Innovative, progressive, and spectacular are all words that can be used to describe What Linus Bruckman Sees When His Eyes Are Closed.

Today is the third anniversary of the release of What Linus Bruckman Sees When His Eyes Are Closed. Over the course of those three years, around 50,000 people have downloaded the game (and some of them even played it!) and 160 people have added their names to the online Hall of Completion. So roughly one person for every 300 downloads completes the game. So it’s hard! Or uninteresting… Or both!

When I made the game, I knew it was going to be one that some would love and some would simply be uninterested in, and the reaction that I’ve got via email, blog comments, and forum posts have pretty much backed that up.

I’m incredibly proud of the game, and wanted to give people who didn’t complete the game the chance to see the ending, and I think after three years it’s ok to do that. People who actually go through the challenge of completing the game still have the exclusive privilege to add their names to the Hall of Completion, though!

So this is what you would see if you have completed both halves of the story to unlock all the subtitles and then play the game all the way through again, solving both halves simultaneously. Enjoy!

And if you haven’t tried the game, download it now!

linus.rar (42.6 MB) or linus.zip (71.4 MB)

And get the awesome soundtrack by Nikolas Sideris!

linus_soundtrack.zip (6.8 MB)

I also did quite a bit of work on Erin’s Nanobots over the last few months, which is going to be a real treat for adventure gamers. So, if you’re wondering what the deal is with that, we got to… oh… I’d say 95% and then Erin got all buried in the end of her education. I suppose if she thinks that graduating college is more important than finishing a freeware adventure game that is going to increase her internet-fame, then so be it. Personally, I think she needs to get her priorities straight, but whatevs. As soon as she’s back in working condition, we’re going to finish up the ending animations and tack on a tutorial and send it out for public consumption.

Finally, I was just going to, at long last, remove the link to Independent Adventuring from the long untended list of links in the sidebar when I noticed that after a year of nothing, he’s just posted up three new reviews in the last week! That’s right. Jozef is back! So if you like reading really insightful reviews of indie adventures, Yesterday’s Salad has got some new (or old, depending on how you look at it) competition!

And, I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention that one of those reviews was a very positive review of Linus! Check it out!

Click on to the interview. And leave a comment on their page saying you want more indie developer interviews!

Burn!

Seriously, though. If I had known that Linus was up for the vote, I would have paid you people to go vote. Or at least done so myself. Oh well. Top ten, baby!

The Anna review points out the game’s roots in classic speculative fiction and gives nice props all around.

The graphics do a perfect job of setting the mood. Set in gray-scale with smooth (but spartan) animations and parallax, the overall effect is a kind of neo-noir, perfectly conveying the sterility of the clean-room in which Anna’s hardware is housed (and the action is set). The audio is similarly sparse, but it evokes a definite claustrophobia; perfect for when the computer controlling the life support on your tiny space station is shutting down or on the verge of going bonkers.

The Linus review takes a different tact, offering two side by side reviews to mimic the game itself. One reviewer quite positive, the other having fun and calling me pretentious. It’s a pretty funny read.

Admittedly, the graphics are nice. Yet, what’s with putting half of the game in Japanese? Does he figure that most gamers worth their salt have worn through the Criterion Collection’s Kurosawa archive? Or perhaps he thinks that the average gamer’s brain is made of Twiglets and is relatively pliable? Seriously, though the independent-gaming press seems to be eating this game up, I can’t help but wonder if it’s just because they don’t “get” the game and are deathly afraid of appearing that way.

Yesterday’s Salad has become the number one site for freeware adventure reviews lately. I’m looking forward to lots more!

Mentisworks has posted a list of 27 truly artistic independent games, and guess who made two of them!

Anna’s minimalism ranked a respectable #20, while Linus’ split-personalities snagged the #9 spot!

And they’re in great company, too. (Nifflas? Orsinal? Raph? Yay!)

They had previously run a nice review of Spooks, but I wasn’t expecting to see a review of Linus on the site. I thought Linus was too short to warrant any attention from adventure gamedom’s flagship site. But what an amazing review it is.

Glowing. Probably too much so.

[H]e has created what is arguably the most innovative adventure game of recent years.

If it all sounds too clever by half, be assured that Vince Twelve has taken the split-screen gimmick and built a solid, rewarding game around it. Indeed, while the whole is greater than the sum of the parts, those parts could proudly stand on their own without the unifying conceit.

[A]ll the menus, intros, end sequences and credits also exhibit impeccable visual design.

With a cleverly written story and dialogue, finely tuned gameplay, and an abundance of fresh ideas, Linus is a must-try game for all adventure lovers.

I’m struggling to find anything negative to say about the game.

Too much? No, not at all! Please continue.

The game is a tour de force of programming, and not just a milestone in Underground creativity, but one of the most original adventure games ever made.

Ok… I don’t know about it being a “tour de force of programming,” being scripted (albeit quite cleverly) in a freeware game engine. But damn I love this review…

He does pick on the name of the game, but with a name like “Gunnar Harboe,” is he really allowed to? (I kid, I kid!)

Thanks Gunnar for that amazingly flattering review!

Linus Bruckman has been added

40% of the results are decided by player voting, so head over there and give Linus a vote. And while you’re at it, try out another one of my favorites: the brilliant Gesundheit!

A Free Game for The Insane…
In the features of this title, one line sums it up. “Gods, aliens, samurai, and Charlton Heston.” Crazy huh? Welcome to [What]Linus Bruckman Sees When His Eyes Are Closed, a free game that’s bound to make you scratch your head in puzzlement. You play two adventure games at the same time, one from the future and another as a samurai. If you aren’t confused yet, wait until your dads gambling problem puts the family burger company in trouble and you must release a fallen god. Yes, really.

I wish they had bothered to somewhere link back to this website so that people who didn’t want to register for their site could still download it, but still, it’s exceedingly cool to be mentioned in a list that includes America’s Army, F.E.A.R., Anarchy Online, and Puzzle Pirates.

Thanks for the heads up, Gavin!