BNNUY
| BNNUY (Versuchskaninchen) | |
|---|---|
| Studio | Schrödinger inside of a bag inside of a bag |
| Genre | Adventure, Horror |
| Spielmodus | Singleplayer |
What´s special about it?
aesthetic - cuteness + comedic horror + Kontrast der Themen + Plottwist am Ende + uniques Klon-Gameplay
Theme
The overall theme of the game is dark but cute at the same time. It is a horror, puzzle, storybased game with funny as well as creepy elements. The bunnys are cute looking but are being deformed when cloned, which is one way the game communicates its mix between adorable and unsettling. The whole environment of the game is nightmarish, a destroyed and dark building, radiating danger. But some elements don’t quiet fit, the bunnys for example, cute fluffy balls, or some of the puzzles seem rather amusing than scary, this all contributes to the bizarre experience the game is supposed to give.
Player Experience
As a player you have the option to name your created bunnys. You can take them with you along the journey and lead them through puzzles. You need them and they need you, therefore the game draws upon that emotional connection. But it isn’t just cute and fluffy, it is still a horror game, which the player experiences in the story line and, often brutal deaths or disturbing places the bunnys must go through. As the game proceeds the puzzles are getting more difficult and dangerous, the environment more dark, the player also finds more and more evidence on what happened to this place. At the end, when the player manages to get though the puzzles, the story is being revealed
What elements contribute to the experience?
Mainly the sound and level design: both are incredibly dystopian.
Story
The game is a game of progression, the bunny must go a certain way and if that is done correctly the player gets an answer to the big question on what happened and who the bunnies are. In general we can say that the main goal of the game is to get out of the lab and find out what happened here. In the beginning the bunny wakes up in a room, with small evidence of experiments around it. It is confused and has no memory on what happened. The place around it seems destroyed. In the game the bunny must go from one room/place to the next. The rooms and places are labs, weird operation rooms, basements, sewers, kitchen or cafeteria. There are moments the bunnies have to get to the other room/place through vents or ladders. On the way the bunny finds hints on what happened to the place. Dead people and bunnies, weird liquids and clone machines are all over. As u get to the end of the game and the bunny escapes the facility, it is being revealed that the bunny was part of the clone experiments and is a clone itself. The scientist who started them in the first place was the original buddy, which died and destroyed the lab when creating our bunny we play.
Setting
What is the setting of the game?
BNNUY is set in a laboratory with a dark, gloomy atmosphere, which seems to be used for experiments on various creatures. Placed throughout are obstacles and puzzles that make escape difficult, but also cloning machines which can be used to overcome them.
Characters
You play as a rabbit who wakes up in said laboratory. You do not have any memory what happened, but your surroundings show signs of experiments. What you come across on your way questions everything you thought you knew about yourself. Are you too just one of many clones? What was your role in this place? Were you the one being experimented on, or were you something worse?
Objectives
What is the main goal of the game?
The main objective is escaping from the research facility, although the game does not specify this goal, the player will want to explore the map and thus advance in this objective.
Does the game include any sub goals?
Often times your path will be blocked, subsequent subgoals will let the player overcome the obstacles.
Procedures
How can the player carry out actions in the game?
The player can interact with many different objects found in the laboratory. One of the core game-mechanics being the ‘clone machines’, which allow you to make duplicates of yourself. They will help you solve puzzles and reach new areas. Sometimes the clones come out a bit wonky, and they might allow you to do things you couldn’t do before…
How can the character be controlled?
The character is controlled via W, A, S, D, Space, and F, F being the button to interact with objects and Space allowing you to Jump.
Basic Resources
What are the basic resources in the game?
The main resource to solve puzzles with and progress in the story are the bunny clones. According to their development stage, the clones have different abilities, eg better or worse hearing, longer legs for higher jumps or different weights. Bunny clones can be created with the cloning machines. There is no limited number of clones that can be created but only a limited amount of genetic makeup that will be useful for the puzzles. There are about 4-5 different types of clones with unique abilities. Sometimes it might even be necessary to sacrifice clones in order to solve a puzzle.
Conflict
In order to escape the facility, there are puzzles that need to be solved in every room. The puzzles are made up of debris and laboratory equipment that got out of place when the accident happened. The clones help you find a way through the destroyed labs by jumping over or crawling under objects, flick switches or other types of puzzles.
Outcome
What are the results of the game?
After you´ve managed to escape the research facility by solving all the puzzles provided - and probably losing all your clones - you stand outside, alone, looking back. Through environmental clues picked up both during the game and at its end, you conclude that you were mistaken. You weren´t a guinea pig they conducted experiments on after all. You were one of the scientists conducting the experiments. Did one of those go wrong, injuring you to the point of amnesia? You´re in a rare introspective state - rare for a bunny, anyways. What does that mean? Who or what does it make you? Are you still the same person you were before? Have your morals changed?
And there´s another weird thing you´ve noticed: you only have one ear. Accepting it as it is, you went through various puzzles which progressively got more dangerous and complicated. You´ve focused on your escape so much that you´ve forgotten to think about the things that are essential. One thing all the clones you used for your own escape - who followed you with so much trust and loyalty, and who you sacrificed one after another for the sake of your own survival - had one thing in common: they all had mutations. Are you just a clone? Did all of the clones you used have equally as much of a conscience as you?
The player should now question everything that has happened, making for an almost philosophical ending.
Visual Style
What is the visual style of the game?
2d cell shading.
