How Before Your Eyes Uses Better Cameras To Bring You To Tears On Mobile
Before Your Eyes is a game that doesn't necessarily require, but is absolutely improved by, its blinking mechanic. The game uses a camera aimed at your face, and every time you blink, the story progresses--whether you want it to or not. Andrew King gave the game an 8/10 in GameSpot's Before Your Eyes review, highlighting its emotional story and unique mechanic, but that unique mechanic also limited its reach and who could play it.
«There was a lot of virality and so many people talking about the game and watching the game,» game director Oliver Lewin said in an interview with GameSpot. «But there was an accessibility issue because it was exclusively on PC. There was the webcam element.»
To try and remedy that shortcoming and make Before Your Eyes available to as many players as possible, developer GoodbyeWorld Games (with the help of Netflix, its publisher Skybound, and mobile developer, BKOM) have brought the game to the platform with the largest audience that also happens to have a camera: mobile phones. We spoke with Lewin and creative director Graham Parkes about how this version of the game came to exist, whether it works better using the high-quality cameras on most mobile devices, and what they think of eye-tracking technology in virtual reality devices like the upcoming PlayStation VR 2.
GameSpot: How does the game functionally work on a mobile device? Do you hold it sideways? Do you play like you're taking a selfie?
Oliver Lewin: To the last part of your question, one thing that we knew from the outset is we really wanted to have it be playable horizontally and vertically. So it could be like taking a selfie in that very comfortable way in your hand, or if you want more of that cinematic landscape-type picture,
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