Insomnia: Theater in the Head

You think counting sheep helps?

Rrrriiing!! Rrrriiiing!!! High-pitched, air-splitting sound pierces your skull. Ugh! Another day?!? Rise and rot away... You think you’re awake, but are you really? There’s a persistent fog over your dead eyes, coating everything with blurry veneer (if only it could hide your eyebags, too). You’re watching the world from behind the veil. In this undefined state between waking and undreaming you’re dragging through the motions: school, work, gaming, another sleepless night... Rinse, repeat: you’re a perfect automaton, citizen (which is like a zombie, but more sci-fi).

We’ve all been there, tossing and turning, flipping and tossing some more... Just when you really, really need that elusive oblivion sleep brings, it won’t come. The unquiet mind has other plans tonight, again. The stage is set. “I’m exhausted. I’m excited.” “I have to go to work tomorrow... Just take the day off.” How can you sleep with all these new ideas that need your attention right now lest they get lost in the mind void forever... Tick-tock. Does a clock tick or tock? Either way, time is steadily dying to the beat of a metronome, the tune of time.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2904951789

Insomnia: Theater in the Head is such a charmingly relatable point’n’click puzzle game with great flow and rhythm to it. From inner dialogue to various puzzles and back, chapter to chapter, there’s an infectious musicality to the progression as you go from superficial distractions like social media annoyances (how can I sleep when someone’s wrong on the internet?) to intrusive recollections and mingled memories (remember your first day at school? Ugh, better not) to deeper anxieties and regrets, and traumas you thought you could hold in forever. Puzzles aren’t really that challenging once you know what’s asked of you. They’re more intuitive than brain-wrecking and rely heavily on the flow... of the little ball going through contraptions, being pushed forward, not knowing where it wants to go... The emphasis here is on the narrative relevance and I found it to be a nice balance; not hard, but far from boring, simple and effective. It’s a short, but endlessly endearing game that can be finished in a brush stroke.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2904956924

As the mind becomes a battlefield between expectations and the fear of losing itself amidst uncertainties, straying and searching, a tireless knitter knits a new idea or two, to leave something behind. And so, after another sleepless night, between waking and dreaming, I was left with this sketch of a review... for better or worse.

Kyaa, look at the time!! Eh, it’s but a number. Now I can sleep tight. Good night! 💤🌙

Knitted by Drugoja In The Undreaming

A short, but sweet, point and click experience that will take about an hour and is a journey through the mind of a woman who can't sleep at night.

Dialog is clicked through, on screen, without voice-overs and the music and sounds fit the mood of each segment. The game is divided into brief chapters, each with a puzzler. The trick is clicking on objects to understand what is going on and then figuring out what is needed to complete each sequence. For the most part, this involves moving objects around or clicking to change elements in the scene. There is no inventory. The art is interesting and the mechanics are simple but unique.

While most achievements are story-related, those that can be missed are easily figured out by reading their descriptions on the store page. The game saves on exit, but I am not sure that progress within an individual chapter is saved. However, chapters are short and you can return to any that you have previously completed.

All in all, it is a solid effort by a small development team and the price is certainly reasonable.

Insomnia: Theatre in the Head is an interesting examination of why we sometimes cannot get to sleep. The game plays out like a theatre show in the mind of a professional woman, watching her struggle with her conscience, memories, and day to day occurrences, which are preventing her from sleeping.

There’s lots of themes discussed, plenty of them relatable, and it’s done in an interactive way with lots of bizarre and incomprehensible puzzles and point and click mini games. The brain can be a funny thing, and manifest all sorts of weird and wonderful events, and Insomnia: Theatre in the head is certainly eccentric and champions all those unexplainable thoughts that don’t make any sense.

Some people have terrible insomnia and sometimes it’s just unexplainable why it happens. The game tries to identify some of the reasons exploring modern life, embarrassing moments, and just silly things like did I lock the front door?

It’s all played out in her head with her conscience playing devils advocate and encouraging her to think about these things whilst all she wants to do is get a good night’s sleep so she can feel refreshed for work in the morning.

It works really well and the mini games fit perfectly into the subject matter being discussed.

Graphics and sound enhance the experience with some lovely artwork and imaginative scenes.

Check out the game play video for more of an idea.

https://youtu.be/qyPr7-Mei60

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