u/holden2424

Thank you so much for your participation in my last post https://www.reddit.com/r/metroidbrainia/comments/1vi3a3u/metroidbrainias_in_nongaming_media/ I did not expect so many comments and recommendations! I decided to compile a short and simplified list based on the number of upvotes, so you don't have to go through the entire discussion to find interesting titles.

Important disclaimer, there isn't a single definition of what a brainia is, especially not for non-gaming medias, these titles have been recommended based purely on vibes and voted on by the community.

Books

1. House of Leaves - Mark Z. Danielewski - this title is by far the most recommended one!
2. Recursion, Dark Matter - Blake Crouch
3. Books by Jorge Luis Borges and Ted Chiang

Movies

1. Prestige - Christopher Nolan
2. Coherence - James Ward Byrkit
3. Primer - Shane Carruth

TV Shows

1. Dark
2. Westworld S1
3. True Detective S1

Other:
Count the Rice - Game Changer episode
Blood on the Clocktower - social deduction tabletop game

PS. I just ordered House of Leaves

Disclaimer: I know, I know, we cannot even agree on what a brainia is in games, let another other types of media. And there could be an argument that a brainia can ONLY exist in interactive media like games, because of how knowledge gating works, and that's fair.

That being said, "metroidbrainia is a vibe" so in this thread I invite you to share some recommendation and ideas on what you feel might have a similar brainia vibe but in non-gaming media, like for example movies, books, music (?), whatever else comes to you mind.
For the purposes of this discussion I still treat non-digital games as games (fe. 12 Word Searches or City of Six Moons are nondigital brainias).

I don't have any particular reason for asking about it, it's just an experiment and I'm just curious what will come to your minds and in that way I'll hopefully discover cool new stuff that will surprise me.

For me I can recommend two of my all-time favourite movies that I feel share the vibe:
Memento - it's an old movie that has a unique, non-linear structure, unreliable narrator, delivers an epiphany that makes the second watchthrough hit differently.
Mr Nobody - also a very unique movie with highly non-linear structure, where lots of wild stuff is happening and only at the end you will be able to piece everything together

A couple of months ago I saw a youtube short portraying a man in a shirt performing an intense philosophical monologue. The man looked sort of like Jan Dolski from the Alters. The style of animation was very characteristic, with lots of stops and pauses. I dont remember what the man was talking about exactly, but the twist at the end was that he was in court and speaking to the judge, trying to redefine some terms like "what does it even mean to <own something>"so that he doesn't get convicted. But the judge then says something blunt like "but you are accused of theft and burglary" and it turns out it's a skit.
I cannot for the life of my find it.

Hey folks! I've been working on my puzzle adventure metroidbrainia, Timebound, for three years and we just launched a demo. I think this community in particular might click with it. The game is all about rule discovery and secrets hidden in plain sight, exploring and piecing things together at your own pace, with no handholding. The main inspirations are Outer Wilds and The Talos Principle, though players often compare it to The Witness and Tunic too.

Similar to Animal Well:

- interconnected, open world

- deep, atmospheric world

- "rabbit hole" secrets, layered metroidbrainia style

- a labour of love

Different than Animal Well:

- no reflex or platforming skills required

- no items unlocks. Instead, progression comes from learning the rules of the magic woven into the environment

- no actual wells

If that sounds like your jam, you can check out the demo here!
Steam page:
https://store.steampowered.com/app/4539960/Timebound_Demo/
Discord:
https://discord.gg/KvUbSJtk5U

You’re dropped into a world with no tutorials, no instructions, no handholding. You have to figure out how things work, explore the world, uncover secrets hidden in plain sight. It's called Timebound and it's a rule-discovery puzzle adventure. I've been making it for three years now along with my wife Patrycja who makes all the art, and our friend Fabien who creates music and sound. We have a demo that's already packed with content and layers of secrets to find. While Outer Wilds and The Talos Principle are the biggest inspirations, players often say that playing it reminds them of The Witness, Taiji and Tunic.

Watching people play Outer Wilds I sometimes see a similar frustration: they hit a wall and can't tell which kind it is. Is this a "you already have what you need, just figure it out" moment, or a "you're missing something, go explore elsewhere" situation? There are two ways it can be frustrating - either by trying to figure out something that requires knowledge from another planet, or by leaving and looking for clues, where there isn't any clue to be found anymore, because they are supposed to solve it on the spot. Either way it'd be a huge waste of time.

So I was thinking if an optional "guided mode" setting could be used. It never tells you how to solve anything, just answer that one question - let's say green icon means "the answer's reachable with what you know" and red means "there's a hint you haven't found yet". That's it. The game already tells you if you explored everything, but this would be puzzle-specific without having to use ship log.

Do you think something like this would ever help you or someone you watched play? Or would it kill all the magic? Of course it's important to treat this as an optional accessibility setting that would lower the difficulty, disabled by default.