“What you see before you is not exactly what one would call a game. It is more like an interactive meditation, reenacted from scattered evidence, that happened to fall into our hands.”
This sentence explains perfectly the nature of Knock-Knock, an independent videogames made like a found footage. If you are curious about the gameplay and more general info about Knock-Knock, you can check my previous article (An insomnia simulator in an Escherian nightmare).
The game is playing with the mind and the reality of the player. What is real? What is based on common knowledge and what is totally invented? There is a constant and mysterious flow of information that the game feeds to the player in the form of questions and dialogues directed addressed to him, pages of a diary, random scattered information and mysterious rules of games to play at night.
The last feature is one of the most interesting example of meta-gaming. At the end of each night, the player will receive a mysterious letter with the description and the rules of a creepy game to play during the night. These games are somehow related with the plot and the mythology of Knock-Knock, but totally unconnected with the expressive form of the videogames. They are more like urban legends, creepy-pastas or folkloric rituals, something to try to experience outside the videogame. They are ancient games hidden inside a videogame. The interesting thing is that they truly look believable, maybe based on real Russian traditions (the software house Ice Pick Lodge came from Russia), but at the same time they fit inside the mythology and the atmosphere of the videogame Knock-Knock.
Who inspired who?
One of the common topics of these “games inside the game” are the Guests, mysterious things that live in the night and in the darkness. Some of the games allow you to take contact with these entities.
Who created the games to play at night? Are they based on true folklore? Are they totally invented for Knock-Knock?
In a direct question to Ice Pick Lodge about the existence of “the games to be played at night”, the answer is cryptic and in line with the atmosphere of the game: “It’s a big secret, no one knows.”
The only sure thing is that the games to be played at night are a perfect executed concept to expand the creepiness of a horror game beyond the limits of the interactive fourth wall. When reading the rules of these cryptic games I found myself scared and at the same time intrigued, asking myself about the origin of the games and if I am enough brave to truly play them in the real life.
I will post now the descriptions of almost all the games to play at night. The images carry the original descriptions of the games as they appear in Knock-Knock, so read them carefully if you want to understand the rules.
Will you be enough brave to play them? These are games to be played in the dark.
- The face of a new guest
There is something truly and deeply scary in the concept of explore all your house while putting all the lights on. The last sentence is particularly chilling “If you imagine a face, that being will come to live in your home”. Seriously, not sure if this is something I would like.
- A guest outside the window
Watching outside of the window in the complete darkness is always an action able to trigger an uncomfortable response in every human being. Playing this game will also allow to “something” to watch at you through the darkness.
- Resettlement
An easy wishing game to play 1 hour before dawn. But what will happen if the door is not more closed? Whatever thing should enter, the player is no longer the Living. Literally or metaphorically?
- A home on the edge
Easy to play and less creepy than the other games. However, the consequences of “A home on the edge” are more serious than the player could imagine. See the next games to understand the dangers of continue to play these games.
- A dinner with the Invisible
The explanation of the table and the Guests is too detailed to be believable, but the game itself is creepy and intriguing. Imagine to turn off all the lights and open all the doors, then imagine to wait in the darkness that something will shut one of the doors… chills all over the back.
- Welcome the Guests
Starting from this point the games to be played at night start to be less potentially folkloric and more integrated into the dynamic and the setting of the videogame. The idea to imagine the Guests at a mysterious table is anyway an interesting and disturbing concept.
- Everything is alive
So you made all the games and now you can play with the Guests that you invited. Was it a good choice? This game can explain what is happening in Knock-Knock, giving one possible interpretation to its surreal plot.
- The Guests want to play a game
Now it is the turn of the player to experience the games of the Guests, a dangerous and deadly game almost impossible to win. Is this Knock-Knock?
If you are still reading I have some questions for you. Which game to play at night is the scariest? Did you ever play or listen to one of these games? Would you play to one of them?
Surreal and Creepy 
Will I get killed?
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