''White Night'' is a 2015

survival horror Survival horror is a subgenre of survival of the players as the game tries to frighten them with either horror graphics or scary ambience. Although combat can be part of the gameplay, the player is made to feel less in control than in typical ac ...

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 ...

video game developed by French

indie studio An indie game, short for independent video game, is a video game typically created by individuals or smaller development teams without the financial and technical support of a large game publisher, in contrast to most "AAA" (triple-A) games. ...

OSome Studio, and published by

Activision Activision Publishing, Inc. is an American video game publisher based in Santa Monica, California. It serves as the publishing business for its parent company, Activision Blizzard, and consists of several subsidiary studios. Activision is one o ...

. On 3 March 2015, it was released on

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 ...

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

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 ...

, and was later released on

Xbox One The Xbox One is a home video game console developed by Microsoft. Announced in May 2013, it is the successor to Xbox 360 and the third base console in the Xbox series of video game consoles. It was first released in North America, parts of ...

on 6 March 2015.

Development

''White Night'' started in 2010, when its lead developer was working on a remake of '' Alone in the Dark''. During this time, he became interested with the idea of putting black and white into a survival horror game. The team built the engine from scratch and found it gratifying to see it play out on various consoles. They enjoyed working with Activision, and appreciated the resources that partnership came with, for instance them showing the game off to the media. They had free rein in their creative decision, and while Activision offered tips on where to improve; money was no issue.

Design and gameplay

The game has a monochromatic graphical style. Its slow jazz piano soundscape is reminiscent of classic noir thrillers. The narrative is told to the player via "voice-over, on-screen text, and journal entries".

Plot

The game takes place within Vesper Mansion, where the player aims to solve a mystery. After having a car crash, the 30-something-year-old protagonist finds himself stumbling into what appears at first glance to be an abandoned mansion.

Reception

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 title's atmospheric and eerie atmosphere, though felt the aesthetic design compromised the title's exploration and puzzle-solving. ''

Destructoid ''Destructoid'' is a website that was founded as a video game-focused blog in March 2006 by Yanier Gonzalez, a Cuban-American cartoonist and author. Enthusiast Gaming acquired the website in 2017, and sold it to Gamurs Group in 2022. History ' ...

'' felt that the game falsely advertises itself as a "traditional survival experience of limited resources against considerable odds", whereas it just takes some gameplay elements of survival titles while centering on exploration mechanics. ''

GameSpot ''GameSpot'' is an American video gaming website that provides news, reviews, previews, downloads, and other information on video games. The site was launched on May 1, 1996, created by Pete Deemer, Vince Broady and Jon Epstein. In addition ...

'' made comparisons to ''

Resident Evil ''Resident Evil'', known in Japan as is a Japanese horror game series and media franchise created by Capcom. It consists of survival horror, third-person shooter and first-person shooter games, with players typically surviving in environments ...

'' due to its fixed camera angles.

References

External links

* * (Activision) *{{Official website, https://playdigious.com/whitenight/ (Playdigious) * https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2014/01/15/white-heat-white-night-is-beautifully-unnerving/ 2015 video games Android (operating system) games 2010s horror video games IOS games Linux games MacOS games Monochrome video games Indie games Neo-noir video games Nintendo Switch games Playdigious games PlayStation 4 games Puzzle video games Single-player video games Survival video games Video games developed in France Windows games Xbox One games OSome Studio games Plug In Digital games