ULTRA-INDIE DAILY DOSE: NODOMUS a Lonely Antithesis to Light
Hello, you glorious gluttons for all things indie horror! Are you just starving for the newest of the new, the most unknownest of the unknown? If so, you’ve come to the right place. Welcome to the Ultra-Indie Daily Dose! In this series, we’re going to pick a new game every day from an indie horror creator you’ve probably never heard of. No million-dollar budgets or factory productions. This is the space for the little guy with not but a developer toolkit and a dream. So if you’re down to roll the dice on something different, then stick around and check it out!
WARNING: FLASHING LIGHTS
NODOMUS
I am a speck of dust gently floating through a cold dark storm.
It glows brighter than a heart, beating as small as the sun.
A gentle fury merciful.
All that is and should be,
A small dark hole in the stars.
NODOMUS is live footage of a probe sent deep into space or time? I don’t really know. Sent farther than I could comprehend arriving at a lonesome vestige to observe it from the edge of its depth.
We have six cameras in which we can witness its scale. They sit at fixed angles with only lens zoom and microphone volume as controls.
Each camera has a unique view of the world ranging from aloft gazing into its dancing clouds, violent wrath endlessly spinning, or impossible evidence of intelligent life. A city existing in this impossible space.
I can hear a roaring storm but from where? Ashes fall and lights dance just above the towers. Where did the emptiness go? Would I see it if I looked up? Or is it farther below? Maybe this city is what lies at its center?
Where do I exist? Am I wanted here? Have I been given permission or am I an uninvited interloper? So many questions, none I actually want or require answers to.
To watch a river crashing against stone is not to speak to it but to listen.
NODOMUS is an artful and suspenseful gaze into cosmic horror. It bridges mindfulness and the fear of dark alien unknowns. The unrecognizable visuals are discomforting especially when a camera change will cut to utter chaos and screeching static grating your ears. It’s a game that holds the tension of horror but instead of the environment significantly changing I found my own experience of what I was witnessing was what transformed. There are anomalies within the game systems themselves however their occurrence and conditions are unclear and unprovided which suits the theme.
There are six cameras you can select, they range from wide views of a part of the anomaly to interlaced structures or chaotic static. The only way I can describe this is to stand in front of a waterfall and be consumed by patterns appearing and disappearing in the white foam or the roar that drives out any voice or thought. It is a location of immaterial where thoughts and recognition fall away as your entirety becomes drowned in the overwhelming torrent.
Please try out NODOMUS, observe the itch.io page here.
