BILEVIEW

Download for Windows:

Itch.io

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Game Jolt

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Glorious Trainwrecks

A small picture frame opens up on your computer screen. It is controlled by the mouse. Move around your screen and try to find the monster that is trembling and crying in the darkness. There are six monsters total, but you'll only be able to see one on each playthrough, and even then you only get to see a small portion of them at a time, since the picture frame is so tiny. What are they looking at... ?

I was inspired to make Bileview after reading the description for a different game that sounded like it would work the way this one does, but didn't. The name of that game is lost to time (for me - it's probably way more popular than Bileview in reality, whatever it is). I actually get a lot of game ideas that way, misunderstanding the description of a game's mechanics, imagining how cool they would be, and then deciding I'll make it myself when it turns out it doesn't play that way at all.

Bileview is the first game I released under the name Scroungin' 4 Catsup, although it isn't the first game I worked on. I had already been working on Pitch and Putt Club intermittently for over a year. Pitch and Putt Club was a long project, and I wanted to break myself out of the mindset that all game development needed to be long term and loaded with lots of content, so I intentionally limited myself when it came to working on Bileview: I could only work on it for a day, and it had to be something that was simple to play without a ton of features.

I think it took around six hours to make, with most of that time spent doing the little drawings of the monsters. I made all of the sound effects myself as well. I don't remember how I made all of them exactly, but I do know one involved me pulling back the tab on an open Arizona iced tea and letting it go to cause a little "clank" sound that I distorted in Audacity. Another was rubbing my hands across a birthday balloon and, again, distorting it in Audacity. Two are me making weird noises and pitch-shifting them down. There's six cries in total so I guess I was wrong, I can remember how I made "most" of them.

I'm very happy with how Bileview turned out. I do consider returning to it every now and then when I have an idea for new monsters. I don't know if I'll update this game or create some kind of sequel (which I think I'm avoiding doing as of this writing, just because I don't currently have many games to my name, and I'd rather release new things than revisit older ideas yet).

One monster I wanted to put in the game but didn't was something that had its head shoved in the ground the way an ostrich would and in another part of the screen you'd find it's head sticking up out of the ground, like something out of a Bugs Bunny cartoon. Perhaps I'll add that someday... but I won't tell anybody in order to keep it a surprise.