Among the Sleep

Among the Sleep is a first-person exploration game seen from the view of a toddler. The player can move the cursor to walk or crawl around, the latter of which is faster and is required to slide through obstacles blocking the way. Running is also an available option, though the player will fall down if it is done for too long. The player can interact with and push objects, and open doors and windows. Sometimes, the handle to open doors is too tall to reach for the player, in which case the player will have to push and climb chairs for additional height. Other than chairs, the player can climb boxes, tables, and various things to reach otherwise unreachable ledges and heights. Certain objects can also be held as well as thrown away. Others can be stored to the inventory and taken out again for later use.

For most of the game, the player is accompanied by a sentient teddy bear named Teddy, a birthday present from the toddler's father. The player can hug Teddy, who emits light that helps the player navigate through darker environments. The light will wear down after a while, but will recharge if left unused. If the player drops Teddy, which always happens whenever they arrive from sliding through pipes to a new level or environment, they will have to pick it up first before advancing again.

Throughout the game, the player is followed by two monsters: a feminine figure that haunts the first three levels, and a trench coat-wearing figure that haunts the final level. The monsters' appearance is indicated by the blurring of the vision, grating sounds, and in the case of the feminine figure, a slow lullaby (Trollmors Vuggesang, "Trollmother's Lullaby") hummed about. There is no way to fend off the monsters; if they appear, the player will have to run away or hide under tables or chairs until they go away. If the player is not quick enough to evade the monsters, a short cinematic will show the monsters taking hold of the player, which results in a game over, followed by a continue screen with a pacifier. Clicking the pacifier restarts the game from the last checkpoint. The player can also get a game over by other means, such as falling into water or chasms.

The game is largely linear and involves going from point A to B, though the expansive environment with multiple obstacles may induce the feeling of being lost. After some time exploring the player's house, the player is taken to a dreamlike location with a gingerbread house-like hut that serves as a sort of hub level. The house contains a circular door that leads to a new level, surrounded by four containers where "memories" obtained from each level are stored. After the player finds a memory and heads to a tube at the end of the level, they will be returned to this hut. Once four memories are stored, the player can insert Teddy's right hand below the circular door to return to the player's house.

In the extra DLC level, instead of exploring dreamlike locations, the player is taken to another house with the objective of finding and thawing five frozen dolls by playing music or turning on the TV. The gameplay is still the same, with the feminine figure haunting the player, but the player is also confronted by a fireplace monster in the underground section that advances and closes in through an aisle.

Set in the 1990s, a toddler (whose name is David) is having his second birthday celebration at his home with his mother Zoey. The celebration is interrupted by a visitor at the front door who is hidden from David, but the story suggests it is the David's father Justin, with whom Zoey has divorced and run off with an actress. The conversation is muffled and partly kept from David as Zoey raises her voice, refusing Justin's request to see his child. Zoey's angry tone frightens David, whose fear is presented as blurred vision. Quickly, Zoey returns with a gift, but she doesn't say who the gift is from. Instead, she carries David and gift upstairs to the child's room, a place of bright, warm colors and streaming sunlight. Zoey briefly opens the gift, but looks at what is inside with a disdainful expression before quickly shutting the gift box. Before the present is given to David, the telephone rings, and Zoey leaves David in the bedroom to play alone. The gift is revealed to be a sentient teddy bear, who climbs out of the box and hides in the chest until David finds him. The bear introduces himself as Teddy. Teddy has a friendly, curious nature. After a few minutes playing together with a music box, a stuffed pink elephant, a story book, and a toy train, they go into the closet, which turns out to be a large, dark room filled with long, dark colored coats. Teddy says that if David gets scared in the dark, he can hug Teddy to feel more safe. Once David holds Teddy, he lights the way, acting like a flashlight. The small adventure is ended by Zoey finding them; she tells David, gently but ominously, to stop hiding from her and puts him to bed. David wakes in the night to find Teddy being taken by an unseen force. David's crib overturns, and he escapes. David leaves the bedroom and rescues Teddy from a washing machine by unplugging it and opening the door. Teddy says that something was not right and that they have to find Zoey.

The search leads them to discover a slide that takes them to a small playhouse within a cavern that is presumably under the house, and the door found inside it leads them into a journey through several surreal environments, consisting of an underground playground, a dilapidated mansion that has merged with a marshy forest, and a bizarre series of caverns created by hundreds of closets. Teddy instructs David to find four memories he shared with Zoey that will lead them to her. The memories take the forms of four objects: Her pendant from her necklace shown at the start of the game, the music box she plays to put him to sleep at night, the story book, and the pink elephant. Throughout the search, David is pursued by a large, feminine, troll-like monster named Hyda and a creature with glowing white eyes named Heap, who has a coat as a body like the ones in David's closet earlier.

After the last memory is found, Teddy and David try to go through the slide that would lead back to the playhouse, but Heap grabs onto Teddy to stop David from completing the last memory. David hangs over an abyss and Teddy's arm is ripped off due to the weight of David. David then falls into a dark place lit by a series of floodlights. David follows Zoey's voice and sees her drinking from a bottle as she transforms into Hyda (implying that they and Heap are the same) before disappearing. David is left alone in the dark, with window lights coming from up ahead, leading him back to the playhouse. After using the last memory to open the playhouse's door, David sees cracks in a door that's straight ahead. Once through the door, David is back in his room (having exited through the closet). David heads downstairs to find Zoey crying in the kitchen, with the damaged Teddy in one hand, and an empty wine bottle in the other, which she drops. When David attempts to retrieve Teddy, Zoey knocks David over and shouts at him to leave her alone. She apologizes and tells David she didn't mean to, and that it's too much. David has the option of briefly comforting Zoey should he interact with her again.

There is a knock at the front door that Zoey doesn't react to; instead, she continues crying. When David goes to the door, it opens and reveals a glowing white light. Justin is heard talking to David, remarking on Teddy's broken arm, stating that he can fix him. It is implied that Justin gains full custody of his child after this.

Development of Among the Sleep began in 2011, and attracted 225,000 NOK (€28,000) on 27 May and 200,000 NOK (€25,000) on 28 October in 2011 in funding from the Norsk Film Institutt (Norwegian Film Institute) [2][3] The NFI awarded the company a supplementary 400,000 NOK (€50,000) on 1 March and another 820,000 NOK (€102,700) on 1 November in 2012.[4][5]

Krillbite Studio also gained subsidies by launching a Kickstarter campaign[6] at 18 April 2013, where they managed to pledge $248,358 of a $200,000 target. Achieved stretch goals included a commentary track, downloadable content developed in collaboration with backers, and support for the Oculus Rift virtual reality headset.

Among the Sleep was met with mixed reviews, receiving 7/10 from both GameSpot[14] and Polygon,[19] and accruing an average score of 66 out of 100 on Metacritic.[7]

As of 7 March 2015, over 100,000 copies of the game had been sold.[20]

• Official website
• Developer Krillbite Studio website