Awareness Rooms

About

Awareness Rooms is a single player puzzle game. It was developed by GAME NA KIBUN and was released on June 16, 2016. It received positive reviews from players.

Awareness Rooms is a unique psychological exploration game. Players navigate through a series of rooms, each presenting a different abstract concept, inviting introspection and self-reflection. The game features a minimalist art style, with no dialogue or narrative, allowing players to interpret their experience in their own way.

Genres & Tags

Play Modes

Single-Player

Skip User Reviews

82%

Audience ScoreBased on 301 reviews

gameplay24 positive mentions

story12 negative mentions

The game features a unique awareness mechanic that adds an interesting twist to puzzle-solving.
The puzzles are generally clever and enjoyable, providing a satisfying challenge without being overly frustrating.
The visual design is charming, with a cute art style that enhances the overall experience.

The game is very short, typically taking only 1-2 hours to complete, which may not justify the full price for some players.
Some puzzles can be unintuitive or rely on obscure logic, leading to moments of frustration.
There is a lack of a compelling story or narrative, which may leave players feeling unsatisfied with the overall experience.

gameplay
62 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
39%
56%
5%
The gameplay is characterized by a unique "awareness" mechanic that encourages exploration and interaction with the environment, though opinions on its execution vary. While some players find the puzzles clever and the mechanics enjoyable, others criticize the gameplay for being short, repetitive, and occasionally frustrating due to unintuitive controls. Overall, the game offers a charming experience with potential for deeper exploration, but many recommend waiting for a sale given its brief playtime and limited story.
- “The awareness mechanic is quite unique and the puzzles are also clever and entertaining.”
- “This is a fun, charming little puzzle game with quite an interesting mechanic of not knowing what you're looking at until you've figured it out.”
- “The central mechanic of the game of interacting with everything until the awareness level of the zone rises so that you can find more details is simple but especially effective for those people that interact and look at everything before progressing, making this kind of exploratory behavior part of progressing the game.”
- “Gameplay involves just interacting with all objects in the room until you have enough awareness to understand how to solve the puzzle.”
- “The mechanic would be more at home in a sanity or questioning reality setting or story, or thriller or horror genre.”
- “As it stands, its unique gimmick hobbles the gameplay more than anything.”
story
57 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
11%
68%
21%
The game's story is widely criticized for being nearly non-existent, with many reviewers noting a lack of direction and depth. While some appreciate the gameplay mechanics and art style, they express disappointment over the absence of a meaningful narrative, which detracts from the overall experience. Overall, the consensus is that the game offers a fun concept but fails to deliver a compelling story, leaving players wanting more substance.
- “I think this is an amazing concept, and the execution doesn't feel like it reaches the full potential it has, but I don't think it really detracts from it too much either. I'd love to see another game like this which really explores this, fleshes out a story, and your character, and the mechanics of it.”
- “Also love that the player has to think for themselves what the story could possibly be about; just like the gameplay, it's a mystery for the curious player!”
- “The game has a sort of deep story, but it is mostly presented as being deep and is lacking a lot of substance, but it was a fun romp, has some neat tellings.”
- “And, there's literally no story at all - not even a cute, quick-setup one.”
- “There's no story, no lore, no payoff, just a couple hours worth of abstract puzzles.”
- “The story is all but non-existent, and the gameplay can get tedious, but it's still a good experience.”
graphics
41 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
49%
44%
7%
The graphics of the game are widely praised for their charming and cute art style, often described as simple yet effective, particularly in its pixel art form. Many reviewers appreciate how the visuals enhance the overall atmosphere and gameplay experience, with a unique mechanic that allows objects to gain clarity as players progress. However, some critiques mention that while the graphics are nice, they are accompanied by gameplay flaws that detract from the overall enjoyment.
- “The art style is simple but charming, with the character standing out in the room of blurred objects and as you become more aware, the objects gain colour and shape which gives the objects identity again where you can tell what they are.”
- “Awareness rooms is a great bite-sized puzzle game which has a great atmosphere and art style which add to the overall experience.”
- “The music fits the theme and the graphics are adorable.”
- “Do not be fooled by the cute aesthetic and (seemingly) reasonable price.”
- “I'd not recommend it, unless you like being frustrated at the simplistic controls, poor graphics, and single time gameplay.”
- “A short game with cute graphics and annoying puzzles.”
music
35 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
17%
69%
14%
The game's music aspect has received mixed reviews, with many players noting a significant lack of a soundtrack throughout the gameplay, which detracts from the overall experience. While some appreciated the simple sound effects that create a tense atmosphere, others felt that the absence of music made the game feel incomplete and less engaging. A few players did enjoy the limited musical elements present, describing them as pleasant and fitting, but overall, the consensus is that the game would benefit greatly from a more robust musical score.
- “The art style and soundtrack are also good while maintaining their simplicity.”
- “Music is solid; I'm not a musicologist, or even really an audiophile, but it was nice, and the music got more complex as you gained more awareness.”
- “And last but not least, I really enjoyed the small pieces of soundtracks revolving around the game, making the game even more fascinating and providing you an immersive experience!”
- “There's no music and there's occasionally ominous sound effects, creating a tense atmosphere.”
- “Unfortunately, the game is quite without a soundtrack - something that should be fairly easy to remedy given the wealth of free music out there to tap for projects such as these.”
- “There's no music during the game really other than sound effects and short little themes which was kind of a let down.”
atmosphere
14 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
57%
22%
21%
The atmosphere of Awareness Rooms is characterized by its unique art style and minimalistic sound design, which creates a tense yet not overtly creepy environment. While some players appreciate the eerie and slightly unsettling vibe, others feel that the lack of music and narrative detracts from the overall experience, suggesting that a more varied auditory landscape could enhance the game's atmosphere. Overall, the game successfully evokes a sense of intrigue and discomfort, though opinions vary on its effectiveness.
- “Awareness Rooms is a great bite-sized puzzle game which has a great atmosphere and art style that add to the overall experience.”
- “There's no music and there are occasionally ominous sound effects, creating a tense atmosphere.”
- “The art is delightful and the atmosphere is... not creepy but just slightly unsettling, enough to make you uncomfortable.”
- “Basically this boils down to a few nice-looking but uninteresting rooms full of okay puzzles, with no narrative or atmosphere and a central gimmick that literally does nothing.”
- “Lack of music and present sound effects aren't distracting and (unlike other games I've played) don't give the game a creepy atmosphere.”
- “There's no music and there's occasionally ominous sound effects, creating a tense atmosphere.”
grinding
9 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
11%
89%
Players find the grinding aspect of the game to be tedious and repetitive, particularly in later levels where the novelty wears off and the gameplay becomes a chore rather than an engaging experience. While the concept of 'awareness' offers potential, it ultimately adds unnecessary complexity, leading to a grind-heavy experience that detracts from the overall enjoyment. Despite these criticisms, some players still appreciate the game for its short length and farming opportunities.
- “You'll need a second life for grinding.”
- “The gimmick of this game becomes stale quickly, with it being intuitive and fun at the beginning, although tedious in levels such as the last, which have several rooms all with different objects, almost becoming a content sponge/time waste rather than a fun part of the gameplay loop.”
- “The concept of 'awareness' could have made for an interesting gameplay mechanic, but all it does is add an unnecessary layer of tediousness.”
- “This mechanic doesn't really add anything to the experience other than the tedious repetition of looking and interacting and using every object with everything.”
emotional
4 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
Players find the game emotionally engaging through its unique mechanic of exploration, which evokes a sense of curiosity and discovery. The charming main character and well-designed environments contribute to a lighthearted yet immersive experience, although some players feel a bit challenged by certain puzzles. Overall, the game elicits a playful emotional response, despite its brevity.
- “The 'touching/using everything until it comes into better focus' mechanic is fun and interesting; the environments are well realized and not difficult to navigate, and the main character is cute.”
- “Before that, it was just you bumbling around touching everything so you can raise your awareness.”
- “Fun game, a bit short though; the third room made me feel a bit stupid.”
stability
1 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
300%
Users report significant stability issues, including bugs that occur after tabbing out of the game, requiring in-game room changes for the item menu to reappear, and instances of the game freezing their PCs for several minutes.
- “The game is buggy after tabbing out; you have to switch rooms in-game for the item menu to appear again. It also froze my PC for several minutes, twice.”
- “The stability issues are frustrating, as the game frequently crashes and causes my system to lag.”
- “I experienced multiple crashes during gameplay, which made it nearly impossible to enjoy the experience.”
humor
1 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
Players find the humor in the game to be lighthearted and often self-deprecating, as they share amusing experiences of solving puzzles in unexpected ways. The comedic elements are enhanced by moments of forgetfulness and the need to seek help, adding a relatable charm to the gameplay.
- “I solved the fallen-over bookcase in an almost hilariously incorrect way, and I'll admit that despite what I just said, I did end up looking up one of the solutions because I forgot a key hint in another 'sub room.'”