Emily Wants to Play
Emily Wants To Play is a survival horror video game created by indie developer Shawn Hitchcock.[1] The game was released for Microsoft Windows and OS X on December 10, 2015.[2] It was then released for iOS and Android on January 31, 2016, PlayStation 4 on August 9, 2016, and Xbox One on September 9, 2016.[3] Emily Wants to Play was adapted to play in virtual reality by using the HTC Vive or Oculus Rift on August 25, 2016. A sequel titled Emily Wants to Play Too was released on December 2017.[4]
| Emily Wants To Play | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Developer(s) | Shawn Hitchcock |
| Publisher(s) | SKH Apps |
| Series | Emily Wants to Play  |
| Engine | Unreal Engine 4 |
| Platform(s) | Microsoft Windows OS X PlayStation 4 Xbox One Oculus Rift HTC Vive iOS Android |
| Release |
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| Genre(s) | Survival horror |
| Mode(s) | Single-player |
The player takes the role of a pizza delivery man that has been trapped in a house by a young girl named Emily and her three dolls. Each level of the game is represented by a different hour of the night from 11pm until 6am. During these levels, various combinations of the dolls and Emily appear. The player must learn how to interact with Emily and her dolls in order to survive the night.[5]
Gameplay
The game begins with a pizza delivery man, controlled by the player, walking into a house on his last pizza delivery. Upon entering, the front door closes and is locked, presumably by Emily, since she appears for an instant in front of the door. The player must then survive the night from 11 pm until 6 am. Each hour of the game is a new level. The player can explore the house freely looking for clues as to why he is trapped inside. Various notes and recordings containing story elements are spread out in different rooms. At a fixed amount of time, the hour changes and new gameplay elements are added in the form of a doll or Emily. The player must then figure out how to interact with each doll and Emily herself in order to survive the hours (6 minutes). If a doll or Emily attacks the player, in the form of a jump scare, then the player loses and the game is over. The player will be restarted at the beginning of the last hour. There are various clues on notes and on a whiteboard in the kitchen that help the player to learn how to handle a doll when it appears (although what's written on the whiteboard are usually lies meant to trick the player). The mechanic of each doll and Emily's game build upon each other. The player has to run from the puppet, stand still for the clown, and stare at the doll, Kiki, to survive. During the final level, the player must survive all of these elements in combination.
Plot
A month ago, two people were found dead in the living room of their house as they were packing up to move. A pizza is ordered to the house using an online pizza delivery service by what is presumably a deceased and ghostly girl named Emily Withers. A pizza man comes to the house to fulfill the order. Details in the order explain that the door is open and to walk right in.[6] When the pizza man walks in, the door is closed and locked behind him. During his stay in the house, the pizza man encounters Emily and three living dolls named Kiki, Mr. Tatters, and Chester. They want to play variations of children's games with him such as peek-a-boo, red light green light, tag, and hide-and-seek. A whiteboard in the kitchen tells the opposite of what he has to do to survive (although it sometimes has comments or facts that aren't lies). If the pizza man plays these games correctly and survives from 11 pm to 6 am, Emily and the dolls will let him go free.[7]
According to the notes in the house, Emily was a depressed girl who found some dolls in the basement. She considered the dolls her friends, but her parents would like to take them away from her. The recordings left behind seem to be from Maggie Withers, Emily's mother, and were recorded to help with her own depression. The recordings explain that Emily was acting strangely ever since they moved here, presumably because she didn't like her new home. Emily was showing signs of erratic and violent behavior, which led her to harm other children at school and kill the puppy that they bought her. Because of this, her parents decided to keep her at home and lock her in the basement. During this time, Emily found the dolls, and even stranger occurrences started to happen. The dolls appeared in different places around the house without anyone moving them, and Emily had opened up a giant hole in the floor of her room that would be impossible for a small child to do. Emily was found lifeless one day in the basement, convincing the parents to move from the house.
News audio that plays on a staticky television explains that a couple was killed a month ago while they were preparing to move. This is presumably Emily's parents, and someone had killed them before they were able to move, which could possibly be Emily or one of her dolls. There are hints to a possible subplot. The phrases "Join Us" and "We Are One" can be seen written on a few notes, on the bottom of a crashed Windows computer and heard at the end of a recording in the basement. There is also a strange figure depicted behind what looks like Emily and her dolls on the back of one of the notes.
When the pizza man finally escapes, the police come back to check the house. A news report states that the pizza delivery man is now under psychiatric evaluation, but the dolls matching his description have been recovered.
Emily Wants to Play Too
Emily Wants To Play Too begins at 6 am in the protagonist's apartment, after having a large party. The protagonist has to get to work at Timmy Thom's Fast Sandwiches by 4:00 pm. At this point, the protagonist decides to rest before that time. While the protagonist sleeps, he seems to have the same nightmare he has been having in his previous slumbers where he encounters Emily and her dolls. When he officially awakens, he takes a shower and washes dishes before going to deliver a sandwich order to a research facility known as Central Evidence. Arriving there at 6 pm, he gets locked in and sees Chester doing some sort of ritual before the door to the room closes on him and later sees Kiki bringing Max Steelwell to life with a similar ritual. He must first discover key cards to gain access to four area levels and survive until 7 am against Emily and her dolls before he can escape, in which they will start a fire in the building to destroy the evidence and confiscate all the fire extinguishers found throughout the building, forcing him to escape. Whiteboards in the building provide hints to help the player; however, some are lies used to trick the player.
The game introduces three new dolls: Weasl, Max Steelwell (who is actually a man disguised as a store mannequin), and Greta as well as Emily and the three original dolls. The newspaper articles found within the building explain the backstories of Emily and the six dolls, implying that they are possessed by an evil entity (presumed to be the spirit of a puppet master named Vult Ludere, who is the original owner of Kiki, Mr. Tatters, and Chester).
There are two alternate endings in the game. The first one can be achieved during the 6 AM area at the player's apartment. If the player turns off the light, he will start to get scared. If he stays like this over a minute, noises will be heard in the dark suggesting that the dolls are gathering around him. Finally, the local journal will reports that the protagonist died because he tripped in his apartment and suffered from a fatal injury. The second one can be achieved when he comes inside the Central Evidence for the first time where he sees Chester doing some magic and out of fear, he decides to run away. He is believed by the police to be responsible for the fire that destroyed Central Evidence. Because he didn't deliver the order, he had lost his job.
A file revealing the accident at the Central Evidence and the dolls is then shown and the man reading the story is hinted to be the pizza delivery man from the first game, who suggests that he should "go back to that house".
As the credits roll, Emily and her dolls are seen facing a tall figure (presumably the entity mentioned in the newspapers), saying that it won't let her out anymore and now "they are one".
Development
The developer, Shawn Hitchcock, announced that he will be releasing Emily Wants To Play on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, creating a VR update and a sequel titled Emily Wants to Play Too.[8]
References
- "Emily Wants to Play Has Been Released". www.justadventure.com. Retrieved Jun 16, 2016.
- "Emily Wants To Play on Steam". steampowered.com. Retrieved May 26, 2016.
- "Steam Community :: Group Announcements :: Emily Wants To Play". steamcommunity.com. Retrieved June 4, 2016.
- "Emily Wants to Play in Virtual Reality". emilywantstoplay.com. Retrieved September 22, 2016.
- "Emily Wants To Play Review". www.bitcultures.com. Retrieved June 4, 2016.
- Shawn Hitchcock (December 10, 2015). Emily Wants To Play (1.00 ed.). Scene: Kitchen Laptop.
- "Emily Wants to Play: Backstory and Secrets Explained". twinfinite.net. Retrieved Jun 16, 2016.
- "Steam Community :: Group Announcements :: Emily Wants To Play". steamcommunity.com. Retrieved May 28, 2016.