Valiant Hearts The Great War Mobile [Extra Quality]

Most developers like to make their games as widely available as possible. For large companies that need to make a profit, it makes sense to put a game on as many platforms as possible and ensure that it has the type of gameplay people might already be familiar with and are interested in picking up. GoodbyeWorld Games and Skybound Games' indie title Before Your Eyes bucks that trend in many ways.

Before Your Eyes' primary method of control is blinking. It's a game about someone remembering their life after they died, but they can only stay in a particular memory until they blink. On PC, the player's webcam tracks their eyes and moves the story forward every time you blink. The player's body commands the experience, even if it's not always possible to control blinking. It's a poignantly emotional experience that will have you in tears by the end, but it's also a game that only works on specific platforms and isn't comparable to much else.

Before Your Eyes - Launch Trailer

That's why its arrival on iOS and Android via the Netflix app on July 26 is a logical evolution for GoodbyeWorld's underrated gem. Ahead of Before Your Eyes' Netflix Games release, Digital Trends spoke to creative director and writer Graham Parkes and game director and composer Oliver Lewin to learn how they brought Before Your Eyes to life and how its bold rejection of gaming norms is the key to this atypical experience's success.

Seen on mobile

Before Your Eyes started as a capstone project at USC. Parkes admitted that they didn't really think about if the game needed to have broad appeal and compatibility with every gaming platform. The PS5, Xbox Series X, and Nintendo Switch don't have built-in webcams, so GoodbyeWorld couldn't put Before Your Eyes on those platforms with their desired controls. As a result, there are only specific platforms to which it can expand. Mobile was the most logical place to go next from Parkes' point of view.

"We always knew that mobile was a great fit and wanted the game to come to mobile because we're using a mode of control that everybody is inherently familiar with," Parkes explained. "Everyone has eyes and everyone blinks, so we always wanted to design the game to be played by gamers and non-gamers alike. We feel like mobile is a perfect home because you can get those casual gamers who might check something out on their phone but don't have a Steam account or console."

Of course, bringing the game to phones presented a unique set of challenges. Modern phones all have high-quality cameras, so that wasn't as much of an issue. Still, GoodbyeWorld and the port developers at BKOM Studios did have to account for things like arm positioning and phone rotation.