What is "Before Closure" - Tokyo Game Show 2025

What is “Before Closure” – Tokyo Game Show 2025

During Tokyo Game Show 2025, the All Ages of Geek team sat down with the creator behind Before Closure, an experimental narrative game that invites players to do something rarely asked in gaming: close their eyes. What unfolds is not just a game, but an emotional space where memory, sound, and vulnerability take center stage.

Rather than relying on traditional mechanics, Before Closure challenges players to slow down, listen, and sit with unresolved feelings. It’s a project that stood out at TGS not for spectacle, but for its quiet confidence and deeply human approach to interactive storytelling.

All Ages of Geek Interviews the Creator of Before Closure at TGS 2025

The Concept Behind Before Closure

At its core, Before Closure is a first-person immersive narrative experience about revisiting a past relationship. Players are presented with a box of personal belongings left behind by an ex-partner. Each object holds a memory, but accessing those memories requires one simple, vulnerable action: closing your eyes in real life.

Using a standard webcam, the game tracks eye movement. When players close their eyes, audio memories begin to play, revealing fragments of a seven-year relationship. The mechanic transforms a natural human action into a storytelling tool, making reflection an active part of gameplay.

The creator shared that the project did not begin with story, but with curiosity. The idea was to explore how closing one’s eyes changes perception, emotion, and awareness. From there, the narrative grew naturally, shaped by personal experiences with past relationships and emotional closure.

An Emotional Experience Built on Trust

An open cardboard moving box on a wooden floor filled with personal items, including photos, a stuffed toy, a cassette recorder, a thermos, and a coffee mug, representing memories and objects explored in the game Before Closure.

Because closing your eyes is such a vulnerable act, the game’s environment was designed to feel safe and comforting. The visuals are calm and minimal, allowing players to focus on sound and memory without distraction. This intentional design choice encourages players to let their guard down and engage honestly with the experience.

During TGS, the developer shared that one player became visibly emotional while playing the demo, even breaking down in tears. For the creator, this reaction was affirming. It confirmed that the emotions explored in Before Closure are universal, and that players were connecting their own experiences to the story being told.

Rather than pushing players toward a specific outcome, the game creates space for reflection. It asks players to listen, not just to the story, but to themselves.

Experimental, Immersive, and Emotional

A cracked white coffee mug floats in a dim room filled with moving boxes and houseplants, with the words “Remember” and “Forget” written on either side, suggesting an emotional choice in the game Before Closure.

When asked to describe the game in just a few words, the creator summarized Before Closure as experimental, immersive, and emotional. These descriptors reflect the project’s willingness to step outside traditional design and embrace something quieter and more introspective.

The game also serves as a reminder that innovation doesn’t always mean adding more systems. Sometimes, it means rethinking how we interact with what’s already there.

Advice for Aspiring Indie Developers

The creator emphasized a simple but important message for those looking to enter game development: make games. The pressure to create something perfect can be overwhelming, but progress comes from iteration, feedback, and allowing ideas to evolve over time.

Before Closure itself grew from a small idea into a fully realized experience by trusting the process and letting experimentation lead the way.

Supporting Before Closure

Before Closure currently has a Steam page, and players can support the project by wishlisting it and sharing it with others who enjoy narrative-driven indie games. The developer also encourages players to engage with the demo and provide feedback as development continues.

All Ages of Geek Asia and Indie Storytelling

This interview is part of All Ages of Geek Asia’s continued effort to spotlight independent creators pushing creative boundaries. Whether it’s a quiet narrative game at Tokyo Game Show or a local creative voice waiting to be discovered, our mission remains the same: uplift meaningful work made with care and intention.