Behind The Red Dais begins with an appeal to the nose. “First, the smell of rotten strawberries…” reads the opening text. “That’s how you will know you are not dreaming.” It’s both an evocative line and a distancing, even self-defeating one: despite the fervent efforts of certain peripheral makers, video games continue to be devoid of an olfactory component. And yet, the smell lingers. There’s a crimson flash, as though you’d taken damage, and the screen fades up to reveal a sleepy but cheerful-seeming woman standing by a bed. On the bed, a “red, dry stain”.
Playable for free in a browser, Behind The Red Dais is a game from Domino Club, a group of anonymous gamejammers who have devised some of the most wonderful, fearful and specific pieces of digital art I’ve ever stumbled on. It’s a short, potent work of curiosity and suspense, visually reminiscent of both Silent Hill and Animal Crossing, which dangles the unconventional promise of “zero endings”.
Moving with the arrow keys, you leave the bedroom and explore a series of shadowy backrooms, each with the same dingy floral skirting boards and beige panelling. Roots wind across a scuffed wooden floor, leading you between chambers or disappearing beneath bookcases. The soundtrack is a blend of slow electronic guitar chords and dialtones that manages to feel at once sad, droll and empty. There are a handful of other people in this labyrinth, but they only make dismissive fart noises when you approach them. Instead, you’ll receive eerie messages from the soil in glass test tubes, dispersed on tables throughout the complex.
