A Deep-Sea Dream of Universal Senses
Universals is a first-person experimental narrative exploration game with a runtime of approximately 20 minutes. You play as a neuroscientist aboard the Antarctic research vessel Argo IX. During a routine seafloor sampling mission, you encounter a lost individual of a super-intelligent siphonophore species and form a brief neural resonance with its bioelectric pulses. Drawn into the depths, you find the boundaries of human perception dissolving — the breath of tides, the flow of stratified rock, and the memory of the planet itself begin to awaken through your senses.
Core Gameplay
Universals translates real neurological phenomena of synesthesia into playable level mechanics. Across four visually distinct chapters, you will gradually deconstruct and reassemble the way you perceive.
Chapter 1: Mirrored Resonance — Mirror-Touch Synesthesia In a hall built from layered translucent mirrors, read the gesture riddles displayed in the central showcases and explore four surrounding rooms to find the correct "mirrored figure." Decode poetic verses, interpret mannequin postures, and align your body with the reflection — experiencing the hyper-empathic phenomenon of feeling another's touch on your own skin.
Chapter 2: Echoing Verses — Chromesthesia An elliptical sound field surrounds you with 12 resonant pillars, each tuned to a note of the twelve-tone equal temperament. Listen to the "poem prompts" played by the central crystal, then touch the pillars of matching colors to assemble verses. Every interaction triggers simultaneous feedback in sound, color, and text — letting you build the conditioned reflex of "color = note = verse" through play itself.
Chapter 3: Eternal Fugue — Number-Form Synesthesia Wander through a particle-formed ∞ symbol suspended in the void. Collect three glyphs — "-", "0", and "+" — and place them into the correct nodes. Correct placements transform the space into three distinct sensory states: erasure, stillness, and abundance. Incorrect placements collapse the world into vertigo. Through the synchronization of mathematical symbols and spatial geometry, feel the emotional metaphors hidden behind numbers.
Chapter 4: The Anoxic Chamber — The Vanishing of the Senses A minimalist expanse of still black water, with a distant colossus on the horizon. Through a progression of monologues and the gradual collapse of textual logic, you transition from being an "individual observer" to becoming "the senses of the planet itself." The colors and music of the previous chapters fall silent, leaving the emotional resolution of the entire work.
Features
Synesthesia Types × Design Languages: Chapters is built on a real neurological phenomenon, with its own visual style, puzzle logic, and interaction grammar.
Poetic Puzzle System: Riddles drawn from reinterpretations of Octavio Paz, Tagore, Rumi, and Rilke — turning abstract emotion into readable clues.
Multi-Modal Sensory Feedback: Every action triggers simultaneous visual, auditory, and textual responses, simulating the "cross-wiring" of a synesthete's brain.
Deep-Sea Sci-Fi Setting: Grounded in real research on Antarctic siphonophores, woven with bioelectric signaling, gravitational perception, and oceanic memory.
A Narrative Arc Across Scales: From the empathic boundary between "you and me," to the natural interweaving of "senses and colors," to the ultimate connection between "existence and the cosmos."
Who Is It For
If you enjoy slow-paced atmospheric exploration, poetic narrative, and aesthetically driven experimental indie works — or if you are drawn to synesthesia, neuroscience, or deep-sea biology — Universals offers a roughly 20-minute sensory journey meant to be experienced in a single sitting.
Controls: WASD to move, mouse to look, E to interact. Available with both Simplified Chinese and English text.
