''Gods Will Be Watching'' is a

point-and-click adventure An adventure game is a video game genre in which the player assumes the role of a protagonist in an interactive story driven by exploration and/or puzzle-solving. The genre's focus on story allows it to draw heavily from other narrative-based m ...

video game Video games, also known as computer games, are electronic games that involves interaction with a user interface or input device such as a joystick, controller, keyboard, or motion sensing device to generate visual feedback. This fee ...

created by

Spain , image_flag = Bandera de España.svg , image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg , national_motto = ''Plus ultra'' (Latin)(English: "Further Beyond") , national_anthem = (English: "Royal March") , i ...

-based indie development studio

Deconstructeam Deconstructeam is a Spanish video game developer based in Valencia. Founded in March 2012 by Jordi de Paco, it is best known for developing '' Gods Will Be Watching'' (2014) and ''The Red Strings Club'' (2018), both published by Devolver Digit ...

and published by

Devolver Digital Devolver Digital, Inc. is an American video game publisher based in Austin, Texas, specializing in the publishing of indie games. The company was founded in June 2009 by Nigel Lowrie, Harry Miller, Graeme Struthers, Rick Stults, and Mike Wilso ...

, released on 24 July 2014. Described as a "point-and-click thriller", the game revolves around a core

mechanic A mechanic is an artisan, skilled tradesperson, or technician who uses tools to build, maintain, or repair machinery, especially cars. Duties Most mechanics specialize in a particular field, such as auto body mechanics, air conditioning and r ...

of resource and time management, in which the player is placed in various scenarios and tasked to avert a crisis. The

iOS iOS (formerly iPhone OS) is a mobile operating system created and developed by Apple Inc. exclusively for its hardware. It is the operating system that powers many of the company's mobile devices, including the iPhone; the term also includes ...

port of ''Gods Will Be Watching'' was released on 17 December 2015.

Gameplay

''Gods Will Be Watching'' is a

game with emphasis on the player's decision making. It features six chapters, each of which acts as a resource and time management

puzzle A puzzle is a game, Problem solving, problem, or toy that tests a person's ingenuity or knowledge. In a puzzle, the solver is expected to put pieces together (Disentanglement puzzle, or take them apart) in a logical way, in order to arrive at th ...

. The player's goal in each chapter is to lead a group of characters through various circumstances in a fixed amount of time, often having to make moral decisions. The player can click on the ground to move, and on other characters to speak with them and give them orders. Options given to the player include, for example, choosing to kill a group member in order to reserve rations for the rest of the group.

Plot

The game is set in a

far future While the future cannot be predicted with certainty, present understanding in various scientific fields allows for the prediction of some far-future events, if only in the broadest outline. These fields include astrophysics, which studies how ...

science fiction Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel unive ...

setting, playing in 2257 CFD (Constellar Federation Date), with the player assuming the role of an agent of the neutral organization known as Everdusk Company for the Universe Knowledge (E.C.U.K.), Sgt. Burden. The first chapter begins with Burden infiltrating the idealistic resistance movement known as Xenolifer, with his task being to aid in a hacking operation.

Development

''Gods Will Be Watching'' was originally developed as an entry for the

Ludum Dare Ludum Dare (LD; , meaning 'to give a game', also referenced as LDJAM) is a game jam competition. It was founded by Geoff Howland and was first held in April 2002. It is currently run by Mike Kasprzak, who has been part of the team since the beg ...

game jam #26, the theme being

minimalism In visual arts, music and other media, minimalism is an art movement that began in post–World War II in Western art, most strongly with American visual arts in the 1960s and early 1970s. Prominent artists associated with minimalism include Don ...

. The original version was created across a span of 72 hours and featured a single scenario, akin to a chapter in the final game. It ranked second place in the competition, losing to ''Leaf Me Alone'' by Mark Foster and David Fenn. After the development competition, Deconstructeam launched a

crowdfunding Crowdfunding is the practice of funding a project or venture by raising money from a large number of people, typically via the internet. Crowdfunding is a form of crowdsourcing and alternative finance. In 2015, over was raised worldwide by crow ...

campaign on Indiegogo for the development of a full game, with a goal of €8,000. The campaign ended on 15 August 2013, having raised €20,385, or $21,242 in U.S. dollars. The game was released worldwide on 24 July 2014, for

Microsoft Windows Windows is a group of several proprietary graphical operating system families developed and marketed by Microsoft. Each family caters to a certain sector of the computing industry. For example, Windows NT for consumers, Windows Server for serv ...

OS X macOS (; previously OS X and originally Mac OS X) is a Unix operating system developed and marketed by Apple Inc. since 2001. It is the primary operating system for Apple's Mac computers. Within the market of desktop and lapt ...

, and

Linux Linux ( or ) is a family of open-source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991, by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged as a Linux distribution, which ...

. An epilogue was added to the game as a free download in May 2015. As the game was already announced for a release on

and

Android Android may refer to: Science and technology * Android (robot), a humanoid robot or synthetic organism designed to imitate a human * Android (operating system), Google's mobile operating system ** Bugdroid, a Google mascot sometimes referred to ...

, Abstraction Games took on the development of the game's mobile versions, where the Android release date is still to be announced.

Reception

The PC version received "mixed" reviews according to the

review aggregation A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews of products and services (such as films, books, video games, software, hardware, and cars). This system stores the reviews and uses them for purposes such as supporting a website where users ...

website

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...

. Critics praised it for its

minimalist In visual arts, music and other media, minimalism is an art movement that began in post–World War II in Western art, most strongly with American visual arts in the 1960s and early 1970s. Prominent artists associated with minimalism include Don ...

pixel art Pixel art () is a form of digital art drawn with graphics software, graphical software where images are built using pixels as the only building block. It is widely associated with the low-resolution graphics from 8-bit and 16-bit era computers a ...

style, interesting story, and novel take on adventure games, but criticism was levied for its repetitiveness, tediousness, and excessive challenge. The primary concern of reviewers was the

trial and error Trial and error is a fundamental method of problem-solving characterized by repeated, varied attempts which are continued until success, or until the practicer stops trying. According to W.H. Thorpe, the term was devised by C. Lloyd Morgan (1 ...

nature of the gameplay and the lack of

checkpoints Checkpoint may refer to: Places * Border checkpoint, a place on the land border between two states where travellers and/or goods are inspected * Security checkpoint, erected and enforced within contiguous areas under military or paramilitary cont ...

, requiring multiple, time-consuming attempts at single scenarios. Rowan Kaiser of ''

IGN ''IGN'' (formerly ''Imagine Games Network'') is an American video game and entertainment media website operated by IGN Entertainment Inc., a subsidiary of Ziff Davis, Inc. The company's headquarters is located in San Francisco's SoMa distri ...

'' praised the game's simplicity and tense story, calling it "a demonstration that even with the simplest of interfaces and old-fashioned graphics, new combinations of storytelling with gameplay are possible."

References

External links

*
''Gods Will Be Watching''
at Devolver Digital
''Gods Will Be Watching'' Ludum Dare development page
at Deconstructeam
''Gods Will Be Watching'' post-Ludum Dare development page
at Deconstructeam
''Gods Will Be Watching''
at Ludum Dare * {{Authority control 2014 video games Android (operating system) games Devolver Digital games GameMaker Studio games Indie video games IOS games Linux games MacOS games Point-and-click adventure games Science fiction video games Video games developed in Spain Windows games