I really wanted to like this game. But I just couldn't. The envrironment is as bland as it gets. The house feels lifeless and boring. The choice in this game is simplistc, and the outcomes are predictable. The stealth mechanic is in the way of what the game is supposed to be; but without it, it becomes even more repetitive and dull. The writing is not bad, which seems like a victory for a videogame, but it feels lacking in characterization. There are hints everywhere of interesting directions the game could have taken, but it manages to avoid all of them. The ending result is a bland, dull and completely unremarkable experience.

As for the beginning i should mention that i'm a highly emotive person but cold-hearted at the same time, who could watch any emotionally disturbing events and never blink an eye if circumstances demand so, however this game didn't even bother to try me. I'll probably get assaulted by some who presumably were tackled by the emotiveness of this game, but i'll take my chances since, frankly, there is no single reason why i would give it a thumbs up.

It is indeed a game which tends to appeal on emotions, but it fails this part too, except a few occasion when it manages to touch the player, and further on i'll explain why. First of all, it's almost one year after release and the game is still buggy. You can see that for yourself in the 2 screenshots i've posted on the game's community hub. Characters can sit on invisible chairs, type on invisible typing machines or read books while their heads are stuck in the table, etc, and all of that in less than 4 hours of gaming... Also, Dan, the main character developed a habit to close the doors of his office when he needs to rest or focus on the book he's writing, and doesn't want to be disturbed by his family. I got stuck in his office for quite a few times, having nothing to do, just waiting and wondering when will he finally open the doors so i can get out. At first i relied on the fact that me being a ghost, i'm not supposed to be seen opening doors, but imagine my surprise when i saw for the first time his wife walking in the office right through the closed door, and walking out through the other one. I was like "WTF? I am the damn ghost in this house or this this family who clearly posseses more supernatural skills than i do ?!"

Leaving all bugs and glitches behind, the whole purpose of the game is to find out what the family members wish for, and try to make them all happy, or at least feeling less miserable, by choosing somebody's wish and make a compromise with other member. Problem is the choices are sometimes ridiculous. For example: the mother wants to go camping on some place far from home, the father wants to go camping somewhere near by, and the son wants his father to help him launch his toy rocket. You choose father's wish to go camping somewhere near by and try to reach a compromise with his wife based on the fact that he's behind the schedule with his work on the book. Done. The son remains unhappy. WHY ?! Even if the father is so ridiculously busy at home, why can't he just take 5 minutes and help his son launch a toy rocket while they were camping for almost an entire day? And this is only one example from an entire list of unrealistic stupid choices one has to make.

What else made me be so cold-hearted towards this game's attempt to appeal on my emotions ? The almost empty house, the dull environment, the repetitive actions of the characters which walk from a part of the house to another over and over, and mostly the lack of any active emotions between them. Upon the interaction of the characters in the house you'll just hear "Hi mom" and the answer back "Hi darling", and that's all, after which they all go do something different, mother watches TV, the son plays with a toy, and the father drinks by himself in the office or sticks his head again in the table and starts to read. Does that look like a busy family to you where they presumably can't find the time to satisfy each other ?

There are many other things i could list, but looks like my review is becoming too long, so i'll just stop here. The overall experience felt boring and tedious. There is no way i could recommend to anybody this clearly overpriced and overrated game.

Great title for Dear Esther/ Gone Home/ Vanishing of Ethan Carter Fans. At the end of the game I really cared about Kaplans Family. Graphics are "sufficient" and soundtrack really suits the game.Score 8 out of 10 [ 10/10 if u got it from humble bundle for few $]. It takes about 2,5 hours to complete the game and I guess you can complete it few times to get different endings.

I will say that I was initially intrigued by this game because of the gameplay, story and etheral feel exploring the setting. However, the novelty of The Novelist quickly wears off. It is, unfortunately, extremely repetitive. It does not encourage or reward exploration, it forces it. It forces you to search every square inch of the same 8 or so rooms over and over. Once you do, there is no catharsis. Every ending is happy and sad. I get that they tried to make it like life, but it makes you feel bad and it hammers home the fact that family is good, job is bad. There is potential here, but not executed well.

A sort of "slice of life" simulator, where you play a nosy ghost with the ability to bend people to your will. Sort of.

Actually, it's like The Walking Dead, except your choices have actual impact. No, but really. It's also like Dear Esther or Gone Home, but with a little bit more actual gameplay (I highly recommend the "Stealth" difficulty level), and your decisions throughout impact the entire story and the Kaplans' relationships as well as the ending. You have to balance the father's career as a writer (side note: as a writer myself, Dan hit a little too close to home), the mother's stalled career as a painter, and their son's emotional turmoil--or you can fail miserably. Doom everyone to a life of misery, focus on one family member at the expense of the others, or flail around looking for a happy medium; the choice is yours.

I'd definitely recommend picking this up on sale--$15USD is unfortunately steep for such a short game--and then setting aside an uninterrupted 2-3 hours with a cup of tea or something to play it all the way through. It's well worth your time.

Really refreshing and interesting experience, although ocassionally shallow and boring will leave variety of different kind of opinions varying from person to person.

It is a game that your actions and choices have certain consequences on the story and its development. I would say that the game starts slowly at the beginning, and then follows a safe line not trying to be too initiative on trying something new over the time. As I've already said, really lackluster experience, especially at the end given that the actions and gameplay focuses on you doing the same thing over and over again.

The game sums up in: you trying to figure out how to help people and overcome their obstacles whether publishing a book or painting or going on a trip. You can't please everyone, hence why your actions will have different effect on people around you. Mechanics that this game tries to implement and force are nothing too astonishing, and will often be recognized as tedious after a while.

I would say that this game is a solid 5/10, nothing too special, but enough to get you intrigued in this 2-3 hours long journey. Definitely worth picking up when it hits the bigger discount, but bare in mind that this game focuses heavily on story and your actions on the progression, rather than gameplay and whatelse.

Once I started this game, I could not stop. Recommended buy!

Although this game is 'story rich', I dont think the story is very good. Its full of cliches (writer with writer's block, boy wants to play, dad wants to work, mom tries to hold family together, etc) and extremely superficial. You make choices but they dont mean anything when the consequence is just text at the end of the scene. Its just so...predictable. All the kid ever wants to do is play, so, shocker, when you dont play with him he gets depressed. So what? Why am I suppose to care about the kid at all? The game doesnt give you any reason to like any of the characters.

And we are suppose to believe that Dan is so busy he cant do anything else with his wife and kids but. . . hes not. He sits around the house all day, goes camping, fishing. In one chapter they show a schedule. It has 8 hours sleep, 1 hour break, 2 hours decompression. Really? Thats 11 hours where hes doing nothing. Real busy people rest half that amount on any given workday.

I really hate to hammer an indie game. But it has a steep price tag so people should know what theyre in for. And for what it gives you there are better options out there. Gods Will Be Watching is a brilliant game about choices and consequences, with much better dialogue and characters that felt. . . alive. Or if you like walking simulators with notes all over, I would even recommend Gone Home before this, which has a very cute story, is the same length, and doesnt have you revisiting the same 4 rooms 15 times.

Upon reading about the gameplay, I was quickly excited to see what this game had to offer, hoping for variety and a good story. Thankfully I got both! I was also surprised to hear some rather good voice acting that I hadn't expected to find in this game, but it really helped set the immersion.
The game "was" short, but it was very fulfilling, especially having done it on Stealth-mode. Being short, I feel I can even play it a few more times to see what the results will be like if I make different choices.
Some of the choices were easy to make, some were minor, but there were a few VERY tough choices. I beat the game in a few hours, but the choices, story, and affect from the characters made this feel like it went on for days, but in a VERY good way. I'm hoping for a sequel, given that there is room for it, but I don't even feel like there's much need for any change outside of making a new story and maybe a new environment.
If I had any negative comments about the game, it would be reading up on the former entries of those in the house. They were great stories too, but I felt like they didn't explain much beyond that the ghost helped people who lived there. I was hoping to find out who the ghost is or learn more about one person at a time. It seemed the stories of the past got rushed by a bit.
All-in-all, I highly recommend this game. Very easy-paced, simple, and enjoyable. A nice break from more intense games or a tense day.

The Novelist is a good game for some, but a must for anyone interested in exploring the balance between personal fulfillment and responsibility to others. It is especially relevant to writers, who will identify with the protagonist. It is careful and mature in its gameplay, relying on patience and thoughtfulness. For its brevity, as a 2-3 hour game, The Novelist balances character depth, decision making and gameplay well.

It is neither Cull of Duty, nor War and Peace, but rewarding in its simplicity. Action gamers should ignore it; indie gamers should explore it. Serious writers will get it.

The Novelist is a solid story-driven game, its far from reaching the highs of the best story driven games and it has its flaws but it kept my interest rnough. The main focus is exploring the house and locating enough items and memories to figure out the family’s problems and to choose how to solve them. It exploration isn't as well executed as Gone Home, but it works fine enough. I played the mode where you don't have to hide because I felt like the hiding mechanic was just tacked on in order to try and make it more of a traditional game and it really isn't necessary. The consequences of your actions aren't super complex but they change it up enough to make it interesting and leave it open for replays. If you're up for something different give The Novelist a shot, especially when its on sale.

So, where do I begin, I spent 7.50 on it cause it was on sale. I was kinda questioning about the game itself really, before I purchased it. It seemed like a game I would've liked to play. I honestly really enjoyed this game. I've read some of the other reviews, yes it was quite repeitive, yes it was quite simple. But I mean for a simple game with a nice story line, I'm the type of person who actually likes ot play games with decision. Although I wish the story went quite longer, I would hope to have a sequel to this game if anything. I really enjoy it. To make decisions based on what you feel like doing, cause in the end this game could be a life lesson, what if we really did blow off time with family to get our work done? It just shows the possibility of everything.

I think you might need a spouse and children to appreciate this game. My guess is there's just not as much emotional impact if you don't have real life experience balancing family choices trying to make everyone happy while still taking care of yourself.

The gameplay itself is very simple: you just explore a house, reading clues, looking at drawings, and listening to snippets of dialogue to figure out what each family member wants. Then you tell the title character, Dan, which choice he should make, which moves the story into the next segment, with a brief update on each family member's progress. There is a mild stealth element in which you can "spook" family members if they see you moving around, which will close off their choice. This can be turned off if you don't want to worry about it, but I kept it on and only spooked somebody once in my entire playthrough.

I found some of the decisions pretty tough, but in the end I kept a very balanced approach and got an ending in which everyone seemed basically hapy and successful. I'm somewhat curious to try it again while pushing really hard in favor of one family member or another to see what happens, but I'm not sure I want to see the sad endings. Overall, I don't know if three hours of gameplay is worth full price, but I could recommend this on sale.

A great thought provoking game where your actions and choices directly influences how the life of the characters will progress. It's a beautiful game where it gives you a glimpse of the complexities of family life and makes you question your own values and beliefs. You get to see their life unfold through the perspective of each of the family members and the game gives you the chance to alter it as you see fit. 11/10

I nice way to spend a rainy morning.

I was looking forward to this game, but i was disappointed.

The gameplay is very repetitive: Find clues, explore each of the three characters memory, read thoughts and then choose what to do. Repeat for the following chapters.
Towards the end i stopped reading everything and just wanted to finish it...

I can't recommend it, some of you probably love it but i just found it very boring.

Absolutely great game, makes you think about the value of small choices and about how your life interacts with that of others around you. Beautiful, deeply immersive and interesting. Thanks for a wonderful experience!



*recorded time is wrong- I finished the game in around three hours*

This game's narrative complexity in how close to reality it is is what sold it for me. The reality of every choice is very well laid out for you and there are no right answers and no way to make everything great. Some choices you make affect different characters differently and in varying amounts. Definitely worth a look. This is another video game that proves that video games at large are an art form.

It is true that there are some tragically underrated indie games that try to takle personal, emotional narratives. This is not one of those games.

The premise is actualy quite good: you are a ghost inhabiting a summer home where you stealthily uncover and influence one family's problems. I tend to be a big fan of similarly narrative-driven indie games like Gone Home and To The Moon. Unfortunately, this great idea is executed poorly at almost every opportunity. The art-style is bland and repetitive, the house is small and inadequately designed, the music is boring and ill-fitting, and the levels do not get more challanging or though-provoking as the game progresses. By the end of your two hour play-through you will have experienced an interesting but ultimately disappointing game.

A fun casual indie game with a unique style! Easy gameplay and a really interesting story, it's not a very long game but the ability to choose different options means there's a really high replay value!