September 1999 locks players in a room and a hallway, whispering unsettling tales with visual clues, distorted visions, and frightening sounds.
Awareness comes to you as you find yourself staring into a picture of a bird in September 1999, and while that sounds soothing, it’s anything but. The close-up vision of a bird, and the pattern in its feathers, seems off in the gloom of a room you’ll come to know very well over the game’s short play time. Your vision, fuzzy with a static filter like watching an old home movie, makes things look off. It’s a discomforting effect, but developer 98demake (also developer of Ok/Normal) is only getting started.
You’ll wander through a hallway that grows more uncomfortable and troubling every few minutes as new sounds and visuals change the narrative of this seemingly-lonely place. Steadily, it will unveil its story without ever saying a word, only asking that you pay attention to its clues to find the meaning behind it all.
With a duration of five and a half minutes, September 1999 takes the player on an unsettling journey both slow and deliberate, yet also at a breakneck pace. You’re free to meander through the place and take in its dreadful meanings, but all the while, the clock ticks your time down as it shifts over several days. Things seem to be happening outside of your control. Visions and sounds carry dark meanings. It’s a heady nightmare that leaves you struggling for sense and safety as it closes, and suddenly far, far more aware of the creakings of your own home when it’s over.
September 1999 is available for free on Itch.io and Steam (although you can donate to its developer’s Patreon).
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