Evan’s Remains

Evan’s Remains is a puzzle-platformer and visual novel hybrid set on a mysterious island. Players take on the role of a young woman named Dysis, who is sent to this island to find a missing genius named Evan. The game seamlessly blends challenging, logic-based platforming puzzles with a deep and gripping narrative that unfolds through visual novel segments, exploring dark themes and a story that is difficult to put down.

Evan’s Remains: A Meticulous Examination of a Modern Indie Enigma

As a professional game journalist and historian, it is my duty to dissect and preserve the legacies of titles that dare to blend genres and challenge narrative conventions. Evan’s Remains, developed by the Argentine solo developer Matías Schmied (under the alias maitan69) and published by Whitethorn Digital in 2020, stands as a poignant, if flawed, testament to the power of indie storytelling. It is a game that wears its heart on its sleeve, a meticulously crafted experience that intertwines logic-based platform puzzles with a deeply emotional, convoluted visual novel narrative. This review will serve as an exhaustive historical record and critical analysis of this unique title.

Development History & Context

The Vision of a Solo Auteur
Evan’s Remains is a quintessential example of auteur-driven game development. Matías Schmied served as the primary creative force behind nearly every aspect of the game: he was the sole writer, game designer, main programmer, lead artist, and primary composer. This singular vision, developed using the GameMaker engine, resulted in a cohesive, if intensely personal, experience. The game’s development was a labor of love, a fact evident in its meticulous pixel art and thoughtfully constructed narrative.

Schmied’s vision was heavily inspired by Japanese graphic adventure games and visual novels, a influence directly referenced in the game’s full Japanese title, エヴァンの残したもの (Evu~an no nokoshita mono), which translates to “What Evan Left Behind.” This wasn’t merely an aesthetic choice; it informed the entire narrative structure, character naming conventions, and thematic depth.

The 2020 Indie Landscape
Released on June 11, 2020, across Windows, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch, Evan’s Remains entered a gaming landscape dominated by big-budget releases and a saturated indie market. Its release price of $6.99 positioned it as a short, impactful experience rather than a lengthy epic. In an era where players were seeking deep, narrative-driven experiences, Evan’s Remains offered a compact story that asked significant philosophical questions about life, death, and the ethics of compassion.

Narrative & Thematic Deep Dive

A Deceptively Simple Premise
The game begins with a classic mystery setup: a girl named Dysis is dispatched by the enigmatic corporation Up-Bring to a remote, uninhabited island in the Pacific. Her mission is to find Evan, a boy genius who vanished years prior and has suddenly resurfaced via a letter requesting her specifically. The island is strewn with ancient monoliths that serve as intricate platforming puzzles.

The Unraveling Mystery
The narrative quickly subverts expectations. Dysis is not alone; she meets a quiet, terminally ill boy named Clover, who is deciphering the monoliths in a desperate search for an artifact he believes can cure his infant sister, Dysis, of the same hereditary disease that killed their father. The story masterfully drip-feeds information through flashbacks and conversations, building a palpable sense of intrigue.

The Wham Twists and Thematic Weight
The game’s narrative is defined by two monumental plot twists that radically reframe the entire experience:
1. The Reveal: “Evan Goldstein” is not a real person but a fabricated persona and mascot for Up-Bring, primarily portrayed by a young man named Vincent Vaal, while the actual scientific work was done by his friend, the morally ambiguous Andre Aeger.
2. The Decoy Protagonist: In the game’s final act, the perspective shifts from Dysis to Vincent. The entire mission was an elaborate fabrication orchestrated by Andre. Clover’s sister had already died. Andre, with Vincent’s reluctant compliance, manipulated the island’s technology and hired Dysis (who shared the sister’s name) to deceive Clover into believing he had succeeded, allowing him to “Let Them Die Happy.”

A Tapestry of Profound Themes
The narrative grapples with heavy, mature themes:
* The “Hard Truth” Aesop: The game posits that life is inherently unfair, and tragedy can befall the most innocent. The true message of the island’s monoliths was that immortality is impossible—a crushing truth Andre sought to shield Clover from.
* Moral Ambiguity: Andre’s actions are the core of the game’s ethical dilemma. Is it monstrous to lie to and ultimately euthanize a dying child to grant him a peaceful death, or is it a twisted act of profound compassion? The game refuses to provide an easy answer, leaving the player to sit with this discomfort.
* The Weight of Existence: Clover, wise beyond his years due to his illness, serves as a vehicle for existential musings on what makes life meaningful when faced with its inevitable end.

Critique of the Narrative
While ambitious and emotionally resonant, the narrative is not without its flaws. As noted by critics from Adventure Gamers and Third Coast Review, the final act becomes overly expository and convoluted. The story’s rapid introduction of sci-fi elements (teleportation technology, corporate conspiracies) can cause “narrative whiplash,” abandoning the subtle emotional build-up for a complex info-dump. Furthermore, Clover’s stoic nature, while justified, can make it difficult for players to form a deep emotional connection with him, as noted in the KeenGamer review.

Gameplay Mechanics & Systems

The Puzzle Core: Elegant Simplicity
The gameplay of Evan’s Remains is a stark, minimalist counterpoint to its dense narrative. It is a puzzle-platformer in the purest sense. Each “room” is a self-contained puzzle centered on a monolith that must be surmounted. The mechanics are introduced gradually:
* Disappearing Platforms: Standard blocks that vanish after you jump off them.
* Toggle Blocks: Switches that change the state of all other platforms from solid to invisible and vice versa.
* Teleport Blocks: Platforms that warp Dysis to a corresponding block.
* Trampolines: Blocks that launch Dysis based on falling momentum.
* Slider/Transformer Blocks: Platforms that reposition or change the type of other blocks.

Philosophy of Design: Accessibility Over Challenge
The genius of the puzzle design lies not in brutal difficulty but in elegant, logical problem-solving. The puzzles are clever and require thoughtful sequencing, but they are rarely frustrating. This is by design; the game includes a “Skip Puzzle” option in the pause menu, openly acknowledging that the narrative is the primary draw for many players. This design philosophy ensures the story remains accessible to all, though it may disappoint players seeking a significant mechanical challenge. Reviews from Slant Magazine and Geeky Hobbies noted that most puzzles could be solved in minutes, with only a few requiring extended thought.

A Seamless, if Simple, Interface
The controls are impeccably tight and responsive, whether using a keyboard or a gamepad. The UI is minimalist, never intruding on the game’s beautiful visuals. The only notable criticism, from a user review on Metacritic, was the inability to rebind keyboard keys—a small but notable oversight for PC accessibility.

World-Building, Art & Sound

A World of Contrasting Beauty
The art direction is arguably the game’s most universally praised aspect. Schmied’s pixel art is breathtaking. The game contrasts two distinct worlds:
1. The Island: Lush, vibrant, and alive. Sun-drenched beaches with rolling waves, fields of crimson poppy flowers, and mysterious ruins are rendered with stunning detail and fluid animation. Backgrounds are multi-layered parallax scrolls teeming with small details like floating butterflies and falling leaves.
2. The Flashbacks: Dreary, muted, and claustrophobic. The suburban home of Clover and Vincent is depicted in stark, gloomy tones, emphasizing the weight of their reality versus the hopeful fantasy of the island.

Soundtrack as an Emotional Anchor
The soundtrack, primarily composed by Schmied with contributions from Tomás Batista, is a masterclass in ambient, emotional scoring. The main theme, “Ephemeral,” is a melancholic acoustic piece that perfectly encapsulates the game’s themes of transient beauty and loss. The music is never intrusive but consistently effective at setting a somber, reflective, or mysterious tone. As the Buried Treasure review stated, the fact that one developer was responsible for this entire audio-visual package is “astounding.”

Reception & Legacy

Critical Reception: A Divided Consensus
Evan’s Remains received a generally favorable but mixed critical response, earning a Metascore of 75 on PC and a MobyScore of 7.0.
* Praise was overwhelmingly directed at its beautiful art, atmospheric sound design, clever puzzle mechanics, and the emotional ambition of its story. outlets like Noisy Pixel (80%) and Marooners’ Rock (80%) called it “entrancing” and “beautiful.”
* Criticism almost universally focused on the narrative’s third-act stumble into convolution and exposition. Adventure Gamers (70%) noted it “devolves into a straight visual novel,” while Shacknews (7/10) felt it “squandered” its interesting premise. The short length (3-4 hours) was also a frequent point of discussion.

Legacy: A Cult Classic
Commercially, Evan’s Remains was a modest success, finding its audience among players who appreciate story-driven indies. Its legacy is that of a cult classic—a game remembered more for its bold narrative ambitions and stunning presentation than for its flawless execution.

Its influence can be seen in the continued trend of indie games that blend genres to tell deeply personal, often melancholic stories. It stands as a testament to the power of a single developer’s vision and a compelling case study in how to use gameplay mechanics not just as a challenge, but as a pacing device for a narrative. While it may not have achieved the widespread acclaim of titles like Braid or Celeste, it occupies a unique and respected niche in the pantheon of indie puzzle-platformers.

Conclusion

Evan’s Remains is a game of profound contrasts. It is a beautifully simple puzzle game wrapped in an unbearably complex human story. It is a work of stunning visual artistry paired with a narrative that occasionally trips over its own ambition. It is a game that asks uncomfortable ethical questions and provides no easy answers, leaving the player to sit with a lingering, bittersweet melancholy.

Matías Schmied created something genuinely unique: a game that is less about the challenge of its puzzles and more about the emotional weight of the story they punctuate. While its narrative ambitions may ultimately exceed its grasp, leading to a finale that feels rushed and over-explained, the journey there is filled with enough genuine heart, philosophical depth, and aesthetic beauty to make it a memorable experience.

Final Verdict: Evan’s Remains is an essential play for students of game narrative and indie development. It is a flawed gem, a bold experiment that doesn’t always succeed but deserves recognition and preservation for its artistic merit and its unflinching willingness to explore the difficult, human cost of a well-intentioned lie. Its place in video game history is secure as a poignant example of how small-scale projects can tackle themes as vast as life and death itself.