wished it was longer :]
Gameplay and a bit of critique ;)
Real neat!
ThoughtsÈ
- love the scroll-wheel/lighter thing. I wish you could remove all keyboard interactions, however. You tell the player to start playing with only one hand, with that hand being occupied by the mouse, and then have two Èenter any keyÈ prompts and a moment where you have to randomly click keys to find an object. IÈm just thinking that a mouse click should suffice for the first two, and then the latter can be cut.
- really like the look and the audio-based puzzles! yÈall did great!
Hey, first of all, thanks so much for playing it!
By the other hand, what you mentioned was intentional! The idea was to simulate having to grope around in the dark to find something you can't see (that's why we don't ask for a certain key). Having only one free hand means you can't use the lighter and search in the dark at the same time, so you have to put down the lighter first. The idea was to simulate the experience of being very limited in your movements in a dark place, but we know that because it's a bit unusual it's not always understood.
oh, I did understood that. I just felt that it wasnât effective (it took me around 1 second to press the required key, after gliding my finger over all of the keys on my keyboard). I feel itâs a very clever idea but that it distracts from the immersion provided by the otherwise unique and tactile control scheme you had going on with the mouse.
I am wondering if there is maybe another way of implementing the âgroping around in the darkâ with just the mouse, or at least with the keyboard in a way that is not so easily cheesed by dancing down the rows of keys. Here are a couple of ideas Iâve had:
- I donât know if itâs possible to detect whether the mouse is not on its pad, but what you could do is have to move it around on the pad, lift it âoverâ obstacles signaled by audio cues (lifting over being simply taking the mouse off the pad and then putting it down on another part of the mat) and then grab at the environment with a left click. Or maybe you canât jump your hand over objects but have to instead move them out of the way with a left click.
- the object moves when you correctly select it with a key-press, such that itâs three consecutive key-press prompts (this is to represent the object being slippery or perhaps shifting around in the truck)
Apologies if this is two-centish, I did that just cause I think itâs an interesting design problem and wanted to try to solve it myself ;)
This is random, but the game reminded me of that song âfeiticeiraâ
It's always great to discuss design stuff! Thank you so much for the thorough feedback and for sharing your thoughts. Just to briefly summarize our design philosophy and why we decided to do it this way in this case: we think of the mouse as the lighter itself, so when we considered actions that didn't involve the lighter, we didn't want to use the mouse; for us, the keyboard was the most natural solution. Thanks again! :)
Really interesting game, especially the lighting mechanic — a very cool idea that creates a lot of tension.
However, it was a bit hard to get into at the beginning since thereâs no clear starting point. If the player knew where they began or had some initial guidance, it would improve the experience a lot.
It would also be great if the player had to turn off the lighter when the killer looks into the trunk — that could add another layer of tension and make the mechanic even more intense.
Maybe the killer could also check the trunk more often because he thinks he heard something. Then the player would have to quickly hide everything to avoid being discovered. This isnât currently in the game, but it could be a really exciting addition.
There are clues to help you figure out where the trip begins! It's true that it might be a little overwhelming at first, because you're still getting used to the game and its mechanics, but it's designed so you can solve it in two tries at most (although it can be solved easily on the first try if you pay attention!). The second attempt might allow you to better appreciate some details.
We had a lot of ideas we would have loved to include! But in the end, we had to prioritize and focused on what we thought was the most interesting part of the experience.
Thank you so much for playing it and for your feedback <3