Snaptic (stylized SNAPTIC) is a story-driven 3D Platform Game developed by the creator of the same name. It is a Defictionalization of the Fictional Video Game used for the setting of their videos.
Set inside an isolated computer system running SNAPTIC in-universe, the story follows the silver Player Character from the shorts (now named Anon, voiced by Corey LeVier) awakening from a long slumber in a surreal realm outside the game shaped by the memories his user had left behind. Answering the call of a CD-themed angel named Auralyn (Josephine Su), they learn that the system they inhabit was disconnected from the Internet ages ago, plunging their world into an eternal stasis, and by some miracle it has only now resumed operation. Together, and with the help of the enigmatic Mirraxis shopkeeper Valence (Jacob Takanashi), Anon and Auralyn must venture into the computer of their former master and restore its connection to the outside world, through whatever means necessary.
Originally devised as a straight adaptation of the Wide-Open Sandbox used by the shorts, the game in its current state was revealed through a demo reel titled "glass memory
" on Snaptic's channel.
Tropes:
- Ambiguous Time Period: While the shorts were set in The New '10s (part of the joke being that the various gags use humor from The New '20s instead) with SNAPTIC running on Windows 7, Auralyn notes in "glass memory" that while the system was frozen, an incalculable period of time had passed since then. As a result, while the places Anon explores are stuck in aesthetics based on that time period with the computer still running Windows 7 (as shown by a brief gag when Anon is talking to Valence), neither he nor Auralyn know what year it actually is.
- Be the Ball: As shown in "glass memory," Anon has the ability to shrink down into only his head, letting him roll through tight spaces and on magnetic walls.
- Call-Back: In the "glass memory" reel:
- Anon's ability to stick to metal walls references the short "my common interaction with metalheads" where he is picked up and dragged around by an electromagnet.
- Anon can shrink himself into just his head, referencing a sight gag from "Will he hit the green button?" where one of his attempts to, well, hit the green button inexplicably had him in the same state.
- Chrome Champion: With Anon becoming the protagonist, his metal composition is even more apparent, with the "glass memory" demo reel showing him exploiting his magnetic nature to stick to metal walls.
- Darker and Edgier: Somewhat. The original shorts were bursts of Surreal Humor with Anon's user getting him into silly situations based on the game world's physics. The story given in "glass memory," however, is a serious long-form narrative about him and Auralyn trying to reopen their world after it was abandoned and cut off, with hints of them exploring the memories of their computer's original user. That being said, it's still not without the original humor of the shorts, as shown by Anon's interactions with Valence and the punchline of "my common interaction with metalheads" being a core game mechanic.
- Expy: Anon has the eccentric speaking mannerisms of Salesperson ENA when he is not being completely serious and talks with an impression of Aleks Le's performance of her, as shown when speaking to Valence in "glass memory." Corey LeVier later confirmed on his personal YouTube channel that the game's production notes cite her as the exact basis for Anon's personality and voice.
- Meaningful Name: In "glass memory":
- Valence is named after a psychology term that refers to how pleasant or unpleasant a specific emotion is. It is essentially a quantifier applied to an abstract concept, which fits Valence's role as a shopkeeper.
- "frisson," the song that plays when Anon meets Auralyn and begins his journey, is defined as the goosebumps experienced from awe or intense emotion, befitting the Disney Acid Sequence that accompanies the track in the demo reel.
- Mind Screw: In "glass memory," Anon says his dialogue is "post"-recorded when talking to Valence. In practical terms, this essentially means he thinks backwards in time, with enough of a delay that he isn't actually aware of his surroundings in the present. The actual mechanism in Time Travel by which this occurs intentionally makes no sense.
- Sound Defect: In "glass memory," Anon's limbs make bell sounds when they gesture suddenly.