Nostalgia is a powerful thing, and some of the most memorable indie games expertly draw on it, whether through their aesthetics or by recapturing a specific period. For many of us, there's a comfort in reliving the good old days. But what happens when the past is recreated to confront trauma, as is the case in The Quiet Things?
"Well, perhaps interestingly, the word nostalgia is derived from Greek words meaning 'the pain of homecoming', which probably has quite a lot of relevance to this game in a sense," says indie studio Silver Script Games founder Alyx Jones, whose game deals with her own childhood trauma of abuse. "I know we usually mean nostalgia to mean a longing for a time we can’t return to, but I don’t think that necessarily conflicts with rooms, spaces and a time where difficult things took place."
