The protagonist’s day begins with getting out of bed, after which the events posted on his room’s itinerary, like breakfast at 8:00 and recreation at 20:00, must be followed in order, with the clock on the wall only advancing once an activity has been completed.
In contrast to these simplistic gameplay elements that push the plot along, the daytime segments feature The White Door’s bona fide puzzle elements, embedded in Robert’s daily room routine for much of the game’s 2-3 hour length. Simple click-and-drag actions like this make up the lion’s share of this half of the gameplay, though occasionally something slightly more involved occurs, like directing Robert’s car across a map of city streets during a bird’s-eye-view sequence. When Robert purchases a gun, it’s your job to slide the appropriate bills and coins across the counter equal to the price revealed by the narration. For example, if the heavily-accented narrator (one of a handful of voice actors present during dream sequences) mentions that Robert’s girlfriend pulled her chair up to the table in the diner where they break up, you’ll need to click to nudge the chair closer.
Since the dreams are the closest thing The White Door has to plot development, they need to get certain story beats across and therefore limit player agency to the point where your only job is to perform whatever on-screen actions are being described. All this creates a surreal atmosphere that’s certainly interesting to guess along with, though it doesn’t provide any clear-cut answers in terms of narrative. For example, he sees the tiny silhouette of a man, a vision from his dreams, running across his table and climbing around his room even during the day while he’s wide awake. Events take a grim turn for the worse, causing his loosening grip on reality to spiral further out of control.Īs the game’s seven-day timeframe ticks by, Robert’s dreams continue to grow more unhinged and his troubled memories begin to spill into his daily routine. From there on his dreams become darker and more cryptic, though. The first few nights portray simple-to-understand events: Robert’s girlfriend breaks up with him, his work performance suffers, and he’s let go from his job – things that are easy to relate to.
Robert’s dreams allow you to piece together his backstory, informing his current mental state and gradually revealing the whole picture of his character – or at least make an attempt to do so. As such, the game’s title also represents his ultimate goal – the white door of his room that he seeks to walk through to regain his freedom. Their hope is that he’ll regain his memory, which returns to him bit by bit in his nightly dreams, letting us discover why he’s in this institution in the first place. Robert finds himself confined to a solitary room, having to follow the same routine day in and day out, while doctors and nurses set tasks for him to complete and challenges for him to solve. The White Door is named after the mental health facility Robert Hill spends the majority of the game in. While it succeeds at being thought-provoking at times, it is so determined to avoid mainstream sensibilities that it can be a tad off-putting as a result. While The White Door features some similar design elements, such as a stylistically simple art style and uncomplicated gameplay, this game is a wholly different experience than its predecessors in terms of tone, dropping the cheeky black humor and making a more concerted effort to explore the inner struggle of someone battling with feelings of loss and depression in an easily digestible bite-size package.
#THE WHITE DOOR EVENTS SERIES#
When disaster strikes, it’s the job of government to step up quickly with the help folks need to get back on their feet.Īmericans rightly expect that - and for government to keep cheats from taking advantage of it.Those who have spent any time with the Rusty Lake series of indie games will know them as absurdist stints in a world walking the line between grotesquery and black humor. The watchdog Government Accountability Office recommends that agencies “take steps to verify reported information, particularly self-reported data and other key data necessary to determine eligibility for enrolling in programs or receiving benefits.”
“Validating self-reported information is a key fraud risk management leading practice,” according to the federal website. A review of Economic Injury Disaster Loan applications from March to November 2020 by the Office of the Inspector General for the Small Business Administration found that a lack of adequate screening “led to 75,180 loans of over $3.1 billion, and 117,135 emergency grants over $550 million, being disbursed to potentially ineligible recipients.”įederal officials themselves have noted that “self-certification” was a major risk factor for fraud.