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A recent discovery after randomly going through my Steam Discovery Queue is What Never Was, a short and free story-driven adventure game from Acke Hallgren. The game originally released back in January, with Linux support landing in April.

Sometime in the late 2000s, Howard James Wright - an old but kind man - perishes. Leaving behind him many adventures, relics he's collected over the years as well as books authored, he is also leaving Sarah, his granddaughter behind.

Having to shoulder the arduous task of clearing out her grandfathers attic, she is soon to find that not everything about her grandfathers attic is what it seems.

What Never Was is a short, story-driven first-person game focused on exploration and puzzle-solving.

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Seems like a really well-made but very short experience, considering how nicely it's done I'm quite keen to see more from Acke Hallgren. Since it is super short, I won't go into a lot of detail about it as it would be too easy to spoil, one you need to experience for yourself.

The good news is that due to the positive reception, work on What Never Was: Chapter II has been confirmed. They're not going to do a Kickstarter since they already have a full-time job, instead they're simply taking donations on PayPal. Considering this short game took them years to make, it might be a while, although they did say it might take far less time now they have the framework ready thanks to this release.

You can find it on Steam and itch.io for free.

Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
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6 comments

riusma May 29, 2019
Played it some weeks ago, imho the first person view needs a bit more polishing for immersion (it's too "rigid" for my taste) and the "quality of life" in the inventory could be also improved (the game needs a manual rotation because now you have to wait during the slooooow automatic rotation if you want to see the other side of an object)... but it could become a good game as it is a nice "proof of concept" (note that the key remapping wasn't working for me)! :)
callcifer May 29, 2019
Very interesting, looks like The Room but with a proper story.
Kimyrielle May 29, 2019
What a nice little gem! Good find, Liam! :)
Liam Dawe May 29, 2019
Quoting: KimyrielleWhat a nice little gem! Good find, Liam! :)
It's interesting, as I've seen a great many people say discovery is an issue on Steam and that the discovery queue does nothing and yet even someone like me (who goes over hundreds a month) is able to find new games with it...
mylka May 29, 2019
Quoting: liamdawe
Quoting: KimyrielleWhat a nice little gem! Good find, Liam! :)
It's interesting, as I've seen a great many people say discovery is an issue on Steam and that the discovery queue does nothing and yet even someone like me (who goes over hundreds a month) is able to find new games with it...

do ppl really search for new games on steam?
i read news sites, or watch youtube videos from ppl who find them for me

anyways. does this game really use VULKAN? my gallium hud isnt working, so there isnt OpenGL
if so... even they can do it. why cant others like WAR THUNDER do it too
Dragunov May 30, 2019
Quoting: liamdawe
Quoting: KimyrielleWhat a nice little gem! Good find, Liam! :)
It's interesting, as I've seen a great many people say discovery is an issue on Steam and that the discovery queue does nothing and yet even someone like me (who goes over hundreds a month) is able to find new games with it...


I can find "new" games no problem, the hard part is finding "good" games that are worth spending my hard-earned money on. Everyone has different tastes too. What one person thinks is good, another may think is horrendous. I agree with this one though, good find.
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