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User:Captain Galaxy/The Exit 8

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The Exit 8
Game's logo
Developer(s)Kotake Create
Publisher(s)Kotake Create
Playism (Switch version)
EngineUnreal Engine 5
Platform(s)Microsoft Windows, Nintendo Switch
Release
  • Microsoft Windows
  • 29 November 2023
  • Nintendo Switch
  • 17 April 2024
Genre(s)Walking sim, horror, puzzle
Mode(s)Single-player

The Exit 8[a] is a 2023 walking simulator-based puzzle horror video game developed and published by Japanese indie developer Kotake Create.[b] The game revolves around the player walking through a Japanese metro station passageways, trying to spot inaccuracies to reach the exit of the station. The game was released on Steam on 29 November 2023 and was later released for Nintendo Switch on 17 April 2024 under the publisher Playism.

'The Exit 8 took nine months to develop and was designed to be made in a short amount of time and on a low budget. The game was inspired by the "surreal" atmosphere of underground passageways as well as the Japanese horror game I'm on Observation Duty which inspired the game's looping mechanic. The setting was modelled after several Japanese metro stations, including the Kiyosumi-shirakawa Station in Koto, Tokyo.

The Exit 8 received positive reviews. In the wake of the game's release, many games released that took heavy inspiration from Exit 8 and were subsequently dubbed "Exit 8-likes". A sequel to the game called Platform 8 was released in May 2024.

Gameplay

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The Exit 8 is a first-person three-dimensional (3D) walking simulator type game with elements of puzzle and psychological horror. Inspired by the concept of liminal spaces such as The Backrooms, the game is set in a passageway of the Japanese metro.[1] Every time the player exits the passageway, the passageway seems to repeat seemingly forever with even a passer-by appearing to be caught in the loop.[2] The core gameplay of The Exit 8 is similar to games like spot the difference, where the player must look out for and identify anomalies in the room's layout.[3] If there are no anomalies, the player should proceed down the corridor; whereas if there is an anomaly, the player should turn around and walk the way they came.[4] The player needs to be correct eight times in a row to reach the end of the station.[5] Should the player be incorrect with the assessment of a given room layout, their progress will reset back to Exit 0. Additionally, the aforementioned passer-by acts as a timer. If the passer-by makes it to the end of the passageway before the player leaves, the passageway will automatically loop regardless if the player is right in their assessment or not.[6]

Anomalies in the game can range from subtle differences such as different messages on signs, repeating poster designs, proportion differences with the passer-by or power outages.[7] Certain anomalies can actually reset the player's progress should they not turn back quick enough such as a flood of red water or a man camouflaged as the wall tiles that will chase after the player if they get too close.[8]

Development and release

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Development

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A picture of Kiyosumi-shirakawa Station, a location many players have compared to the passageway in the game.[9]

The Exit 8 was developed by Japanese indie developer Kotake Create,[b] also known as Kotakenotokeke, who developed the game in Unreal Engine 5. The game was created during Kotake Create's years-long development of another game without releasing anything, which makes them upset.[10] In an interview with Japanese website Game Makers, Kotake Create stated that the game took over nine months to develop, split between six months of planning and prototyping and three months of final development.[3][11] Kotake Create stated that they love the surreal atmosphere of underground passageways, which inspires them to created a game based on loops. Another influence for the looping mechanic during development was the 2021 adventure game Twelve Minutes, which featured a mechanic where the events of the game would loop after twelve minutes. One of the main inspirations for The Exit 8 came from I'm on Observation Duty, a horror game based on surveillance cameras and finding anomalies, which makes them realize that spot the difference could integrate well with horror themes.[10] Additionally the mechanic of security camera footage reminded them of a looping video, another influence for the looping mechanic.[11]

When making the anomalies for the game, Kotake Create stated they wanted to keep the anomalies at "borderline horror" and "unsettling", citing anomaly inspiration stemming from works such as P.T. and The Shining.[11] During development of the game, early concepts on how to deal with the anomalies included taking pictures of the anomalies using a camera or shooting the anomalies with a gun, which Kotake Create believed didn't match the game's setting. Additionally, due to wanting to keep the development of the game short and low budget, they opted instead to incorporate the "proceed or turn back" mechanic.[3]

Following questions made by BuzzFeed Japan and Game Makers, Kotake Create mentioned that the hallway the game is set in was modelled after a real location although declined to name the station in question to avoid causing the station trouble.[11] Speaking further, they mentioned that an art installation in Kiyosumi-shirakawa Station directly inspired one of the anomalies in the game.[12] The art installation in-question are diagonal ceiling lights randomly scattered across the ceiling of a hallway which is meant to "resemble the hustle and bustle going on above the ground".[13][14]

Release

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The game was first announced on 3 November 2023 with a trailer posted on the developer's twitter account, with the release planned for later that month in both Japanese and English.[15] The Exit 8 would release worldwide on Steam on 29 November 2023.[16] A few days after release, Kotake Create would release a patch for the game to fix an exploit that allowed the player to glitch to the end of the game in under one minute.[17] During the Japanese broadcast of a Nintendo Indie World presentation on 17 April 2024, the game was subsequently released on the same day worldwide for the Nintendo Switch.[18][19] This version of the game was published by Japanese publishing company Playism.[20]

Future

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Following the success of the game, Kotake Create became a freelance developer after quitting their job as 3D artist at an undisclosed video game developer.[11]In an interview with Japanese website Game*Spark following the release of The Exit 8, Kotake Create mentioned the possibility of creating a sequel to the game, stating that they would rather make a new game instead of updating the original with new anomalies.[21][10] In a subsequent interview with GameMakers, Kotake Create mentioned that they were considering soliciting real-world advertisements as opposed to the fictional advertisements seen in Exit 8 to "reduce the operating costs".[11] This would later be added upon in late-February 2024, where the developer sent an announcement on their Twitter account that they would be accepting submissions for these guest advertisements to appear in a sequel to The Exit 8.[22] In the following month, Kotake Create launched a Steam page for the sequel under the name Platform 8, with a release window of between "the end of April or beginning of May".[23] Unlike its predecessor, Platform 8 is set on a train that never ends, where the player must spot anomalies to escape the train. The game released on Steam worldwide on May 31, 2024.[24][25] Following the release of Platform 8, Kotake Create stated that they do not want to make anymore sequels in this series, feeling that they are satisfied with the games and wanted to continue working on Strange Shadows, the horror adventure game whose development paused during their development of The Exit 8, planned for 2025.[26]

Reception

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Critical reception

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Sales

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Upon the release of the game, it was announced that the game had sold 30,000 copies within the first day.[28] By April 17, Kotake Create announced that the Steam release of the game sold 500,000 copies.[29]

Two days after the release of the game on Nintendo Switch The Exit 8 became the top most downloaded switch game that week in Japan, beating out games such as Bunny Garden and Suika Game.[30]

Impact

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Following the release of The Exit 8, an influx of indie games inspired by the premise of the game became available online. Dubbed "Exit 8-like" by both news outlets and the developer themselves,[31] these game feature similar or even identical gameplay to Exit 8 but often set in a different environment and often trying to capture the liminal space aesthetic with examples such a shopping centre, hospital or subway trains.[32] One such game, called "0th Floor -The cursed elevator to Floor 0 -", has the game set in an elevator and has the players looking for anomalies on different floors of a building, all of which has a different setting.[33] Some of these Exit 8-likes leaned more into the more horror aspect of the gameplay, such as adding paranormal entities such as monsters and ghosts.[34] One of the more unique Exit 8-likes is "Track No. 9", a two-dimensional pixelated art-style adventure game where the player searches for 34 anomalies on a subway platform.[35]

In response to the the large amount of "copycats", Kotake Create expressed that they do not condone the use of thumbnails or titles on gameplay videos of Exit 8-like games that could be seen as connections to the original game.[36] Additionally the developer shared links to some Exit 8-likes that they were looking forward to and stated that "as a developer, I think it is absolutely ok to make a new game that “puts a new spin on existing games,” as long as it isn’t exactly the same setting or gameplay system etc".[31] One of the most notable examples of this was The Exit 9, which was released on the PlayStation Store in January 2024. Due to the game's strong likeness to The Exit 8, it caused online fans of the game to ask Kotake Create about the copycat to which they denied any involvement with The Exit 9. Verity Townsend from Automaton Media speculated that the developers of the copycat were taking advantage of the fact that the original game was not released on consoles.[37]

Automaton Media reported that following the release of the game, fans online had grown affectionate to the NPC passer-by seen in the game and had created works in his image such as fan art or recreating the character in games like Phantasy Star Online 2 or Soulcalibur VI.[2] Described as a middle-aged man with a receding hairline and dressed in work clothes and a briefcase, the passer-by only walks down the hallway and can occasionally be one of the game's many anomalies,[8] but never actually interacts with the player. Speculating as to why some fans felt so passionate towards the character, the article's author, Hideaki Fujiwara, believed that due to the NPC being the only other real person in the game,[c] fans see the passer-by as a "source of security and familiarity for the player" which the feelings would then continue to build. Seeing as the player has to scrutinise every aspect of the game in order to spot anomalies, they add that it would cause players to notice certain qualities of the passer-by, describing the man as having a "sleeper build". Alternatively, Fujiwara also posited the idea the feelings may derive from the "mere-exposure effect", which caused players to like the character just from walking past them over and over. When questioned about the character, Kotake Create mentioned that they had also become attached to the man during development and liked reading comments about the man from players in reviews.[2] They also noted that the man is the largest 3D model in the game at around 140,000 polygons.[11] The character returned in the game's sequel, Platform 8.[24]

In mid-April 2024, Japanese pharmaceutical company Earth Corporation [ja] (アース製薬) launched a web commercial parodying the game to advertise their mouthwash product, Mondamin.[38][39] Due to a mistake on the company's Twitter account, Kotake Create responded to users stating that the commercial was not done in collaboration and instead merely granted permission for the company to parody the game.[40][41]

Notes

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  1. ^ Japanese: 8番出口, Hepburn: 8-Ban deguchi
  2. ^ a b Stylised as KOTAKE CREATE
  3. ^ Not counting the ones that appear in anomalies.

References

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  1. ^ Scullion, Chris (6 November 2023). "A new liminal horror game has players trying to escape an endless Japanese subway". Video Games Chronicle. Retrieved 2 June 2024.
  2. ^ a b c Fujiwara, Hideaki (15 December 2023). "The Exit 8 players get thirst trapped by middle-aged NPC man". Automaton Media. Retrieved 17 June 2024.
  3. ^ a b c Vjestica, Amber (14 February 2024). "The Exit 8 dev reveals how he made a top-selling Steam game in UE5 in 9 months". Automaton Media. Retrieved 2 June 2024.
  4. ^ "『8番出口』攻略＆レビュー：異変だらけの不気味な地下通路から脱出するためのルール・方法とは？（ネタバレあり）【電撃インディー#514】". Dengeki Online (in Japanese). 12 December 2023. Retrieved 13 June 2024.
  5. ^ Helm, Jordan (18 December 2023). "The Exit 8's Psychological Meddling Offers A Fascinating Proof of Concept". Hardcore Gamer. Retrieved 2 June 2024.
  6. ^ Thorn, Ed (9 January 2024). "The Exit 8 perfectly captures the surreal horror of navigating a busy tube station". Rock Paper Shotgun. Retrieved 2 June 2024.
  7. ^ Kawase, Ayuo (8 December 2023). "The Exit 8: Is the anomaly-spotting horror game so tricky players are mistakenly reporting a bug?". Automaton Media. Retrieved 18 June 2024.
  8. ^ a b Roffe, Christina (22 December 2023). "The Exit 8: All Possible Anomalies". Game Rant. Retrieved 2 June 2024.
  9. ^ Townsend, Verity (5 December 2023). "The Exit 8 shines light on real-life Japanese stations' creepy passageways". Automaton Media. Retrieved 6 June 2024.
  10. ^ a b c "一躍ミームに、話題の短編ホラー間違い探しシム『8番出口』地下通路以外が舞台の"続編"可能性も！？【開発者インタビュー】". Game*Spark (in Japanese). 11 December 2023. Retrieved 3 June 2024.
  11. ^ a b c d e f g Kamiyama, Daiki; Sakai, Rie; Iida, Haru (14 February 2024). "『8番出口』のおじさんは約14万ポリゴン。モデル＝清澄白河駅説の真相は？開発者に制作過程をインタビュー". Game Makers (in Japanese). Retrieved 13 June 2024. Cite error: The named reference "GameMakers" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
  12. ^ keitoarai (28 December 2023). "ゲーム『8番出口』にそっくりすぎる地下通路が発見され「かなり8番出口かも」と話題に。「もうここがモデルでは？」と作者に聞くと…". BuzzFeed Japan (in Japanese). Retrieved 13 June 2024.
  13. ^ Townsend, Verity (11 January 2024). "The Exit 8 has been creepily recreated in "live-action" video". Automaton Media. Retrieved 13 June 2024.
  14. ^ "【路上感撮】散らばる蛍光灯　地下通路に不思議な空間". Sankei (in Japanese). 7 November 2016. Retrieved 13 June 2024.
  15. ^ Sato, Koutaro (6 November 2023). "Escape the "backrooms" of a Japanese subway station in upcoming UE5 indie game". Automaton Media. Retrieved 4 June 2024.
  16. ^ Romano, Sal (17 April 2024). "The Exit 8 now available for Switch". Gematsu. Retrieved 4 June 2024.
  17. ^ Townsend, Verity (12 December 2023). "Speedrunners are glitching their way through The Exit 8 in less than a minute". Automaton Media. Retrieved 14 June 2024.
  18. ^ Hagues, Alana (17 April 2024). "Round Up: All The Games You Missed From Japan's Indie World Showcase (April 2024)". Nintendo Life. Retrieved 4 June 2024.
  19. ^ SKY (17 April 2024). "「8番出口」がNintendo Switchで本日配信。異変を見つけたら引き返し，8番出口を目指せ". 4Gamer (in Japanese). Retrieved 4 June 2024.
  20. ^ Okada, Yuka (18 April 2024). "マジか！　人気ゲーム「8番出口」Switch版がいきなりリリース". ITmedia (in Japanese). Retrieved 4 June 2024.
  21. ^ Vjestica, Amber (12 December 2023). "The Exit 8 developer mentions possibility of a sequel". Automaton Media. Retrieved 3 June 2024.
  22. ^ Yamanaka, Taijiro (23 February 2024). "The Exit 8 dev is looking for real ads to add realistic vibes to the game's sequel". Automaton Media. Retrieved 3 June 2024.
  23. ^ Yokoyama, Keiichi (1 April 2024). "The Exit 8's official sequel finally announced". Retrieved 3 June 2024.
  24. ^ a b Fujiwara, Hideako (31 May 2024). "The Exit 8 creator releases official sequel "Platform 8", with similar backroom vibes and new gameplay". Automaton Media. Retrieved 3 June 2024.
  25. ^ Romano, Sal (31 May 2024). "The Exit 8 sequel Platform 8 now available for PC". Gematsu. Retrieved 3 June 2024.
  26. ^ Yamanaka, Taijiro (3 June 2024). "The Exit 8 and Platform 8 will have no further sequels – developer is working on a horror adventure title slated for 2025". Automaton Media. Retrieved 4 June 2024.
  27. ^ Lada, Jenni (27 April 2024). "Review: The Exit 8 Is Both Comfy and Unsettling on the Switch". Siliconera. Retrieved 1 June 2024.
  28. ^ Kawase, Ayuo (1 December 2023). "Latest Steam hit horror game The Exit 8 sells over 30,000 copies within a day of release". Automaton Media. Retrieved 14 June 2024.
  29. ^ "Switch版『8番出口』が本日（4/17）配信開始。異変を見つけて延々と続く地下通路から脱出せよ。PC版売上50万本超ホラームードの間違い探し。470円【インディーワールド】". Famitsu (in Japanese). 18 April 2024. Retrieved 8 June 2024.
  30. ^ Nishiwaki, Takeshi (19 April 2024). "SwitchのDLランキングに「8番出口」「バニーガーデン」が1位2位に登場！ 「スイカゲーム」を抜く". Game Impress Watch (in Japanese). Retrieved 8 June 2024.
  31. ^ a b Keiichi, Yokoyama (25 December 2023). "The Exit 8 developer expresses surprising opinion on copycat games". Automaton Media. Retrieved 9 June 2024.
  32. ^ Vjestica, Amber (26 January 2024). "Chilla's Art announces new anomaly-spotting horror game inspired by The Exit 8". Automaton Media. Retrieved 9 June 2024.
    Yamanaka, Taijiro (9 February 2024). "Exit 8-like horror walking sim has you trapped in the liminal space of a shopping center". Automaton Media. Retrieved 9 June 2024.
    Basho (6 March 2024). "8番出口やEscape Roomの影響を受けた「Hospital 666」，Steamで配信開始。最大4人の協力プレイで666階を目指そう". 4Gamer (in Japanese). Retrieved 9 June 2024.
    Yamanaka, Taijiro (20 December 2023). "The Exit 8 inspires train-hopping subway escape game Station 5". Automaton Media. Retrieved 9 June 2024.
  33. ^ Townsend, Verity (4 April 2024). "Keep calm and escape a dodgy elevator in this cursed Exit 8-like". Automaton Media. Retrieved 12 June 2024.
  34. ^ "『迷央8丁目』恐怖を前にしても絶対に引き返せない『8番出口』ライクホラーゲーム。Steamストアページが公開、2024年6月ごろにリリース". Famitsu (in Japanese). 24 April 2024. Retrieved 12 June 2024.
    Basho (12 April 2024). "8番出口ライクのびっくり系ホラーゲーム「霊室」，本日配信開始。プレイヤーを脅かす怖い霊現象を鎮めていこう". 4Gamer (in Japanese). Retrieved 12 June 2024.
  35. ^ Townsend, Verity (27 March 2024). "Escape an Exit 8-like looping train platform in this free-to-play Japanese browser game". Automaton Media. Retrieved 12 June 2024.
  36. ^ Yamanaka, Taijiro (11 January 2024). "地下道歩きホラー『8番出口』開発者、似たゲームの実況動画に「◯◯版8番出口」などのタイトルをつけないでとお願い。ライクはOKだけど紛らわしいのはダメ". Automaton Media (in Japanese). Retrieved 12 June 2024.
  37. ^ Townsend, Verity (29 January 2024). "The Exit 8 developer denies involvement with "The Exit 9" copycat game". Automaton Media. Retrieved 12 June 2024.
  38. ^ Yasuda, Shunsuke (12 April 2024). "モンダミン、「８番出口」パロディのWEBCMを公開。コピーは「異変のないお口にするために。」". Game Watch Impress (in Japanese). Retrieved 13 June 2024.
  39. ^ AruTaka (12 April 2024). "アース製薬が「8番出口」をパロディ。"お口クチュクチュ"しながら大量のおじさんが迫ってくる新CMを公開". 4Gamer (in Japanese). Retrieved 13 June 2024.
  40. ^ "アース製薬の「モ番出口」、実はコラボではなくパロディだった　「8番出口」開発者が明らかに". ITmedia (in Japanese). 13 April 2024. Retrieved 13 June 2024.
  41. ^ ""異変のない"お口に…アース製薬が『8番出口』と「モンダミン」のパロディCMを公開！おじさんたちがお口クチュクチュ". Inside Games (in Japanese). 13 April 2024. Retrieved 13 June 2024.
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