I have been playing A New Beginning for the first time for the last two days and I have a strong sense of déjà vu, like I played this game before. Not every scene, but certainly the beginning bit with the machine, the room with the terminal and the 3 bookshelves with data crystals before going further down (with the running water), and the whole scene about going into the archives in the glass box. I know I never played this game before, is it possible I played a similar game on the old Atari ST years ago? Are there many new adventure games today that are actually remakes of older forgotten games? (The irony is that the theme of this game is to travel into the past to change the future, possibly creating time loops.)

I often get this strong sense of déjà vu whenever I play new games. I do get it too when watching films but usually adventure games are much more immersive. And so if we are reliving the same events over and over again as the only explanation for déjà vu, certainly it would leave a stronger memory in your mind playing an adventure than watching a film. Any of you ever experienced this sense of déjà vu when playing a new adventure game for the first time?

I have that feeling more when I play casual games but I have had the occasional feeling when I have played an adventure game.

I do not believe the A New Beginning was a remake of an older game though but they are starting to do that more also.

I hope you are enjoying the game.

Ana

Oh yes, I am enjoying the game, just broke the metal comb in two in the toilet's helicopter and my déjà vu left me, unsure how to unscrew that screw.

So you too Ana have experienced déjà vu when playing new games. So I am not crazy. I wonder if we have all experienced this. I look forward to more answers.

The realisation of this is quite disturbing, are we all playing these games over and over again in time loops, as well as playing them over and over again in real time? Dear me, I must have played the Longest Journey and Culpa Innata a million times by now.

Not so much with games. But something similar used to happen to me occasionally when I was first learning to play the piano. Certain new pieces almost seem to play themselves.

I've always thought that somehow I just happened to be thinking like the composer.

Maybe you should start designing games?

I would love to design games. I have written just about everything in my life except some sort of bible for an adventure game like Jane Jensen is mentioning. I'm looking forward to receiving such a bible to see how it is constructed, and then I'll have a go. I must finish correcting my new book that will be published this summer in Paris (in French). But after that let all the déjà vu come to me, I've played so many adventures, surely I can come up with something great?

Becky, Is music very immersive to you, like perhaps more than adventures? That might explain why you feel déjà vu when first playing certain pieces of music. It is a very interesting phenomenon that I am deeply interested in, and it works better with very immersive experiences like games.

But why with A New Beginning? That is weird. I have not felt déjà vu with Gray Matter, and yet I have already played it many times. Is A New Beginning a game I will play several times? I don't know...

RMT -- music is immersive, but not more than games. I think there must be something about personality and mindset and ways of thinking involved. Sometimes I find puzzles in adventure games easy and see others struggle -- and then the puzzles in some adventures seem completely inscrutable, but I read others who comment that they were easy. I've always wondered if certain designers think the same way I do. Or really NOT the way I do.

Sometimes a game's ending takes me completely by surprise. Then I read a comment from someone saying that they could see the ending twist coming for a long time and they were disappointed.

I suppose it must resonate with us and our experiences, our moods, familiarity, happiness. When we really connect with a game, it seems familiar perhaps.

Sometimes I'm very discouraged in front of puzzles, I don't even want to try. But often I found that by just wasting time with them there is always something intuitive about them and without thinking or trying, puzzles solve themselves (I just click on everything until something happens . It could certainly be a personality thing, how we approach puzzles could be key.

These could also explain déjà vu I suppose, when we really connect with a game, like you said, when it seems designers were thinking like us. I'm all for any explanation as to why sometimes we feel we have played that game before when we have not. Déjà vu is a great mystery, it could certainly Inspire someone a great adventure game.

For example, we could discover that we are the creators of our own reality, we create it like we programme adventure games. Hence we created these games in our imagination, which is why we feel déjà vu... Mmh... maybe not.

Seems like an interesting theme. Have you ever played Shadow of Destiny (also known as Shadow of Memories)?

Yes I have started it years ago, but then I think I needed to reinstall my PC and I never reinstalled the game. I always thought I needed to get back to it. I just read your review Becky, I might play it again soon, if I can find it... True, it seems to play on time loops and many déjà vu...

If you do manage to play it, I'm curious as to what you think.

I think tonally common music themes occur throughout different games and this has given me that sense of having played that scene (or game) before.

This has happened to me, too but only once in a great, great, great while when playing certain games or DVD movies but I can't recall exactly what these titles were. I think the reason we have this deja vu is b/c maybe when we were kids we saw a movie on TV, or movie theatre or at a drive-in (yes, I mean the kind you take your car to, loaded with junk food snacks/pop,etc, we parked out in a big parking lot where there's a big screen in front of all the cars, it's all outside in the open outside, and you wait until it gets dark,) then we forgot about watching these movies afterward, and now when you play certain games, movies that have similar scenes as that movie, that triggers off the deja vu - oh, I do hope I'm not spoiling anyone's fun, pardon me. I just thought I might give my opinion on why this happens, that's all.

I love drive-ins, we called them ciné-parcs in Québec, but they all went bust now, the whole industry worldwide. I think they never even had drive-ins in the UK. I wanted to start a business and open a drive-in just outside London but within the M25, but my partner said it would fail.

Apparently the only reason they were so popular is because young people could go in in gangs and have fun without being dispersed (at least it was the purpose in Alberta where you had to wait until you were 39 years old I think before you were allowed inside a pub).

The other reason was that young people went there to kiss and hold hands, but nowadays I think their parents are a bit more open minded, they no longer need drive-ins. But perhaps there are other cultures for whom drive-ins could still be popular today... It seems only my family went there to watch films, but it was great fun.

It is possible that déjà vu could be explained as a psychological phenomenon of association with old memories, however from my experiences I find it very unlikely.

Also, I wanted to say that I remember that I had a déjà vu whilst playing Gray Matter. Maybe because I had looked at the screenshots for years before I finally played the game. That Is also a strong possibility.

Those déjà vu are different from other more vivid ones I sometimes have when I am certain I am reliving the same events, because then I can actually tell you what will happen next. I cannot predict with déjà vu in games what will happen next, it is more like a simple feeling of having played it before.

I, too, have a copy of Gray Matter. Maybe someday when I play it I'll have a deja vu experience.

When I had a couple of deja vu experiences as a 12 year old/teenager, and told my parents about it (we were always somewhere on vacation, either at a restaurant eating, or at a tourist site, a certain road when it was starting to get dark, or even at a motel) my dad would say as a joke (he liked to joke) "maybe you lived that life before". Back then I took Dad's remark quite seriously, and (think I was 12-13 at the time) and this made me start believing in reincarnation in which I might have lived a life near this tourist site back in the 1800's. But today, I no longer believe in reincarnation, I know now that that "deja vu" I had at that time might have been a either an old, long-buried memory from the time my parents might have took me to that vacation location when I was a baby, or I had seen the scene I was deja v-ing in some TV show/school educational film.

I just encountered quite a nice twist about my son in A New Beginning, totally unexpected. I think I would have remembered that... Déjà vu seems so selective, and never about the really important stuff.

I don't know about reincarnation, I read a lot about it, seems very convincing, but maybe it is information transferred via cells and DNA from previous generations.

Déjà vu is more like precognition. Maybe one day science will explain it. I do hope we are not stuck in time loops though and reliving the same events, that would be sad. Although many of us do enjoy it in replaying the same adventure games. But then this is pleasurable.

Of course, if we are living in a virtual reality, then time loops and déjà vu start to make sense... and many other paranormal phenomena.

Rmt, I sincerely believe with all my heart that no, we are not stuck in time loops, virtual realities, or any other paranormal phenomena - these I believe is pure fiction, made up by man. Otherwise I think if it were really true, it would be in Scripture (which is what I go by in life, to guide me), but so far, I've seen no mention of this kind of stuff in Scripture. You needn't worry.

But this stuff about time loops, paranormal stuff would make for what I think, may be occult doctrine, or at least a good background story about games like the Black Mirror series, the Dark Fall games, maybe even the Secret Files games, and other horror adventure games.

They are mysteries certainly worth exploring in adventure games, like Jane Jensen has been doing and will do again with Moebius.

Hi everyone. I just wanted to join in because I have had that weird deja vu feeling too, and at the time I thought it was just me. lol

The first time was when I played Alone in the Dark back in 1993 for the first time. It was the oddest thing....my hubby and I had gone to Sears to look at something and ended up in the computer section. Alone in the Dark was playing on one of the pc's and I just stood there staring at it....partly bowled over from amazing graphics (at the time!!) but also because there was something familiar about it. After we bought the game and I played it, I had that feeling with me the entire time and was never sure why. BUT what intruiges me now is that I LOVE H.P.Lovecraft books and began reading them about 9 years ago or so and that game was apparently based on his stories. Weird!

The other time was when I played AGON for the first time, and for some reason I just "knew" that building like I'd been there before or been the one to create it! Neat.

Oh and btw-rmt-I too love to write and dream of making my own game someday. Nice to know that there are others of "us" sprinkled around this site!

Tracy

Hi Tracy, what sort of game would you write?

I would use for template Culpa Innata, which was based on a novel called Schrödinger's Cat by Turkish novelist Alev Alatlı according to Wiki. I wish I could read the book but I don't think it has been translated.

Culpa Innata is monumental and extremely elaborate as a universe for an adventure game. It is also not moralist or preachy, they just present this universe. For a long time you are unsure if this new world is better or not for humanity, since all seems fine in that future where there are usually no murder. They found the perfect balance and it is well done at every level.

Now, how to come up with something as good and as elaborate as that? I am still brainstorming and when I am ready I start my game bible...

I think that certainly happens in Sierra games.
I'm pretty sure the same snatches of melody appear in more than one of their games.

But I still LOVE them all the same

Hi again RMT. I think Culpa Innata is a great game to keep in mind when trying to write/create a new game too. There are so many others, but when I think of making my own game I think I'd want to write/create something that's like a combination of a Myst-style game mixed with Morrowoind----a huge, open world that's more adventure than RPG without combat, but filled with lessons, quests, etc.

I have to admit, when I've thought about creating a game it's always been about the graphics part---I don't know the programs yet for that, BUT, I would SO love to learn! My writing stuff is usually short stories and poeetry, with a little fan fiction tossed in-lol. But now that you mention it, it might be fun to write out a game's story and know that I'm the one leading the player around....

Tracy