Brighter Day

This has been a really good horror game.
Have never seen anything like it.
Love the style and atmosphere of the game.
Would kill to experience it again.

Brighter Day is one of those amusing cases where someone who's never played or even seen a video game before decides to try developing one. This is a quirky first person stealth "horror" game where you avoid droning eyeballs as they float around a very poor quality low poly environment. There's a lot of weird audio cues that make up a lot of the gameplay. So you find yourself stealthing around this amateur made video game environment avoiding eyes. Why? Well, that's not actually clear and the developers didn't really explain what the point is, and you would think that's something they might want to invest in doing because they do expect people to pay them for this without actually giving them a reason to.

As with all low quality products here on the shovelware end of Steam, there's plenty of reasons not to give them your money, because you certainly don't get much in return.

One important note is that even though this is an amateur project, it does seem to be sincerely and genuinely made. I couldn't find any flipped assets, plagiarism or any other kind of insincere actions from the developer, but unfortunately genuine intentions alone are not enough to produce a brilliant PC gaming experience.

From a technical perspective, the game doesn't meet basic minimum requirements that most PC gamers expect as standard.

There's no option to change the resolution and no useful graphics tweaks. There's no way to ensure this is running at the native resolution of your display. There's no guarantee this game will look right on any PC as a result of this hamfisted design decision.

The game features lazy low-polygon "retro" assets, making this look like a barely functional 3D game from the 1990s. It's unclear why the developers weren't able to arrange high quality, high polygon count contemporary assets for the game, and also irrelevant... what matters is that this looks bad as a result of their decisions, a compromise PC gamers shouldn't have to put up with. The game assets are fairly mediocre/low quality, in some places they appear mismatched... Ultimately the quality of these assets, and thus the overall visual quality is lower than average, and low quality always makes for a less than optimal gaming experience. Remember, we're looking for the best of the best of 100,000+ games on Steam.

Bewilderingly, the game doesn't include proper audio controls, so you can't turn off the annoying sound/background music, you'll need to alt+tab out and stop it using the Windows sound mixer. This is obviously not okay and it's unclear why the developers chose not to include this basic feature.

The controls can't be customised, which will be an annoyance for many, but it can also render the game unplayable for differently-abled gamers, left handed gamers or gamers using AZERTY or other international keyboard layouts.

These technical defects push this game below acceptable standards for any modern PC game.

The poor quality of this game is reflected by how many people spent time with it. At the time of this review, SteamDB shows the all-time peak player number was only 8 players. This is a remarkably low number, and now, the only player activity occurs once or twice a month, presumably someone loading it up to see what it is then quickly uninstalling it. Considering there's over 120 million gamers on Steam and well over 100,000 games for gamers to choose from, the overwhelming lack of interest in this low quality game is to be expected.

So, should you buy this game? Is this one of the best of the 100,000+ games on Steam?

Brighter Day is relatively cheap at $3 USD, but it's not worth it. Given the defects and quality issues with the game, coupled with the unrealistic price, this is impossible to recommend. This is also competing with over 11,000 free games available on Steam, many of them far better than this paid product.

This is a really cool hidden gem of an indie game! I love the use of a more bright and colorful setting, utilizing more of a, like the game description put it, existential dread kind of vibe for the game! It still manages to be scary even with the bright atmosphere, and the little bits of story sprinkled throughout the map is quite interesting! Along with that, the tarot cards are a fun little hidden collectible for the game, and makes you search around everywhere for them! This is quite the phenomenal game, and I hope the creator makes more great things such as this!

Okay, first off, I LOVE this game. It's spooky and fun, and it's probably one of my favourites.

HOWEVER. I have gotten completely stuck, and there are no online guides or anything. I wish I could keep playing, but I've tried mapping out the section I got lost in and it's just too expansive. So if anyone has beaten the cave section, please help I am losing my mind, I want to keep playing this game :(

It's a very unique game that does ambient horror VERY well. The story is interestingly conveyed and makes me hunger for more. My only significant complaints are that the stealth gameplay isn't super developed and there's really intriguing secrets in the game that only feel half-developed and lead nowhere. But yes! I like it.

Fantastic sound design and visual aesthetics more than make up for the basic gameplay and occasional technical issues. Brighter Day is a short-but-sweet little horror game that kept my attention for its entire ~1hr run time. I may just have to go back and get all of the tarot cards.

Also, the giant eyeballs at the end are genuinely frightening. Sent shivers down my spine.

Brighter Day has to be one of the most unique and experimental horror games of its time. Great use of environmental storytelling makes exploring this world and finding its secrets engaging, and it still manages to be spooky despite eschewing the night-time aesthetic of the average horror game

I love both sides to this game. I love the cutesy but creepy gameplay, and I love how deep you have to go to find the lore and backstory. Although this game is 6 years old I just want the developer to know how much I enjoyed your game.

It's alright. First time going through the game can take ages. I can understand why people quit when they got to the caves. It's a very simplistic and short game. There's not much else to be said about it. I recommend it if obscure horror games are your thing, otherwise I'd look elsewhere. Also the game is piss easy to speedrun. I'm terrible with speedrunning, but I was able to beat the game in less than 5 minutes.

this is a very good game! the sounds the eyes made when they were nearby was actually pretty scary. when you first start, if you have no prior knowledge it can be hard to get going. the tunnel stage is definitely a little difficult but overall really interesting! you find out the overarching story when you go through all the rooms, and the computers definitely give more background as to whats going on. the stickers are pretty damn hard to get, and i had a quite a bit of trouble finding them. overall, good, pretty scary game :]

Though it may seem lighthearted, it is rather scary and I love it. They'll sneak up on you if you're not paying attention and I like that. Also, it is hard and you have to search and pay attention to your surroundings, memorizing certain things to be used later. Overall, 10/10

I wanted to like this game, I get the whole exploration thing but I still gave up after spending copious amounts of time running around in some convoluted tunnel system like a headless chicken, after that I never touched this game again.

Yeah... It's is one of those 'Where the f**k do I go?' type of games, where you easily get lost and quickly lose interest like I had. I know I'm being too harsh on this small indie game, but what makes a horror/exploration game engaging is to have more stuff happening, in a slightly more linear, slightly branched-out level design. I'm no game designer or someone who's patient, but at least give the player some direction and a reason to keep going on, because I like to see more of this game's '1950's Manhattan experiment site' type of setting, idk.

"Brighter Day" is a short first-person stealth adventure with a unique setting, creepy atmosphere, room for exploration, and clunky controls.

You start in a small room and see a giant floating eyeball patrol the hallway outside. If you sneak past the eyeball, you'll find more rooms, all containing little more than a bed, a shower room, small boxes with pills, and a number above the door. If the eyeball sees you and gets close enough, the chapter resets and you start again in your room.

From exploring the building, you get some clues about what is happening, and learn that you need to flee. You also find ways to distract or paralyze the eyes, and you'll notice that they emit a humming noise that can warn you of their approach. Gameplay mostly involves dealing with the eyes in several different ways, but there are also a few very basic puzzles to solve, secrets to discover, and collectibles to find.

The game never tells you where to go, you have to explore to find the exit. Personally I appreciated this, but be aware that it _does_ lead to situations where you run around aimlessly and don't know what's expected from you.

With only 4 chapters in total (and 2 of them very short), there isn't much content in this game, but what's there is original and interesting. The story turns out to be _very_ dark once you fully understand it, but won't make much sense after reaching the end for the first time. Once you do, the game shows you the locations of 22 collectibles. You can then start a new game, obtain the collectibles you've been missing, and gain a deeper understanding. Additional information can be gleaned from series of wall drawings, which - if interpreted correctly - even tell you about a way to defeat the eyes.

The game uses bright, stylized graphics, which is quite unique in a genre that's focused on stealth. While it shows that the game is a low-budget, one-person indie title, it nevertheless makes good use of visuals and sound to create an immersive experience.

Unfortunately the controls are a bit clunky, which can be frustrating in scenes that require precise movement. It's easy to overshoot, and sometimes that leads to an immediate death, which then causes the entire chapter to restart. There are also practically no usability features - keys are locked to WASD plus E and F and cannot be rebound, and there's no FOV slider or y-axis inversion. You cannot save manually, and the game autosaves only at the start of a chapter. At least there are three save slots available.

While Brighter Day definitely has its flaws, I still recommend it for its original setting and unique atmosphere. It's also very fairly priced.

"The Most Colourful Horror you will ever play!"

In the same vain that Bryan Forbes wanted to make a day time horror film just to prove that it could be done and this lead to the classic 1975 film 'Stepford Wives'. So too, a single Chicago Developer known as 'The Loneliest Pixel' https://theloneliestpixel.com/ Aka 'Princess Axolotl' https://twitter.com/princessaxolotl set out to prove to herself and the world that she could make a horror game filled with bright colours.

It must have taken a lot of balls to not only set yourself this challenge, but also to successfully accomplish it, and it did... eyeballs. Heaps of them. The premise of the story is that you '204' suddenly become conscious to the fact that you are stranded inside a healing clinic which has become overrun by these inter-dimensional beings ... giant levitating eyeballs ... which like to decapitate their prey. The clinic seems to have been already evacuated, but thanks to '209' who was blessed with prophesy saw a future where you '204' would locate and destroy the nest and free him by influencing the current timeline. To make sure this prophesy comes true, he prints an employee manifesto at the back of a deck of bunny tarot cards he has and hides them in places that he knows only 204 could find. He also draws four prophetic drawings in the tunnels of the nest and a trail of bunnies which only 204 would be able to decipher. Collecting all 22 tarot cards will present an Easter egg at the end of the game in regards to 209 as prophesied.

This developer is extremely cute and intelligent, she has an overactive imagination which engulfs you into her lore and world. Her passion for making games and love for life spill out continually into her animated kingdoms and become extremely contagious to the adult child in each one of us. Her enthusiasm for making games is never without a level of restraint as she always tries earnestly to deliver value for product. She doesn't just want to make games. She wants to make GOOD games. Games that she will be remembered for, worlds and lore’s which only she can be the princess to.

I'm by no means stating that this game was perfect. One of my biggest gripes is that you can bypass the whole game without actually fulfilling any prophecy, without actually destroying the nest. So you can understand my dismay, since destroying the nest is extremely hard and laborious, I was extremely disappointed that destroying the nest does not really lead to any special ending that I could see. The only trivial special ending is the Easter egg you get at the end of the game when you collect all 22 cards.

Furthermore, I was slightly disappointed that the lore I discovered about the game regarding the special relationship that 204 had with 209 and with Rosemary and John was not actually in the game itself, but more so on the developer's twitter feed. The envisioned concepts that so neatly wrap up the happenings inside the clinic should be discoverable in the game itself, not just on a feed.

Finally there are many unanswered questions, like what happened with 216? What's in his room? Does 204 meet up with 209? With her parents? What's the deal with the big crystals in the rooms? What’s the difference between light outside and the light pouring down the well? Why do I sound like a beach ball?

The menacing eyeballs will have you ripping your hair out at times, every time they catch and engulf you, they send you back to start of each chapter. Personally I wished for two things. One, that there was an extra save, one that recorded and saved the action where you have flooded light down the deathly well. The second thing I wished, is that I could have nuked the whole entire nest with light. Just drop a few light monoliths onto the giant eyeball or something and explode them. I wanted the giant eyeball dead. I wanted those menacing eyeballs outside obliterated. I have so much hatred for eyeballs now thanks to this game that I’m walking around everywhere in real life staring at the floor and walking into walls, stubbing my toes and just shuddering that moment that I once again look up and see an eye.

With these gripes placed aside, I have no doubt that 209 named this game. Why you ask? Because with its amazing lore, with its colourful secrets, with its kingdom needing to be freed from an ominous nemesis, this game was extremely prophetic, it definitely gave me a 'Brighter Day'.

https://youtu.be/TmBSGOL4gRM

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I have beaten the game, my thoughts after I beat it was this is a fucking masterpiece.The art style, the layout and the tarot cards sold me the fact that it is just a fucking masterpiece.

I saw Markiplier play this game and I thought I would go and check it out, once I got a device that could play it properly. I was not disappointed with the choice of buying this game! The eyeballs that float around the place are simply designed, yet somehow, still manage to make me nearly have a heart attack when one appears in front of me, seemingly out of nowhere! The music really contrasts with the atmosphere, as it is calming and I like how there are sounds to everything, even when you're walking! It is way worth the asking price! It delivers on the scares, has calming music and it has provided me with hours of fun and scares!

A great game that prooves that game design trumps realism in horror just like other game genres, I feel as if you get so much more than a 3 dollar experience, adn I would have gladly paid 10 dollars for this game if it were that price.

Brighter Day does a great job of breaking the atmosphere of modern day horror games, only if the game did a better job of direction or progress that made itself not another run of the mill horror game.

The game just drops you into a room with no instructions on what to do or where to go, which seems fitting for the game since there is no dialogue and all the effects in this game seem to be conducted by a MIDI synth. A lot of the designs and interactions with objects in the game are unique and pretty left field and I really enjoyed what it had for that. The game itself however, wasn't enjoyable to me or didn't give me the motivation to really be all that interested in progressing through a lengthy maze portion of the game or to collect all of these tarot cards for what I guess shows a message of some sort. This game would've done better if it did have some sort of explanation on what to do, or at least make itself more interesting with the assets that it had with encountering the eyes that chase you in the game. At times it felt like I was running away from the eyes and couldn't pull off sneaking pass them as much as I hoped for. This game has some minor bugs, such as the A.I. of the eyes suddenly freezing or dropping to the ground rolling away, but this game just came out and I'm sure the developer will do something about it in the future.

Overall I would not recommend this game to anyone who thinks this would stand out from other horror games, it's just another (but more prettier and intriguing) run-from-monsters horror game with a kick ass sound design at best.

I am looking forward to what Lonliest Pixel has to offer in the future.

Is this a horror game? Maybe. I guess. In the same way Sonic the Hedgehog is a horror game for imprisoning cute baby animals inside armed steel caskets and forcing them to kill or in the way that much of Ecco the Dolphin is an extended drowning simulator. It only really horrifies if you linger on the deeper idea of several dozen eyeballs pursuing you around the grounds of a medical facility.
It is an entertaining distraction for the asking price. Not a difficult game once you realise that you can sprint and jump past most of the enemies, thereby eliminating the stealth mechanic that it hinges on, but one that at least tries to unnerve you with something besides zombies or ghosts.
Feel free to check out my run through below.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5eVYyzrl-Bo

It's very short, and the controls are a bit clunky, but I enjoyed it. The horror factor was there, although it wore off kinda quickly. I haven't figured out what happens when all of the tarot cards are collected, so there might be some content I haven't seen yet, but I was able to complete the game in just under an hour and a half.

Brighter Day could have been expanded on quite a bit, but it's still a neat little game worth checking out for the price.

EDIT: After collecting all of the tarot cards, there is a bit more depth to the game as it really forces you to explore everywhere, which brings you to some places and things you could easily miss.

Only played a half hour of this so far and I have to say it is chalk full of interesting gameplay. From the way the sound effects work with the environment to how you open doors this game screams all kinds of suspense while managing to preserve a great flow. I look forward to playing deeper into it soon.

For what it is I'd say it's worth paying a couple bucks to have it in your collection.

Warning: hard as nails stealth.