Insomnia: Theater in the Head, a charming game packed with humorous puzzles, beautiful art, impactful storytelling, and a pesky little elf who doesn’t like sleeping much.
Insomnia: Theater in the Head is a very simple game, but despite its simplicity, it is an impactful game at that, especially if you are a person that has had to suffer with the nightly struggle that is dealing with insomnia. The game is both developed and published by Perfect Day Studio, this game is also their first major release, and so far, it is an excellent start.
We’ve all had restless nights, tossing and turning in bed, dreading the morning that is soon to come because you know you’re going to be exhausted the next day, but no matter how hard you try, you just can’t fall asleep. There is no feeling quite like dealing with insomnia; our protagonist knows this all too well. We play as a character simply known as “the girl” who seems to be struggling to fall asleep. She snoozes her alarm, brushes her teeth, gets on a train, goes to work, then heads home to another restless night. She repeats this cycle until eventually after three sleepless nights, things seem to change.
Insomnia: Theater in the Head is a rather simple point-and-click puzzle game with fun and humorous puzzles. Our protagonist has to deal with a noisy little elf that refuses to let her rest. This pesky creature then constructs various stage performances that are meant to keep the girl from sleeping. Each of these surreal theatrical pieces comes with its own set of puzzles that the player will need to solve in order to get the elf to stop. As each stage progresses, the next puzzle becomes more complex and intricate.
These puzzles can get particularly confusing at times, especially as most of them will be filled with loud noises and constantly moving set pieces that are all meant to represent what is going on in the girl’s mind. These set pieces are incredibly distracting and make it hard to focus, but that’s the point.
If you ever find yourself stuck at any point, Insomnia: Theater in the Head gives you the option to click on a little lightbulb icon. The lightbulb allows you to search for clues on how to solve the puzzles, but not in the actual puzzles but rather in the girl’s thought bubble. These clues are often cryptic and written similarly to a poem or haiku, so you’re still going to have to work for a solution to your restlessness.
As mentioned earlier, the entirety of the game takes place in technically one place and one place only, the girl’s head. You see, despite the ever-changing environments and whacky puzzles, this all takes place in her head as she fights with the elf, aka her insomnia. The one thing that Insomnia: Theater in the Head gets right is the feeling of suffering from insomnia.
Insomnia is not a pleasant thing to have to deal with. No matter how tired you are, no matter how exhausting your day was, you just can’t get to sleep. Each puzzle that the player goes through is a different representation of the various things an insomniac deals with throughout the night. From the annoying little elf that won’t leave you alone to the ticking of time, the game gives an accurate representation of the types of things that go through an insomniac’s brain as they struggle to find rest.
Despite not having much in terms of graphics, most of the game is composed of simple animated 2D sprites. The game has excellent use of color that helps convey the feeling of insomnia. While the world our protagonist is solid shades of blues, yellows, and reds. The world of the elf is bright, garish, and incredibly distracting and makes navigating through puzzles rather difficult. In most cases, this would be seen as a negative, but not in the case of Insomnia: Theater in the Head. Due to the game’s themes, these garish environments actually work incredibly well to show how distracting the feeling of insomnia is.
The world of the elf isn’t the only thing that is distracting. Everything about the elf is distracting, from its high-pitched voice to the sound effects and music played during the puzzles. The elf is an incredibly annoying character that just won’t go away no matter what you do. You can’t reason with it, it doesn’t listen to logic, and you can’t even bargain with the creature. It just wants to keep the girl awake for no other reason but to just keep her awake, much like insomnia.
The puzzles that you solve progressively increase in their complexity as each part of the elf’s theater performance starts anew. These puzzles also have a bit of social commentary woven into them, a good example of this is when the girl tries to emotionally exhaust herself by doom scrolling through social media until she can’t scroll anymore from emotional exhaustion. This points out how much of an impact that social media has on our mental state and how we often try to thrive on negativity even though we know it is not good for us.
Insomnia: Theater in the Head isn’t a very long game; it can easily be finished in roughly a few hours. Despite the game’s relatively short length, it is an incredibly impactful experience that gives you an accurate representation of what it’s like to suffer from insomnia and all the things that happen during the night. The game is definitely worth your time, and you will enjoy every second of gameplay and story.
Yes, Insomnia: Theater in the Head is a simple game, yes, it is short, and yes, the elf is incredibly annoying, but the thing is, the game is impactful, it’s relatable, and it’s beautiful visually. The game has one goal and one goal only, which is to show you what it’s like to have insomnia, and it succeeded greatly in achieving that goal, unlike other puzzle games. The game never comes across as inauthentic and tells the struggle of the girl in a way that is respectful and easily understandable.
Despite its very short playtime, Insomnia: Theater in the Head is worth every minute of your time. It is a joy to play visually and mechanically with its enjoyably annoying puzzles that are part of a little elf’s stage performance meant to keep you from getting any decent shut-eye. Insomnia: Theater in the Head is currently available on Steam.
