Indigo Park by Mason Myers

This is the first installment in a larger concept that mimes Five Nights at Freddy’s with a crumbling children’s amusement location being picked through by your player character and terrorized by rotting animatronic monstrosities running amok. I was curious about the decision of adapting Disneyland as opposed to Chuck E. Cheese as most Freddy’s-like horror games do. Horror that centers on animatronics befit Chuck E. Cheese: crude, cheap, rusty and grinding metal frames. Stuttering animations that cause the figure to shake into place after every move. Characters meant to delight children being flayed by time and twisted through their decay into nightmare fuel. Disney is known for their endeavors in the field of animatronics, as was detailed in the always excellent Defunctland channel, but Disneyland as a park is focused on other amusements more. Animatronics gone rabid and a lonely AI squire do not comfortably sit amidst a Disneyland facsimile. The suspension of disbelief is also pushed further given the square mileage of a park this size being abandoned and left to decay. The introductory video, unsettling in its unreality, is a clear emulation of Walt Disney and his opening speech when Disneyland opened in 1955. I am puzzled by the animatronic angle given there is robust information available on the original terrifying costumes worn by humans when Disneyland first opened. Why not make the park occupied by former employees in outfits such as those?

The game itself is raw. Understandable being the effort of a first time game maker. That developer is Mason Myers, a YouTuber, Twitch streamer, and now game developer who began making Indigo Park after trying to recreate Garten of Banban after playing through it for content. It is the conventional horror game: you travel from A to B, experiencing the thrill of not knowing what is around the corner. There is a plain “match the symbols” puzzle, and an “escape a monster chasing you” sequence, and extended periods of simply walking and chewing on the dilapidated scenery. Annoyingly I had to watch the final five minutes of the episode as I kept failing the final chase. Instant failure if caught and being dumped at the beginning of a maze of tunnels forces memorization of the correct route at each junction. I kept trying but just could not seem to outrun the crazed duck creature.

Rambley the Raccoon as the AI mascot of the park chaperoning you along the horrors is a charismatic character. His art and animations and voicework are sharp and alleviate the frustration with the final stretch. Lloyd the Lion’s mainstage was the highlight as it was a very tense walk navigating the maze of the backstage area, unsure when Lloyd would next appear to attempt to kill me. Child’s entertainment gone wrong continues to be fertile grounds for horror and this game being free and coming from a popular youtuber accounts for its popularity. Indigo Park is a good first effort and has me attentive towards Chapter 2 which is in development according to the latest teaser from Myers.