Last Daemon Encounter - PONY ISLAND

-- Spoilers ahead. Do not read this breakdown if you have not played the game. --

REMINDER

In this breakdown, I will highlight player's behaviour, and what the game is doing in the last Daemon encounter. But before you read further, I just want to remind you that this breakdown is all spoilers content. You should play the game before reading this breakdown. Pony Island scored a 10/10 on steam, it's well earned.

OVERVIEW

Technology has made our life more convenient. It allows us to live a much faster pace of life, but also causes us to have a shorter span of attention. The developer took advantage of this issue and cleverly used it against the players. While doing so, the developer makes full use of Steam’s game client environment to exploit our shortcomings. In this breakdown, I focus on player's psychology, and what the game is doing in the final Daemon encounter.

-- Final reminder, spoilers ahead. Do not read this breakdown if you have not played the game. --

ESTABLISHING THE RULES

The last Daemon, also known as Asmodeus, start off with expressing its desire to play a game with you, followed with an explanation of the rules.

• Keep your eyes on me. If I catch you looking away, you lose.

• If you answer my questions incorrectly, you lose.

Rule 1

Keep Your Eyes On Me. If I Catch You Looking Away, You Lose. - This is the first step for the game in setting up the challenge. The players will start paying attention to Asmodues. While doing so, the dialogue text is constantly updating and the players has to split their focus a little bit. This moment is really short and quick, but it condition your subconscious mind into thinking it is okay if you don't pay full attention to Asmodues as long as you can keep up with the dialogues. But this rule will make the players question the game a little bit. How would he know? You can't possibly think the players will fall for it right? This one is too obvious. At least that's what most players will think at this point. Some players might also feel like this is just a bluff, and pay less attention to this rule. They will most likely do a speed reading and try to skim for the more important information.

Rule 2

If You Answer My Questions Incorrectly, You Lose. - Generally, this is the rule that everyone will remember the most because this makes much more sense. It is easier to comprehend how the game can verify if your response is the correct response.

THE FIRST CHALLENGE

Asmodues will ask you what is his name. This challenge is fairly simple. Some players might take a little longer to figure out, but eventually everyone will extract the name from the file name below Asmodues. This challenge is just a warm up so player can experience the benefit of the first rule.

THE SECOND CHALLENGE

Asmodues will ask you to say something disgusting, and remind you there are no wrong answers here. Some players might be cautious about this because it sounded like a trick question, but no matter what, you will be forced to freestyle with your answer because there are no relevant clues on screen. Here, you can say whatever your want and Asmodues will reassure you that there are no wrong answers. This is a relief, but it would also make you let your guards down.

Asmodues continues with a lenghty dialogues to express what it think about your idea of disgusting. Most players would probably not read the full dialogues but just skim for the more important information. But during this time, the game faked a series of Steam messages sent by one of your friend from your actual friend list. The first message pops up with a "lol", and the next message is the exact same response you gave when Asmodues asked you to say something disgusting. The second Steam message throws the players off. You either think it is a silly coincident that you want to share with your friends immediately, or you would be wondering if there is much more than just a silly coincident. Regardless, the game has successfully distracted you from the game. This is a test against the first rule. The game takes this a bit further by including some insults from the fake Steam messages. Not only the game is testing you against the first rule, the game is also testing your personality and friendship.

This trick probably won't work if they used the name of a person that you know very well. You would be able to tell your friend is acting out of character and realized this is all just a clever trick. But there's still a chance that you might want to check on your friend. Many players got very upset and hastily return insults to their "friend". If you tab out, you lose. While distracting you, Asmodues will ask you to type a phrase for him, and you will only get the answer if you are not distracted the entire time.

After you got the right phrase, Asmodues will tell you to go and apologize to your friend. It goes as far as telling you that it will make an exception this time. Some players might take the bait because in the previous question, Asmodues made an "exception" when asking players to say something disgusting. But of course, this is just a trick. Remember the rule, you lose if you look away. While the dialogue is updating, you can hear the notification sound. It really triggers the urge to tab out and check for any messages, but again, the game is just testing you against the first rule.

So there's two layers to this trick. The first layer is to distract you with the notification sound while the dialogue is updating. The game is tempting you tab out and check for messages. So you need to resist the urge to tab out. The second layer is a hit or miss, and it is very dependent on what kind of person you are. For those that are very hasty with returning insults to their friend, then Asmodues's advice is really efficient here. It feels very surreal that Asmodues knows what you did outside of the game. However, if you did not respond to your friends with insults, or did not respond to them at all, then it will only feel like Asmodues is just saying something random to confuse you.

THE THIRD CHALLENGE

On to the next question. Asmodues asks which horse-like animal appears commonly in the game. Although there are no clues on screen, it is something that you interacted with almost the entire game, and there are no other horse-like animals in the game. Plus, it is also hinted at in the title of the game, Pony Island. Most players who managed to reach this point will know the answer is definitely "Pony".

This simple question is a set up for the next challenge. Asmodues display the pony on screen, and add sparkle on it.

Asmodues asked you to look at it, and continues to describe about the pony. This seems a bit useless and the player's first instinct is to focus on the pony for awhile. With lengthy dialogues and pony on screen, the game throws in another Steam notification sound, just to test you against the first rule.

Here, Asmodues take advantage of your instinctive reaction the moment the pony appears on screen. It briefly revealed the answer below him while you were distracted by the pony. Even if you shift your focus back quickly, chances are you will be focusing on the dialogue text because it is constantly updating, and your instinct tells you the dialogue is probably where you will get your answer. By the time Asmodues asked to write what was below him, it is already too late. It won't reveal the actual answer. After a few tries, you should be able to figure out when and where Asmodues revealed the answer. Upon getting the right answer, the game throws in a few more Steam notification sound during the dialogue, just to tempt players against the first rule.

Asmodues used Pony as a decoy, and asked the question long after the answer was revealed.

THE FINAL CHALLENGE

For the last challenge, Asmodues asked you to type the number of the beast and he gave a fake answer from the dialogue. The game used a similar technique from the previous one. The moment it shows the number of the beast through the dialogue, players will have their focus fixated on the dialogue itself. Then the game shift player's focus with a sound feedback on the input section. Although the sound feedback is the same, but it's because you are put through an emotional ride, with so many visual and sound distraction, a simple visual and sound feedback from the input section is enough to catch your full attention when everything else is quiet. Asmodues briefly reveal the actual answer below him while the shift of focus is happening. This trick is efficient to a certain degree, and with the trick being less elaborated this time, there are also players who won't fall for the same trick the second time.

Asmodues camouflaged the reveal during your shift of focus.

Then finally Asmodues shows his final trick, which is about memory. Without distraction, remembering a sequence of number quickly can be a challenge for many people, and it gets harder with a bit of emotional push. Asmodues presents a sequence of numbers, which the player must remember and type in the correct answer. However, the game faked a crash scenario, pretending to be not responding. This part is all about patience. The game exploit the fact that our society has become so impatience. Some players might tab out from the game ( you lose ), close the game ( you won't get past the challenge ), or simply gets so frustrated that you might have forgotten the sequence number.

Asmodues tries to distract you with a fake gram crash.

SUMMARY

All the tricks used in the encounter with the Asmodues are very clever. The developer understands the player’s psychology and makes full use of steam’s game client environment to deliver a surreal game experience. If you have yet to play the game, and reached this point despite the warnings I’ve given, then you might have robbed yourself a chance to enjoy the game as it is.