Nocturn Recovered Cover Art
6/18/2023
Hey, so, I'm not really sure how to start this. I'm posting this because I remembered an old piece of lost media, specifically a video game. I can't remember when it came out, somewhere around the early 2000s I think, but I swear it existed. The game was called Nocturn, a supposed lost indie title.
If you go looking for it, you'll find nothing, and that's what's so weird to me. Everything about the game has been wiped from the internet, and not many people seem to either remember it or even know what It is.
The only surviving remnants of the game that I have are some really old screenshots I've collected, along with the original cover art, which I'll upload to go with this post. Anyway, from what I remember, Nocturn was an unfinished RPG that had some horror elements to it.
Donnie
In the game, you play as a little boy named Nathan, who had a lighter and a weird stitched up teddy bear. In the game, you start out in this grassy field with a road next to it. In the field, there are a bunch of flowers scattered around.
When leaving the area, you'll find the first NPC you encounter, who is this armless creature with big black eyes. When walking up to him, he tells you his name is Donnie, and then tells you how he wishes he had arms so that he could hug people. He goes on to tell the player to be careful of 'The Forest', and to bring a light with you to stay away from 'The Shadow Man'.
Katelyn Encounter
Continuing onward down the street, you'll meet the next NPC, a girl in a red dress. When talking to her, her name is revealed to be Katelyn, and she is apparently a friend of Nathan. She then points out a lighter on the ground, and tells the player that they can have it to keep. Taking the lighter will then prompt you to go into the next part of the game, which was a dark forest. If I remember right, you run into some monsters that try to attack you. Then you run back to Katelyn and she helps you fight the monsters.
I can't exactly remember what the main story of the game was, but it would lead to you having a party with Katelyn and Donnie, going to different strange places in the game that were really trippy.
Ditto
Since the game is so mysterious, It's kind of an urban legend now. I remember back in the day, a couple people I met online who were also searching for it discussed the strange character that was referenced by Donnie, 'The Shadow Man'. In two of the screenshots I have, there appears to be this shadow character.
It was said by some people that the Shadow Man was a strange entity that would show up at random points throughout the game, not in any specific places, but just anywhere around the game world's map.
Supposed Screenshot of 'The Shadow Man'
The Shadow Man is all black, except for him having these large, light blue eyes. It was believed by some people that, due to the Shadow Man's behavior, it was some kind of hoax or something. Some people would make up stories how he was a kind of ghost or something. Apparently, whenever you find the Shadow Man and try to walk up to him, the screen will distort, and you will be teleported to a strange, dark location.
When exploring this location, you can find random items floating around, and the player will be stuck in this place until they reset the game.
It's not really known why the game was unfinished. Like I said, you can barely find anything about it online, but theories range from development hell to bad work environments. The only thing known about the game's development is that it was created by a now defunct game company called 'Yenellow Games'.
void
Just like with Nocturn, you cannot find very much about the company, or anything about the developers who worked on the game.
There were some playtesters of the game who apparently talked about their experience with Nocturn. They stated that there were strange sounds and hiccups in the audio of the game, and after playing, the testers felt nausea. Theories ranging from audio frequencies and the game being cursed have also been thrown around, but nobody is really sure.
7/05/2023
Hey, it's been a while. About, I wanna say, a couple weeks have passed since I last posted, and this thing has been getting a bit of attention. To that, I say thank you for giving this a look in the first place. I don't have anything too special right now, but I thought I'd leave a little update, since I have some more info.
About two weeks after I had posted for the first time, I met a guy who had been on the search for the game as well. He sent me his username, and we chatted on Discord for a bit. Apparently, this guy actually remembers playing Nocturn as a playtester, and told me some stuff about his experience. Most of the stuff everyone had been theorizing about was true, (as confirmed by him), but there was something that he specifically remembers in his playthrough. Oh, before I forget, the guy's name, or at least his username: it's YoshiPloshi.
He says that he remembers playing a copy of it around 2006 or 2007, and that he had last left off in a location called 'The Keeper's Zone', which was a road floating on a trippy wavey background with flashing colors. I asked him if he remembered how he obtained a copy, to which he replied saying one of his old friends' dads was a dev at Yenellow Games, the supposed lost indie game company responsible for Nocturn's creation. He told me how the game was like titles such as Yume Nikki, or Undertale, but with a off-putting feeling the whole time. He described the feeling as like he was being watched while playing the game, but after he stopped, it went away. He would then tell me how he attempted to find 'The Shadow Man'. We talked about the Shadow Man's many urban legends and stories, until he told me his story.
As he was playing all those years ago, The Shadow Man had kept appearing, and every time it did, it gave YoshiPloshi an unnerving feeling. So, he would try to run away from the NPC, but after a while, it began to follow him and the party. He then told me that as he was checking his inventory, he noticed things started to go missing, like a health item or a weapon like a knife.
I would ask him if he remembered if the game contained strange music, to which he confirmed when he told me that he began to feel more sick as he played, and he thought that the soundtrack had random high pitched screeches at some points.
So far, that's all I can write, but I'll keep updating if I get anything new. So far we know YoshiPloshi's friend's Dad was supposedly a former developer at Yenellow, and that most of the stuff we talked about was true.