By TerryI’m proud to finally present Don’t Look Back, my very first game in flash! For the next week or so it’s available only on Kongregate, but after that I’ll provide a standalone version of the game here.
Being a flash game it doesn’t have a readme, so this seems like an appropriate place to say thanks to the people who helped me test it and gave me feedback during its development! I’d like to say a special thanks to Denis Cavanagh, Stephen Lavelle, Gregory Weir, Alex May, Josiah Tobin, disasterpiece, benzido, Tim W., zaphos, dock, Noyb, agj, Kian Bashiri, cactus, Annabelle Kennedy, Brandon McCartin, Ian Snyder, Porter, ozdy, lachhh, and finally, to Kongregate.
I hope you enjoy the game 🙂
[Edit 12th March] Don’t Look Back is now also available on this site!
[Download offline DMG for Mac]
[Edit 26th March] To those of you looking for the soundtrack; you can find it here.
Fantastic game!
I was surprised when I read that this was your first game in flash.
A great game, so simple, yet so eloquent! I loved the music too. I share Homer’s question about whether the ending is different if you complete the game without dying. I would go again and try for that, except that I imagine it being highly time-intensive.
Excellent.
Just oooooooowesome! Oldscool classic 🙂 Did’n have so much fun since I was young and computers was more like calculators 😀 Thank you! Realy nice game. I’ll go play it again, and again… and again… 🙂
man, this is a wonderful game. the concept “do not press right arrow” is extraordinary. the ending is a marvelous. while playing i had strange sensation being again in early 80s, overdosing spectrum games. thanks for this!
great game. have to say the story is especially touching, it made me think of it over and over. good job.
Maybe the best flash game I’ve ever played, congratulations my friend. This game is really a piece of art.
[…] adventure from the brainly fantastocity of Terry Cavanagh whose work last year with Judith and Don’t Look Back sowed the seeds of anticipation for this his biggest title to […]
What a great wee game! Only had a time for a quick go initially and spent the whole day trying to free up some time to get back and complete it. Loved the end. Big monsteres were cool too.
Hmmm. What to play next?
[…] quite long and costs money, except that that would be to the disparagement of his earlier free games, which are entirely proper in their own […]
Wow, just finished it then. Definitely one of the best flash games I have ever played!
Great game! I heard it was really hard, and it was challenging, but not too hard. Again, great game!
[…] through what transpires on-screen (more or less). The game’s title, Don’t Look Back (link: https://distractionware.com/blog/?p=672), is the only piece of text to express what the game is about. It’s a short and easy game; it’s […]
more than a game
One of the best online games I have ever stumbled upon. Short, challanging, great music (seriously, where did it come from? I want it), and a wonderful story.
Great game! I loved the entire Orpheus deal as well. It was so simple but yet so intense. Good work! 😀
I just killed an hour and a half playing this game.
Nice ending!
I’ve written a really long review of the game in Swedish https://www.athleticdesign.se/reviews/dont-look-back.html where I focus on the theme, the role of the game designer as an unfair god, and why the game pulls off the “only a dream”-cliché. It wouldn’t work in a movie, but it works in a game (and not because the “moral” of it) …
To Ola:
Is there any way to get that review in English?
Sorry, I’m afraid you have to use babelfish or google chrome translate to understand anything at all if you are not Swedish, Danish or Norwegian.
If my reviews get more readers in the future (I’m aware of the paradox …) I guess I would consider translating them, but I am rather serious about both style and content when writing game reviews. I worked on this one for at least 20-30 hours. Writing it in English would have doubled that time.
I recently reviewed Pathways as well. That one was shorter so there’s a better chance I’ll translate it.
Goes to show that good graphics does not a good game make.
(a la Avara)
your game is a piece of art.
I just wanted to let you know that I just playey your game (through) and I found it great and very touching.
this is sad he whent thrught all that just to see his wife one more time
What a beautiful game. A small masterpiece. Simple, bleak, immersive and with befitting backdrops and music.
Reminiscent of the seminal Another World by Eric Chahi.
Well done! Not one to forget.
Glad to see most people agree.
i hate it so much, it made me want to rip my eyes out and throw them at the screen. this is a terrible, terrible freaking game. it pisses me off tooooo much. other than that, i like the story and audio.
loved the Persophone idea from mythology my friend seemed not to be be able to keep everything in mind (i.e. shoting, jumping and moving)till I told him. Great game 10 outta 10!
woops mean orpheus
oh great… I love the Orpheus and Eurydice idea… Meaby it would have been a little sader if you have to turn around right before the grave and your wife goes back into underworld… just like in the story
I am a big fan of the myth of Orpheus, and a big fan of this game. Keep up the good work.
AI
Just to clarify on the mythology a bit…
Orpheus made it out and looked back – only to realize that Eurydice was still on the other end of the border (The deal was that they BOTH had to be out before looking back).
That is when Eurydice was forever lost to him.
The ending of the game, however, could be interpreted to be a number of things, though it seems to branch from the ‘canon’ at first glance.
Does it give you a different ending if you manage to get through the entire game without ever dying?
Interesting ending. I was not familiar with the greek myth of Orpheus. I feel as though, because the game started with how it ended, I suspect that the person at the grave is merely dreaming on what he would like to do. The woman disappears because in reality, no one can bring back the dead. “Don’t look back” could mean, “don’t want things that are already gone”.
Pretty deep atmosphere. As soon I recognized Orpheus reference and I gotta admit, for something that looks like atari, it is well done. Too bad it is soooo short tough, I would have played for a really long time.
Playing this years after it was released found it amazing. Although I wished the guy at the end had turned around causing them to disappear…
A*!
Beautiful, thanks so much for making this.
I thought the cliff jump at the very start was telling. This is how games should do story telling; not huge Hollywood cinematics or pretentious musing. You wrung so much out of so little, and an excellent pick up and play dynamic to boot.
haha you guys. I love your insightful comments. You should google Eurydice and stop posting crap.
to Rossemikka:
Shut your snobby ass mouth.
Let people say what they’d like to say. The story is touching, even for an 8bit, and though it’s like the Orpheus story that doesn’t make it any less emotional. There are many many movies, games, shows, etc with the same story behind them done slightly different and they are still successful in their own way. Give the developer some more credit than basically refering to it as a knock-off of mythology.
imersive mood, the chalenging gameplay reminds games like Out Of This World and a intriging end
This was a fabulous game. I felt as though I was challenged throughout the game, but the storyline just kept me going to the end. I didn’t really get the “Dont look back” until after rescuing her and looking back.It wasn’t just a flash game, it is a game that will still be played decades (maybe centuries) from now. A true Classical Game.
P.S. Could I get the music?
Email: philliphshin@yahoo.com
amazing.
[…] Roger Ebert ; Don’t look back (Terry Cavanagh) ; Shadow of the colossus ; PacMan ; Every day the same dream […]
[…] the Same Dream, Jason Nelson’s Game game game and again game, Â Terry Cavanagh’s Don’t Look Back and Jonathan Blow’s (and David Hellman’s) […]
Thats game is great ‘-‘ they are very intristing in the final all hapeneng again (eu sou brasileiro so to escrevendo en ingles porque so tem do Ingles aqui –‘ )
It is my goal to become a video game designer and this game has inspired me to not just make something flashy and throw it out there but to put a little spirit into it.
We gamers should remember that even little 8-bit characters can make us emotional and to never judge something by its cover (pixels).
So I say to you Terry Cavanagh…
Good job, good job indeed
Very excellent. Simple and elegant. I’m a huge fan of your work.
[…] 27, 2010 by deserthat Don’t Look Back can be a pretty tricky game, but unlike Flywrench, this one is pattern-based and so is MUCH easier. […]
Looks like this got scooped up here, but I have a big photo walkthrough of the game. I’m teaching about art games this semester, and Don’t Look Back is one of them. Gaming skill is one of the literacies we need in order to ‘read’ art games!
https://criticalgamestudies.wordpress.com/2010/09/27/dont-look-back-walkthrough/
[…] vidéo, sa passion depuis une enfance nourrie au Spectrum. Son premier jeu en flash, le minimaliste Don’t Look Back, inspiré du mythe d’Orphée aux Enfers, connaÁ®t un succÁ¨s d’estime lors de sa sortie […]
[…] incrível, em que consegue criar com proficiÁªncia tanto jogos com foco puramente mecÁ¢nico, como Don’t Look Back, quanto títulos que exploram diferentes aspectos que podem ser abordados por videogames, como o […]
Odd this post is totaly unrelated to what I was searching google for, but it was listed around the initial page. I guess your doing some thing correct if Google likes you enough to place you on the very first page of a non associated search.