Webcam games come with some baggage thanks to years of novel but shallow experience. 2021’s Before Your Eyes shook up the tedium of an emotional story that made you blink. The same team returns for Goodnight Universe, an interactive experience that reads your face and responds accordingly. Goodnight Universe is an absolute joy to play and has at least a few memorable moments, especially in the way they involve you, the player, in the story.
In Goodnight Universe, you play as Isaac, a child born into a seemingly normal middle-class family. The only problem is that you are anything but normal; you have the internal monologue of someone much older, and if that wasn’t enough, you have an arsenal of psychic powers like telepathy and telekinesis.
An idyllic family life is quickly shattered when Isaac’s strange abilities – yours – reveal themselves and begin to stretch the family apart, quietly tearing apart at the seams. A tech company gets involved, a mystery ensues, and plenty of action happens along the way.
Goodnight Universe is a story about families and how their upbringing can shape who they become later in life. Goodnight Universe parents struggle with their responsibilities as they try to provide guidance to children who seem uncontrollable. It’s a brief story, lasting about five hours, but providing a lot of emotions during its duration. Although in some parts the story falls into the background in a way that obscures the underlying themes it is aimed at, I still enjoyed what Nice Dream created in this sci-fi adventure.
There are controller options, but the best way to play Goodnight Universe is with your webcam. While you’ll still need some input at certain times, you’ll also get some blink-based controls carried over from “Before Your Eyes.” Blinking at the airy can turn it on or off, for example, and closing your eyes to certain areas allows you to rearrange them and open your eyes to modern construction, such as assembling blocks to form a tower.
My favorite exploit of eye control is the telepathy mechanic, where you “tune in” to people’s minds by closing your eyes and turning your head like a radar antenna to look for a signal. Once they get stuck, you listen to their internal monologue. The effect of tuning in and hearing voices works incredibly well with webcam and headphone detection, creating truly memorable instances of storytelling that you can’t get in other games.
However, the emotion detection options were a bit more finicky. At certain points, the player is asked to express happiness or sadness through facial expressions, again fed by the webcam if it is turned on. I quickly learned that I had to exaggerate my smiles and frowns for the camera to notice the difference, and these moments had little impact on me compared to other fun segments about children’s psychic power.
Most of Goodnight Universe involves watching the world unfold around you and reacting accordingly, occasionally pushing the virtual game on stage using your psychic powers. Some options allow you to add context and texture to your story and what your character is feeling at the moment, but ultimately it’s a linear story. Still, it made some of the bigger emotional moments hit harder, encouraging me to connect with them; identifying how I thought Isaac felt, or how I felt through Isaac, created an captivating lively in what would otherwise have been just digital fun happening around me.
The voice acting is also excellent, with the family and supporting cast giving lively performances. Goodnight Universe’s sound design is powerful, from the previously mentioned psychic “tune-in” moments to subtle bits of foley or synth soundscapes that facilitate convey the story around you.
While it’s not as impressive as “Before Your Eyes,” Goodnight Universe still shows that there’s an impressive range of stories and interactivity to explore in this space. The hardware requirements and format of the game well justify the way the game uses these tools, creating some truly moving moments with interactivity that you just don’t see often. Goodnight Universe is a wonderful exploration of what is still possible with a uncomplicated webcam.
