OneShot

OneShot features a variety of puzzles that are solved from a top-down perspective.

In OneShot, the player controls the child Niko, who is placed into an unfamiliar sunless world.[2] Although the game exclusively shows Niko's viewpoint, employing a top-down perspective,[3] the player is a separate character. Throughout the game, Niko can rest, causing the program to close; upon reopening, a short dream sequence is played.[2]

As is typical for adventure games, gameplay is primarily composed of solving puzzles (including fetch quests) involving items.[4] Items can either be used to interact with a specific location, or combined to form a new item.[5] Throughout the game, the player encounters in-game computers, which signal that the player has to find content outside the game, including in the filesystem.[6] This can also involve interacting with the computer in other ways – for instance, moving the game window off-screen and back to mimic developing film.[7] Due to these concepts the in-game instructions recommend playing in windowed mode.[5]

The game's protagonist is a juvenile cat-like person,[lower-alpha 1] Niko, who awakes in a dark and unfamiliar house.[4][8] They interact with a computer, which addresses the player by a name derived from the computer's login name via an external dialog box.[2] According to the machine, the world that Niko currently is in is close to ruin, and the goal of the player is to guide Niko back to their homeworld. They discover the world's sun,[9] which takes the form of a lightbulb, and use it to exit the house, emerging in a barren wasteland.

There, they encounter a robot, who informs them that they are prophesied to save the world. Niko's goal is to carry the sun through the world's three areas,[9] and place it at the top of a central tower, restoring light to the world;[2] the current area, termed the "Barrens", is a desolate wasteland. This robot teaches Niko to communicate with the player's presence, discovering that the player apparently is a god of the in-game world and that Niko is their "Messiah". Their responsibility in-game as a god is purportedly to assist and guide Niko. Niko meets Silver, a more sentient "tamed" robot, who gifts them a piece of amber, which Niko uses to journey into the next area of the world.

This area, termed the "Glen", has arboreal characteristics.[4] To aid their journey, Niko interacts with the area's residents, including the younger child Alula and older child Calamus, as well as the nature spirit Maize. Niko finally enters the urbanized third area, the "Refuge", and is directed to the city library; they travel down to the city's surface to get there, meeting various characters, such as a lamplighter, along the way.[4] Once at the library, they are directed to the head librarian, George, and get her attention with the help of researcher Kip Silverpoint. After some study, George translates a book of Niko's. It states that the tower, which is controlled by an "entity", can be accessed using three phosphoric items. This "entity" is apparently the same voice that interacted with the player at the beginning of the game, and has some level of control over the world. Niko happens to have two suitable items on hand, and George gifts them the final one.

Niko arrives at the tower, with the player unable to speak to Niko anymore. The entity informs them that both they and the player have reached their goal, and that they will return home now. Niko sees this as anti-climatic, but complies. The player finds a mysterious note has appeared as their new desktop wallpaper, telling them how to reconnect with Niko, and the player reappears, guiding them to the top. Discovering notes made by a mysterious figure termed "the Author", they learn that the entity has grown out of control and became destructive. Once at the top, the Author informs them that they can either break the sun and return Niko home, which would destroy the world, or place the sun at the top of the tower, trapping Niko in this world. Niko leaves the decision up to the player, forming the ending of the game.

The game started as freeware; this version was made in a month, and released online on June 30, 2014 by creators Eliza Velasquez and Casey Gu.[11] It was developed as an entry for RPGMakerWeb's 2014 Indie Game Maker Contest, but did not receive any accolades.[12]

According to Gu, OneShot was designed with an all-encompassing "dark but vibrant" theme to reflect the lack of sunlight in the setting.[13] The areas of its world were inspired by the RGB colour model, and music for each area was only composed after its respective visual design was completed. Both Gu and Velasquez cite several thematic inspirations for the original game, including Hyper Light Drifter, The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening, Yume Nikki, and The Little Prince.[11] In a later interview with PC Gamer, Velasquez also attributed the fourth-wall-breaking aspect of the game to the character Psycho Mantis from Metal Gear Solid.[7]

After being featured at GDC,[6] the previous version's "rerelease" was made available on Steam two years later, on December 8, 2016.[14] On March 28, 2017, the Steam version was updated, with a new "Solstice" ending path that solved some mysteries that players had about the game's content.[10] A Mac release of this version was made available on May 31, 2018, with gameplay intended to be "as close to the Windows version as possible".[15] This was followed by a Linux version, which was released on April 24, 2019.[16]

OneShot received largely positive reviews according to the review aggregator Metacritic.[17] Rock, Paper, Shotgun writer John Walker referred to it as "completely charming, delightfully written, and extremely clever"[2] Charlie Nicholson of New Game Network compared it to Undertale and Pony Island, but conceded that it wasn't "revolutionary".[4]

Multiple reviewers commended the metafictional aspects of the game. Walker claimed that "It does stuff with my PC that I didn't know games could do".[2] Charlie Nicholson praised its "transcen[sion of]... boundaries to directly involve the player", stating that he was tempted "to resort to blue-tacking [his] webcam".[4]

Hardcore Gamer reviewer Spencer Rutledge praised the game's story, stating that "OneShot effortlessly conveys emotion".[9] Walker stated that its cast "nearly always contain[s] a moment that will make you smile".[2] Opposingly, Nicholson claimed it did not have depth compared to other metafictional games, deeming its cast "lacking" and too distant from Niko.[4] Both Nicholson and Rutledge positively reviewed the game's art direction, with the former stating that it aurally "almost seems like a dream at times".

In 2017, OneShot was nominated for the "PC Game of the Year" category of the Golden Joystick Awards.[18]

• Official website