Knock-Knock is a game of horror hide-and-seek from the developers of the 2005 oddity Pathologic.
It’s unlikely that many of you played Pathologic but those who did will almost certainly agree with me that it was seriously weird, man, in the way that only Russian videogames can be. So naturally, hearing that the Moscow-based Ice-Pick Lodge was up to something new had me immediately intrigued.
The project began in a rather odd fashion in November 2011 with an anonymous email suggesting that the team start work on an “unconventional” game based on attached materials. Such “great ideas for a game” are a dime a dozen but there was something about this one was that interesting; the attachments included little bits of text, audio recordings and fragments of video, all fragmented and vaguely disturbing. The sender of the email begged the team to complete the work he started, and promised no creative interference, but he also warned that whatever fate befell the creator of those original files could also await members of Ice-Pick Lodge.
Being thoroughly Russian, they were undaunted by such nonsense, and thus proceeded to pull it all together. “At the very least we would find out what the result would be, and what awful fate would possibly await us,” the team said in a statement, “as we will obviously be the first people to play the game.”
That game is Knock-Knock, the tale of a man who lives in a wooden house in the middle of the forest, who finds himself playing a game of hide-and-seek with Visitors. But he can’t just hide – the Visitors know where he is. He’ll have to patrol the house, closing gaps and repairing breaches to keep them out – but something is already inside. So is the reason for everything that’s happening, if only you can find it and bring it into the light. Follow the rules. Survive until dawn. Is that clear?
I like it! I don’t get it, but that’s one of the reasons I like it. Knock-Knock is expected to come out sometime in October and in the meantime you can take a closer look at it at knock.ice-pick.com. It probably won’t be the most informative site you visit today, but intriguing? Yes, very intriguing indeed.
