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Enter a WWI Psychological Horror Adventure in Mistaken Visions’ ‘The Piano’
In the mood for a Great War-era psychological horror game? Developer Mistaken Visions and Game If You Are have one for you in The Piano, which just had its launch teaser dropped today. Originally scheduled for release last year, the Hamburg-based indie developer opted to go back and fine-tune the game based on tester feedback, which also involved partnering with indie game consultancy, Game If You Are. The result is a fully voice acted cast of characters and revamped graphics.
In The Piano, the player is cast as John Barnerway. Born to an American father and a French mother in the aftermath of World War I, John has has to live his young life in the shadow of his three older brothers, who are renowned pianists. Or were. After their murders, John is fingered as the one responsible, and now finds himself at the centre of a media witch-hunt. John must now walk the streets of Paris in search of answers to not only clear his name, but find the one responsible.
Meshing together survival horror and adventure elements under a noir aesthetic, The Piano will have the player gathering clues and solving puzzles in order to uncover the truth, while also avoiding foes that stalk the Paris streets. The game is set for release this Spring on Steam (which you can check out its page here).
The best part about engaging with collaborative genre fiction on the internet is that anyone can get in on the action, with worldwide accessibility often resulting in absurd story beats that wouldn’t be possible if any single person was responsible for the entire narrative. And while Kane Parsons’ Backrooms film is definitely the young filmmaker’s own unique take on the infamous creepypasta, it’s fun to see other creators join the Backrooms sandbox now that the big screen adaptation is getting ready for a record-shattering opening weekend.
As if cleverly timed releases like Puppet Combo’s The Backrooms game weren’t enough (not to mention that Scary Movie poster poking fun at Parsons’ flick), McDonald’s official social media accounts have now released an analog horror video of their own celebrating the liminal terrors of the McRooms – complete with a familiar purple surprise at the end of the footage.
While it’s funny enough to see the world’s most recognizable Fast Food giant engage with internet-borne Found Footage thrills seemingly out of the blue, the video is actually referencing a long-running gag among the Backrooms fandom where creators jokingly talk about there being a fully functional McDonald’s restaurant hidden somewhere in level 0 of the infamous liminal labyrinth.
Now, would it be too much to hope for a moist-carpet-flavored McShake to tie in with the film?
Backrooms is now playing only in theaters from A24.
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