Feign

Feign appears simple. Hanging in space is a glowing yellow human form, next to a squat blue structure. You are told the controls -- arrow keys to move, A and D to strafe; and your objective: "Find 9 bodies." A little experimentation shows that if you move your viewpoint through the yellow form, it disappears, and text tells you 1/9.

A momentary discontinuity as you realize that the blue structure is more than a landmark, and nothing is outside it, though you can walk infinitely away, should you be so inclined. Circling it, you find an opening.

Within is a maze. Quickly, you realize that the maze is far too large to be encompassed within the exterior dimensions of the structure. You find another body, and continue -- discovering that the geometry is even more non-Euclidean, with turns creating something you cannot map on graph paper, though you can retrace your steps.

And then the apparently simple geometric shapes of the maze -- blue walls and brown vacancy -- become inverted and even more strange.

In terms of gameplay, Feign is a simple maze game; but in terms of the ways it plays with human perception, the uncanny feeling it evokes, it is something much more. And the ambient chiptune from Brother Android perfectly reinforces the aesthetic.

Feign was awarded an "honorable mention" by the 2011 IGF Nuovo Award jury, but did not become a nominee.

(Via The Ludologist).