Knock-knock, The Fae, and Revisiting Games as Text
In 2013, Ice-Pick Lodge, a Russian game developer, released the horror game Knock-knock to international markets. It’s one of those games that rattles around in my brain from time to time. I’ve never quite played a game like it before or since.
The mechanic is based on three cycles in the night. In the first part, you wake up and think something is wrong. You wander your house, room to room, replacing the lightbulbs that have mysteriously all burned out in your house. Time is frozen until you manually wind up a grandfather clock in the last room.
The second cycle is a walk in the woods. You are checking the area around your house. You know something is out there and want to make sure your house is safe. The path is different every time and you can see mysterious shadows in the distance.
The third cycle is where the game puts you in danger. You wake up again in your house and everything is different. Something has come inside. It has hidden your own furniture and objects from you in the dark. Not only do you need to replace the lightbulbs to see, you need to make it to dawn when the creatures leave your house. If you hide from them, time goes backwards. If they touch you, time goes back 12 hours. If enough touch you, you lose your mind and have to restart the third cycle.
I’ve begun replaying the game on my Twitch stream and noticed so many things I didn’t when the game released. The big one is what, exactly, these invaders could be.
Fairies, specifically the Fae, are a recurring figure in various pagan and witchcraft practices around the world. There are various rules and ideas that define how to interact with them if you choose to. A few of the key identifying factors are major parts of this story.
First, you have to interact with the Fae to get the Fae to notice you. Second, they can be a bit mischievous at times, specifically moving or taking things that belong to you when they want your attention. Third, they want to know your real name. This creates a stronger bond, even a pact, and can pull you under their influence.
In Knock-knock, you discover that your character is the third generation of his family to live in this mysterious ever-changing house in the woods. He used to play in the woods as a child where he made friends with the creatures that no one else could see. He constantly visits the forest, taking samples of the various life and conditions.
I’ve already described how things are disappearing in the house. A major plot point is that your character’s journal is taken by the things in the woods. They tear it apart, leaving him notes that demand he do things to fulfill his destiny.
Finally, the sound design in the game plays with the name element. You have voices whispering in your ears about the game, about you hiding from them, and demanding you reveal your name. That is the one thing your character never reveals. Even as things go terribly wrong and literal monsters emerge from the shadows, you never give them your name. They may be fighting to push you to the end of your life, but your name is one secret you keep for yourself.
For me, the sign of a great game is replay value. You want to be able to revisit the text and learn new things. For some games, it’s alternate routes or different character options. For games like Knock-knock, it’s the ability to quite literally read new meaning in the text of the game.
You can appreciate it as a haunted house story. You can read the Fae into it. You can read other figures of international folklore or urban legend into it. You can read it as a metaphor for untreated mental wellness issues. There is so much depth to the storytelling even as the game mechanic creates cycles of cycles with only minor additions on each new night.
Knock-knock is available on PC, Xbox One, PS4, Mac, and Linux.
