How would you handle the news that you have terminal cancer? A Unique puzzle-platformer called In Between explores this difficult topic. The game is about a man who learns that he has terminal cancer and only has three weeks left to live. Throughout the game, the five phases of grief are represented through varying gameplay elements. For instance, depression is seen as a dark fog that creeps in from both sides of the screen. If your character is not facing it, it will continue to come until you are killed, but, if you face it, it will recede. The symbolic nature of these design choices is what make the game so interesting. gentlymad, the developer behind the game, wanted to create a game that could generate deep feelings that not many other games are capable of invoking. The gameplay itself centers around solving a variety of puzzles by maneuvering your character’s sprite around corridors of varying shape without touching spikes using the environment as well as gravity.
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After its initial release on PC, In Between was criticized by many for its unforgiving difficulty. Among the complaints, the largest had to be the absence of any type of checkpoint system. The game was difficult to being with, with death often being a pixel or two in either direction, however without having checkpoints you were forced to restart a level and fight through the same puzzles all over again. Thankfully, gentlymad have confirmed that the difficulty has been scaled down for the new release on mobile devices. How this is represented in the game, however, we do not currently know.
You can currently download In Between on your PC or Mac, with a release on iOS and Android coming on October 29, 2015. Developer gentlymad has confirmed the game is coming to consoles, however, no release date has been announced.
Justin cut his teeth on Pitfall! and Yars’ Revenge way back on the Atari 2600. Since, he has followed the generations through to the present. Now, you can most often find him on his PS4, but he is occasionally spotted on the Xbox One as well; he’s kind of like the Sasquatch of Xbox One. Follow him on Facebook, he’s incredibly boring!
