Skybound Games to Publish the Original Title
Los Angeles, CA (04.03.2021) – Award-winning, independent game developer GoodbyeWorld Games, along with Skybound Games and Verizon Media’s RYOT Studio, today announce Before Your Eyes – an emotional, narrative journey, navigated through the player’s real-world blinks – will come to PC via Steam on April 8, 2021. Fans can “wishlist” the game on Steam here.
A personal tale of self-discovery at its core, Before Your Eyes tells a heartfelt story as players reflect and relive the happy, beautiful, and heartbreaking moments of a life once lived. Players embark upon a thought-provoking journey with the Ferryman who is tasked with shepherding souls to the afterlife. They move through time by using real-world blinking to interact and progress through the story.
Before Your Eyes’ unique blink interaction mechanic offers a novel way for players to control the story and become more immersed, as their progress is determined through their eyes and detected through the player’s webcam. As life flashes before their eyes, each blink will help the players interact with the world or make the memory fade and disappear like a dream. Players move organically through the story and experience its emotional peaks and valleys in the most natural way, until they reach the end of their journey and realize the ultimate truth.
Before Your Eyes is created by award-winning GoodbyeWorld Games, an indie collective based in Los Angeles. Originating as a keystone project by former USC game design student and GoodbyeWorld Games studio director and founder Will Hellwarth, the original version of the game, titled “Close Your,” received the prestigious Game Developers Choice award at Indiecade in 2014. It later went on to win the Student Award at the Independent Game Awards (IGF) in 2015.
“We’ve been working on this game since college—for the better part of a decade—so it’s really the definition of a labor of love,” said Oliver Lewin, game director and composer.
“We really can’t wait to get this into the hands of players, so they can finally experience this completely new way of using tech to tell human stories,” added Graham Parkes, writer and creative director. “It’s really something you have to experience firsthand.”
“GoodbyeWorld Games has made a unique and unforgettable experience with Before Your Eyes,” said Ian Howe, CEO of Skybound Games. “While keeping our eyes open can help us see, closing them may at times reveal what we hide from ourselves, and I love how the game conveys this. Most of us at Skybound teared up while playing the game and are honored to help this incredibly creative team deliver such an artistic and relatable game.”
For more information about Before Your Eyes, please visit the Steam store, and follow the social channels on Twitter, Facebook, Discord, and YouTube.
About GoodbyeWorld Games
GoodbyeWorld Games is an award-winning independent collective of gamemakers based in Los Angeles. Its first project, Close Your, was the winner of the Indiecade Developer’s Choice Award (2014), and the IGF Best Student Game Award (2015). Its debut full length project, Before Your Eyes, will be released in April of 2021 and published by Skybound Games. Before Your Eyes represents the work of a talented core team currently comprised of Will Hellwarth (founder, studio director), Graham Parkes (lead writer, creative director), Oliver Lewin (game director, composer), Bela Messex (lead designer), Richard Beare (lead engineer), Hana Lee (artist), Brieyh’leai Simmons (3d artist), and Dillon Terry (audio lead, composer).
About Skybound Games
Skybound Games is a division of Skybound Entertainment with the capability to produce tabletop and video games. The team works closely with creators to expand their unique and exceptional IP to new platforms. Skybound Games’ slate across video games includes Telltale’s The Walking Dead, Baldur’s Gate, and Slime Rancher. The tabletop slate includes Pitchstorm, Superfight, and The Walking Dead: Something to Fear. Skybound Games can be found on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.
