I tested ‘Nightfall: Escape’ and had a scary good time

I spent a good deal of one Saturday afternoon with the folks at Zeenoh Games playing Nightfall: Escape, and I had a blast.

Having been invited by JD Abenaza, founder and CEO of Zeenoh Games and the creator and game producer of Nightfall: Escape, I was eager to learn what the game was all about.

Nightfall: Escape is a classic first-person horror-survival game with a Filipino theme. The game places you in an old Spanish mansion – that may or may not have aswangs, tikbalangs, manananggals and tiyanaks lurking in the dark – with just a flashlight in hand.

The Nightfall team

Upon entering Zeenoh’s studio, I was greeted and introduced to the team responsible for Nightfall itself.

It is a young, vibrant team, consisting of fewer than 8 dedicated members at the time. I noticed that they looked more to just raise their hands and say “Hi!” than to shake my hand and be disturbed in their work. A good sign in my opinion.

Geoff Daigon, Nightfall: Escape‘s Creative Director, was a man of a few words and has an honest demeanor, considering he was responsible for the nightmarish creatures that made my heart pumping in the game. I just hope I made a good enough impression and won’t end up as one of his scary creations.

Troy Santiago spends most of his time coding and texturing the countless intricacies of the game. He was not too shy to speak his mind about how being an independent game developer felt more fulfilling compared to his previous projects. Despite his slight complaint of being the only Game Developer in the team, I was actually impressed with how quickly he could implement several changes to the game as instructed in just a few short minutes.

The rest of the team were obviously busy doing several things to the game that I spent most of my time there talking to Abenaza.

One-on-one

Considering that what Zeenoh Games is doing with Nightfall, I felt no ounce of pressure or stress from JD and the team. He spoke in earnest about how the team’s pipeline is being met and how the stars were aligning for them.

I asked him if he and the rest of the team were ready for pressure and criticism once they get noticed by mainstream audiences.

His response was confident. “Gusto nga namin ‘yung pressure eh. Kailangan namin ‘yun (We actually need the pressure. It’s what we need).” He said it only added to their motivation.

When asked about unfair criticisms about the game considering that it was in the very early stages of the development, he said, “Ok lang, kailangan din naman namin yung feedback  (It’s OK, we also needfeedback).”

This may show that JD and the rest of the Nightfall team are prepared for anything that may come their way; in fact, they welcome it.

We also briefly spoke about how Anito: Defend a Land Enraged, considered to be the first Filipino game to launch mainstream, could have been the kickstarter of the Filipino gaming industry – except it didn’t catapult into a grand success story.

I agree with JD when he said that with little exposure to the international scene and more importantly the local scene, the timing was not good for them then.

“Hindi kasi maganda ang timing nila noon eh, ngayon iba na kasi (The timing was not good for them then, but it’s different now).”

Anino Entertainment, the developer behind Anito may not have had the exposure of today’s Internet and social media at their disposal.

JD and the rest of the Nightfall: Escape team hope to change that and learn from previous Filipino developers’ failures in the scene.

Testing the waters

I was invited for the second day of the game’s testing. When I was informed that the test was for a “Pre-Alpha” build – a very early version of the game’s development – my expectations went down, expecting less of a fun experience and more of a proof of concept.

What I got from Nightfall however, was more than I could chew.

The studio at the time did not just consist of the Nightfall team that afternoon, but also a few other testers as well. Having opened a public sign-up for an alpha-test of the game last April 15, the Nightfall team chose 30 from more than 700 applicants.

JD informed me that some of the applicants were from all across the country – even as far as Mindanao.

The testing process included not just a hands-on of the game but also video testimonials that mainly consisted of the testers experience and feedback.

The hands-on

After waiting for the rest of the testers to finish up their sessions and feedback, JD told me it was time. An intern handed me a waiver that basically tells me that they weren’t responsible for any unwanted health effects while testing the game. The folks at Zeenoh were serious about the waiver, further fueling my anticipation for the game.

As the game started, I was filled with that old “Pinoy Pride” when I stared at the Main Menu. Imagine, I am actually hands-on and about to play a Filipino-made, Filipino-themed game.

The objective I had was understandable: find the key to open the locked doors, use a special feature of your flashlight to find the pieces that would resolve a puzzle and, lastly, try not to die.

All this may sound simple enough and doable within 5 minutes, but the experience is way different, trust me.

The game played surprisingly smoothly. I did not experience any annoying glitches or bugs and the controls or movements were perfect.

The overall tone of the environment fits with the narrative – an old Spanish mansion is in the distance. Standing close to a balete tree in the middle of nowhere sends shivers down my spine.

As I crept through the house’s secret dungeon and glanced at my first supernatural encounter with a creature in the game, my Filipino instinct of freezing in place when encountering something unknown kicked-in.

My head was literally looping the words “’Wag kang gagalaw! ‘Wag kang gagalaw! Makikita ka nyan! (Don’t move! Don’t move! It will see you!)”

Until of course I remember that JD, Geoff, and Troy were behind me, and it reminded me that I was in the Zeenoh Games studio.

They were probably worried that I was stuck and the game was not functioning properly.

First-person Pinoy survival horror

I played through a very short version of the game but it took me more than 30 minutes to finish it. More so, because I mostly did not know what to expect of the game.

I think that’s just the catch isn’t it? To me, it plays as smooth as a triple-A game like The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. Some of the rooms, the textures, and even the clutter across the floors in the game remind me of Skyrim but obviously it isn’t.

What Nightfall: Escape happens to be is a first-person survival horror game, with a feeling that evokes classics like Resident Evil and, more so, Silent Hill.

The essence of the entire game is not just built on the survival of the protagonist, Ara Cruz. The entire game is a puzzle in itself.

Strategizing and making sure you are stealthy enough to snake through obstacles to avoid enemies while solving a particular puzzle in the game, like finding the keys to some doors, is a challenge in itself.

The potential for Nightfall: Escape is limitless in the form that I played it in. Even without ambient music and sound effects, the game provided plenty of paranoia and anxiety-inducing atmosphere, perfect for a night of terror-induced gaming.

The game might also be a contender in the growing horror genre of Virtual Reality devices like the Oculus Rift, Samsung Gear VR, the PS4’s Project Morpheus, and Microsoft’s HoloLens.

Things are looking up for this rag tag group of Filipino visionaries and it only gets better and more challenging from here. All they need is your support.

Nightfall: Escape has been approved by Square-Enix Collective and Steam Greenlight and is up on Steam’s Early Access program. They also have a second Kickstarter up to further fund development of the game.  – Rappler.com