Blank Slate

**Blank Slate** is the first public game released by AestheticGamer which was originally made for Ludum Dare 26 under the theme of *"Minimalism"*. It was released for free on April 29th, 2013 following the conclusion of the event.

## Plot

Blank Slate features the story of The Boy as he leaves the decaying household he lives in and ventures through the White Zone. As he passes through, he sees many abnormal and surreal occurrences. His journey ends after meeting his "Mother", who looks exactly like the entities found in The Factory from Close Your Eyes: Redux Final Expansion.

## Synopsis

The game starts with The Boy asking for help, while being in a dark void. After this scene, you are teleported into the house, where you can interact with various objects. Outside the house, there is the White Zone, a strange place filled with puzzles. In order to proceed, you must find the key, which is obtained by solving a musical puzzle.

Once you get the Quaver Key and advance on the path, the screen becomes dimly lit and a low-pitched voice can be heard in the background. What follows next is a chasing scene combined with another musical puzzle. This time, however, upon reaching the end of the right path, you will see a monster drawn on the wall, followed by the screen glitching. You are then teleported back into the house. As the timer goes down, the screen becomes more and more red, and in the end, a face of a monster can be observed. It is unknown if it's Mother's face, but there are some similarities between them.

After this scene, you are teleported to the next puzzle, where you meet the Grave Bird. It complains that humans are selfish and greedy, since they eat its fish but keep wanting more, and therefore, it eats the greedy humans. However, it ate an innocent person by accident. If you find out which grave belongs to the innocent person, the anchor blocking the exit is lifted, and you can proceed.

In the next phase, you appear to be in a sort of apartment complex hallway, that has doors labeled "Lobby", "101", "102" and "ICE". The Lobby room has a giant hole in the ground where the player can jump in. The ICE room has an unplugged ice machine which oddly seems to be working. A strange gray substance can be seen smeared on the wall, leading from the ice machine to a spot where apparently a body once was. A hand will suddenly appear on screen and the room becomes dim as a low pitched voice starts playing in the background. A similar event can be found in Red Haze in the ICE room near Edmund's closet.

If the player decides to jump into the pit from Lobby room, they will end up in a strange place that resembles The Factory from Close Your Eyes: Redux. There, you must solve one final puzzle. After this, you are free to roam around the place. Upon returning to the fountain, The Mother will rip one of Boy's arms, to which he will replay with a "T-T-Tha-Thank y-you, M-mom".

## Trivia

A video from the game development can be found on AestheticGamer's YouTube channel here. The title screen read "Ludum Dare", and the selection menu looked different from the final output.

## Download

http://ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-26/?action=preview&uid=22278