A rabbit stands before the unknown.
One jump — and his fate is sealed.
One jump — and his fate is sealed.
Maybe I Shouldn't Have Gone Down
the Rabbit Hole After All
the Rabbit Hole After All
A Video Game written in verse
Interactive Storytelling · Cinematic Platformer · Digital Art
Interactive Storytelling · Cinematic Platformer · Digital Art
Maybe I Shouldn't Have Gone Down the Rabbit Hole After All is a video game that blends interactive design and poetry.
You explore a quiet, strange world — empty halls, windswept hills, fractured ruins — where every step reveals fragments of classical literature.
You explore a quiet, strange world — empty halls, windswept hills, fractured ruins — where every step reveals fragments of classical literature.
There are no instructions or dialogue. The story unfolds through your actions, through the spaces you move in, and the words you encounter.
It is a journey of discovery, reflection, and atmosphere — a game that asks you to read with your eyes and move with your mind.
The Descent Begins
In this game, text is not decoration. Every line comes from poetry or classical literature, reframed through interactivity. Words are embedded in the environment, forming rhythm and texture, shaping how you perceive space, time, and action.
The Rabbit Hole is a hybrid work:
— A game of movement and puzzle, inspired by cinematic platformers and walking simulators.
— A narrative composed entirely of quotations, where the player’s choices and motions transform meaning.
— An experiment in how digital spaces can serve as both play and reflective art.
— A narrative composed entirely of quotations, where the player’s choices and motions transform meaning.
— An experiment in how digital spaces can serve as both play and reflective art.
The environments are dreamlike and haunting, each designed to invite pause and reflection. Light and shadow sculpt empty halls, windswept hills, and fragmented ruins.
Sound and silence are equally important: echoes, whispers, and ambient tones make the world feel alive and responsive.
It is a space for curiosity. A space for thought. A space where small gestures — a jump, a pause, a glance — carry weight.
— Cinematic Exploration: Traverse spaces that feel alive with memory, poetry, and subtle narrative cues.
— Immersive Soundscapes: Every movement and echo shapes the world you hear.
— Interactive Poetry: Text is woven into the environment, becoming part of the gameplay itself.
— A Unique Indie Experiment: A fusion of play, literature, and visual art, where exploration and reflection coexist.
A Glimpse Into the Depths
Maybe I Shouldn't Have Gone Down the Rabbit Hole After All stands between video game, literature, and visual art.
It asks what happens when language becomes landscape — when a poem is not read, but crossed.
The game uses the grammar of platforming to explore the rhythm of verse: pauses, breaks, and repetition.
It is less about winning than about perceiving — about understanding movement as a form of meaning.
It is less about winning than about perceiving — about understanding movement as a form of meaning.
Originally a small contest entry, The Rabbit Hole evolved into a rich experimental journey. Its growth brought new explorations in sound design, interactive storytelling, and literary techniques.
The goal was simple yet ambitious: to explore how classical poetry can function inside a video game — not just as decoration, but as part of the world’s texture and meaning.
The result is a project that blurs boundaries: part cinematic platformer, part interactive poem, and part digital art.
The result is a project that blurs boundaries: part cinematic platformer, part interactive poem, and part digital art.
While influenced by cinematic platformers like Another World, Limbo, and immersive walking simulators, The Rabbit Hole extends beyond homage.
It asks how games can serve as reflective spaces, where rhythm, motion, and text create emotion, thought, and memory.
World Map Overview
Enter Maybe I Shouldn't Have Gone Down the Rabbit Hole After All and let the world unfold beneath your steps. Walk, explore, listen, read. Discover a world where poetry shapes movement, sound sculpts space, and every action leaves its mark. Here, a single creator’s ambition transforms pixels and words into an experience that is both playful and profound — an intimate work of digital art crafted by a modern renaissance mind.
Step inside, explore, and witness a space where play becomes reflection, and interaction becomes art.
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⸻ Protagonist ⸻
⸻ Forest ⸻
⸻ Stairs ⸻
⸻ Temple ⸻
⸻ Underground ⸻
⸻ Bridge ⸻
⸻ Abyss ⸻
⸻ Lighthouse ⸻
⸻ Cemetery ⸻
⸻ Shore ⸻
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First Prototype Build — January 2024
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“O Heaven! Is the white Tomb of our Loved One, who died from our arms, and had to be left behind us there, which rises in the distance, like a pale, mournfully receding Milestone, to tell how many toilsome uncheered miles we have journeyed on alone,—but a pale spectral Illusion! Is the lost Friend still mysteriously Here, even as we are Here mysteriously, with God!—know of a truth that only the Time-shadows have perished, or are perishable; that the real Being of whatever was, and whatever is, and whatever will be, is even now and forever.
Believe it thou must; understand it thou canst not.”
— Carlyle
