Blink

Blink is a puzzle platformer where players view the world through an eye with a mysterious power. The core mechanic involves closing your eyes to shift into a world where light is frozen in place and becomes as solid as the ground. Players must solve mind-bending puzzles by manipulating lights and blinking between these two realities to overcome obstacles. The game features hand-drawn landscapes and tasks players with uncovering the secrets behind this strange blinking ability.

Blink: A Flicker of Genius in the Indie Puzzle-Platformer Pantheon

In the vast and often derivative landscape of indie puzzle-platformers, a game must possess a truly singular hook to escape the gravitational pull of obscurity. Blink, the 2017 debut from student-turned-developer studio nextReality Games, not only has such a hook but builds an entire, intriguingly somber world upon it. It is a title that exemplifies both the boundless creativity of small development teams and the inherent limitations they face, a brief but memorable spark in the indie game constellation.

Introduction: The Afterimage of an Idea

We blink upwards of twenty times a minute, an unconscious biological process that briefly severs our visual connection to reality. Blink asks a simple, brilliant question: what if, in that momentary darkness, the world did not disappear but transformed? What if the lingering afterimages burned onto our retinas became a tangible, navigable reality? This is the high-concept premise that fuels nextReality’s intriguing, if occasionally unpolished, foray into game design. More than just a clever mechanic, it is the very soul of the experience—a thesis on perception, reality, and the light that defines both. This review will argue that while Blink may not achieve the polished perfection or narrative depth of its genre’s titans, its innovative core concept and thoughtful puzzle design cement its place as a fascinating and worthy curio in the annals of indie development.

Development History & Context: From Classroom to Steam

Blink is a quintessential story of modern indie development. As noted by a Dutch review from Gameplay (Benelux), the project began as the work of two students who first gained recognition by entering it into an international indie game competition. This success provided the springboard to formally establish nextReality Games and rapidly shepherd their creation through Steam Greenlight, culminating in a release on March 10, 2017, for Windows and Mac.

The gaming landscape of 2017 was dominated by big-budget open-world epics and the continued rise of the “indie darling,” games like Hollow Knight and Cuphead that set a new bar for quality and ambition. Into this crowded field stepped Blink, a game built not on a massive budget but on a single, potent idea. The technological constraints were likely those of a small team: the choice of a pixel art aesthetic was practical, allowing for detailed, hand-drawn landscapes without the need for extensive 3D modeling or animation teams. The developers’ vision was clear from the outset—to explore the puzzle possibilities of a core mechanic rooted in the manipulation of light and perception, a concept that required more ingenuity than graphical horsepower.

Narrative & Thematic Deep Dive: A Simple Quest in a Strange Land

The narrative of Blink is, by most critical accounts, its most conventional element. The setup is archetypal: you control a young, scarf-clad protagonist whose father has mysteriously vanished. The quest to find him leads to an interaction with an ancient, enigmatic civilization—represented by a mysterious, flaming blue eye—that grants the child a strange power and guides them on their path.

As the reviewer from Save or Quit succinctly put it, the story “goes exactly where you’d expect it; there are no surprises here.” It is a functional framework, a familiar trope used to propel the player through the game’s beautifully hand-drawn environments—underground ruins, ancient towers, and floating cities. The plot serves the gameplay, not the other way around. Where the narrative succeeds is in its atmosphere. The somber tone, the silent protagonist, and the eerie communications with the ancient “Eye” create a pervasive sense of melancholy and mystery. The themes are not explicitly complex but are deeply intertwined with the mechanics: the nature of perception, the duality of reality, and the idea of seeing the unseen. The story is about learning to view the world in a fundamentally different way, which is, of course, the literal objective of the game itself.

Gameplay Mechanics & Systems: Walking on Sunshine

The gameplay of Blink is where its heart beats strongest. The core loop is built upon a brilliant duality mechanic. The player exists in a standard, fully-rendered world. However, by holding down the “Blink” button, the character closes their eyes. The normal world vanishes, becoming invisible and intangible. What remains are the afterimages of any brightly lit objects—burned onto the retina as solid, luminous platforms against a void of black.

This creates a fascinating puzzle dynamic. In the “eyes-open” state, the player must manipulate the environment: flipping switches, rotating light sources, and carrying lanterns to illuminate specific objects. In the “eyes-closed” state, they navigate these frozen beams of light to cross chasms, reach higher platforms, and bypass obstacles. The mechanic is intuitive yet possesses immense depth. Reviewers noted that new puzzle elements are introduced at a steady clip, consistently asking the player to think in this dual-layered way.

The game is not without its mechanical quirks. The “blinking” state has a time limit, indicated by a rising synthetic hum that replaces the ambient music—a sound design choice some found jarring. Furthermore, the implementation of light is “done in a slightly funky way: light is manifested by circles one can hop on,” but it works effectively within the game’s 2D side-scrolling perspective. Control is direct and simple, primarily involving movement, jumping, and the blink command. For a game with essentially two action buttons, it extracts a remarkable variety of challenges. The developers proudly tout one feature in the official description: “No box pushing puzzles!”—a welcome deviation from genre norms.

World-Building, Art & Sound: A Hand-Drawn Dream

The world of Blink is presented through a meticulously hand-drawn pixel art style. The visuals are a point of contention among critics; they are detailed and possess a certain charm, particularly in the animation of the scarf-clad protagonist, but are also described as “evidently unprofessional in quality.” There are reported technical issues, such as the camera zooming out without the resolution scaling properly, reminding the player of the game’s small-scale origins.

Yet, this art style effectively serves the game’s atmosphere. The landscapes feel ancient and forgotten, a perfect canvas for the interplay of light and shadow that is central to the gameplay. The sound design, composed by Ryan Sligh, is described as “somber and peaceful,” if somewhat forgettable. The aforementioned decision to have the music cut out abruptly during blinking, replaced by the warning hum, is the soundtrack’s most divisive element. While functionally sound, it disrupts the otherwise ethereal atmosphere the game works hard to build. Overall, the presentation successfully creates a cohesive, melancholic mood that complements the lonely journey of its protagonist.

Reception & Legacy: A Metascore of 71 and a Niche Influence

Upon release, Blink garnered a Metascore of 71 based on four critic reviews, indicating “mixed or average” reception. The consensus was remarkably uniform. GameGrin (7.5/10) praised its “innovative and quirky” premise, noting “echoes of the great 8 and 16 bit platformers.” CD-Action (70/100) called it a “typical representative of the indie scene with intriguing visuals and one notable gameplay idea. Simple yet enjoyable.” GameSpew (7/10) concluded that in a crowded field, “it’s tough to stick out from the crowd but Blink definitely does.”

The most insightful critique came from Save or Quit, which drew an inevitable comparison to the 2012 indie game Closure, which also used light-as-platforms in a more hardcore, existential way. The reviewer felt Blink “takes the fundamental principle of Closure, but layers on the mechanic of duality,” ultimately finding it “a good game, but not a great one.” Its legacy is thus one of a noteworthy, if not groundbreaking, entry in the puzzle-platformer genre. It demonstrated a compelling mechanic executed with competence and heart. It proved that a student project could find an audience on digital storefronts and that a single idea, if strong enough, can fuel an entire experience. Its direct influence may be limited, but it stands as a testament to the creative potential that continues to drive the indie scene.

Conclusion: A Solid Foundation for a Fleeting Vision

Blink is a game of compelling contrasts. It is a student project with AAA-level ambition in its core concept. It features a generic narrative backdrop against a stunningly original mechanical foreground. Its presentation can feel unpolished, yet its puzzles are thoughtfully designed.

The final verdict is that Blink is a success within its own constraints. It is a short (roughly two-hour), focused experience that introduces a fantastic mechanic and explores it thoroughly without overstaying its welcome. It does not redefine the genre like Braid or Fez, nor does it achieve the atmospheric mastery of LIMBO. However, for players fascinated by inventive puzzle design and the unique interplay of light and platforming, Blink offers a satisfying and memorable journey. It is the video game equivalent of a vivid afterimage—a fleeting impression that, due to its sheer uniqueness, lingers in the mind long after the screen has gone dark.