Nocturn

***6/18/2023***

Hey, so, I'm not really sure how to start this. I'm posting this because I remembered an old piece of lost media, specifically a video game. I can't remember when it came out, somewhere around the early 2000s I think, but I swear it existed. The game was called Nocturn, a supposed lost indie title.

If you go looking for it, you'll find nothing, and that's what's so weird to me. Everything about the game has been wiped from the internet, and not many people seem to either remember it or even know what It is.

The only surviving remnants of the game that I have are some really old screenshots I've collected, along with the original cover art, which I'll upload to go with this post. Anyway, from what I remember, Nocturn was an unfinished RPG that had some horror elements to it.

If you go looking for it, you'll find nothing, and that's what's so weird to me. Everything about the game has been wiped from the internet, and not many people seem to either remember it or even know what It is.

The only surviving remnants of the game that I have are some really old screenshots I've collected, along with the original cover art, which I'll upload to go with this post. Anyway, from what I remember, Nocturn was an unfinished RPG that had some horror elements to it.

In the game, you play as a little boy named Nathan, who had a lighter and a weird stitched up teddy bear. In the game, you start out in this grassy field with a road next to it. In the field, there are a bunch of flowers scattered around.

When leaving the area, you'll find the first NPC you encounter, who is this armless creature with big black eyes. When walking up to him, he tells you his name is Donnie, and then tells you how he wishes he had arms so that he could hug people. He goes on to tell the player to be careful of 'The Forest', and to bring a light with you to stay away from 'The Shadow Man'.

Continuing onward down the street, you'll meet the next NPC, a girl in a red dress. When talking to her, her name is revealed to be Katelyn, and she is apparently a friend of Nathan. She then points out a lighter on the ground and tells the player that they can have it to keep. Taking the lighter will then prompt you to go into the next part of the game, which was a dark forest. If I remember right, you run into some monsters that try to attack you. Then you run back to Katelyn, and she helps you fight the monsters.

I can't exactly remember what the main story of the game was, but it would lead to you having a party with Katelyn and Donnie, going to different strange places in the game that were really trippy.

Since the game is so mysterious, It's kind of an urban legend now. I remember back in the day, a couple people I met online who were also searching for it discussed the strange character that was referenced by Donnie, 'The Shadow Man'. In two of the screenshots I have, there appears to be this shadow character.

It was said by some people that the Shadow Man was a strange entity that would show up at random points throughout the game, not in any specific places, but just anywhere around the game world's map.

The Shadow Man is all black, except for him having these large, light blue eyes. It was believed by some people that, due to the Shadow Man's behavior, it was some kind of hoax or something. Some people would make up stories how he was a kind of ghost or something. Apparently, whenever you find the Shadow Man and try to walk up to him, the screen will distort, and you will be teleported to a strange, dark location.

When exploring this location, you can find random items floating around, and the player will be stuck in this place until they reset the game.

It's not really known why the game was unfinished. Like I said, you can barely find anything about it online, but theories range from development hell to bad work environments. The only thing known about the game's development is that it was created by a now defunct game company called 'Yenellow Games'.

Just like with Nocturn, you cannot find very much about the company, or anything about the developers who worked on the game.

There were some play testers of the game who apparently talked about their experience with Nocturn. They stated that there were strange sounds and hiccups in the audio of the game, and after playing, the testers felt nausea. Theories ranging from audio frequencies and the game being cursed have also been thrown around, but nobody is really sure.