Family Secrets 1: Empty Plate

Publisher: BADCAT GAMES

Developer: BADCAT GAMES

Platform: Microsoft Windows (via itch.io)

Price: $4.00

There are two reasons why Family Secrets 1: Empty Plate (henceforth referred to merely as Empty Plate) is not as emotionally devastating as That Dragon, Cancer. 

The first is that it isn't a true story. 

The second is that some of its horror features cheapen the overall tone.

That being said...if you're like me and you enjoy getting your heart ripped out by something that sticks with you for a while, then good golly holly will Empty Plate provide. 

In case you've been living under a rock...or, you know, you just don't follow the same people as me...Empty Plate was recently released to staggeringly positive reviews and a ton of attention from the horror sphere on Youtube. 

Created by an 18 year-old solo developer from Malaysia, many of us can only dream of seeing this kind of success from any small passion projects we may have in mind. 

But is all that hype deserved? Horror Youtubers tend to like pretty much anything, so is this the rare game that's actually as good as they all say?

Mostly yes.

Let's get into it.

Empty Plate takes place entirely within an unassuming household. At the start of this plot, our 8 year-old protagonist, Miko, receives a call from his mother. Because of the family's dwindling finances, the mother has had to pick up a part time job that will evidently keep her away from the house for a couple of days...as "part-time" jobs are known to do. Thus, Miko will have to look after his 6 year-old sister, Jun, for as long as it takes for their mom to get back. 

But as the days go by, it becomes clear that there's something amiss. Still, Miko dedicates his time to being a good brother and convincing Jun that everything will be ok.

Cue the collective "oh no"s. 

Yeah, Empty Plate is going to rip your heart out. You'll probably be able to guess why after playing it for a while...but even though your guess will probably be right, you still won't be prepared for the devastating execution.

This is because, despite the simplistic visuals, BADCAT GAMES is clearly a master of detail-framing. This story won't just get you because the events are sad. It'll get you because of the little details it includes to make the implications even sadder. 

For a not-sad, not-spoilery example, the first detail you're likely to notice once the initial cutscene ends is that the very first step you take is actually a step down. After noticing this, you'll likely look behind you to find that you were standing on a chair in order to reach the phone in the first place. So from second one, the game uses a simple detail to reinforce that you are little little. 

So imagine that kind of intentionality but applied to a heartbreaking sequence. The final cutscene in particular is a masterclass in direction, and it still stuns me to think that this is all from someone who is just barely not a kid anymore. 

As you can tell, Empty Plate isn't for the faint of heart...but there's another reason for that. At the end of the day, this is a horror game. And sadly, I felt that the horror cheapened the effect of several scenes that could have made this story even more impactful. 

Essentially, the opening few minutes are front-loaded with undeniably effective but incredibly cheap jumpscares. After that, the jumpscares disappear entirely, but you won't know that until the credits roll without further incidents. In this way, the horror is centered around dread, but not in the way it should have been. 

The dread should have been squarely on the fate of the children. 

How is the implication of the letter that arrived going to affect them? 

What if mom isn't coming back? 

Things like that. 

And when you're in dialogue sequences, that's the focus for sure. 

But when I was controlling Miko, that changed. Instead of "what if Jun's fever gets worse?" my worry in these segments was "what if I shit my pants?" 

For seasoned horror fans, maybe this wouldn't be a big problem. But I felt that, as wrecking as this story was, it could've been even more impactful had I spent the entire game with my dread in the correct place. 

With this being a mostly story-focused game, there isn't a lot of gameplay to discuss. You essentially get objectives clearly spelled out for you, you do them, and then you get a cutscene. About half the time, this involves getting a flashlight, walking around the house at night looking for something for Jun, and dreading jumpscares...but there's no need to repeat myself on that front.

From a technical standpoint, Empty Plate is kind of a mess. It's a mess I can forgive given the relative inexperience of this young developer and the modest price tag, but it's a mess nonetheless. 

For example, I and several others had the in-game text language randomly switch to Malay during the introductory cutscene after a line or two. This helped me learn that "English" in Malay is "Bahasa Ingerris" when I went into the options to change it back, but an educational bug is still a bug. 

Since completing the game, I've also seen some content creators experience crashes for doing certain things out of order.

Then there are some translation issues. In particular, you'll notice a common translation oddity that often happens when going from Asian languages to English: pronoun confusion. For instance: "Jun isn't in his bed? Where did she go?" Not the end of the world, obviously, especially when you see the amount of languages available and remember this developer couldn't possibly have learned that many of them in school.

Finally, there's a bit of what I guess I'd call "record scratch" animation problems in one cutscene towards the end. By this, I mean the first few seconds of the cutscene play out something like 10 times before finally moving on. This was true for both my playthrough and every other playthrough I watched of this after the fact.

So, there you have it. The itch.io page says this is around half an hour, but really it's more like an hour to an hour and a half. For the low price of $4.00, you get a decent-sized time investment, an adorable cast of characters that you'll want to protect at all costs, and a story that will make you feel something. It isn't perfect by any stretch of the imagination, but this game is an undeniable showcase of storytelling talent from a humble developer who is clearly going places. And I, for one, am rooting for the guy! 

With this being such a small experience, I'll be implementing my "smaller game" scoring rule where an egregious flaw removes 2 points instead of the usual 1.  

Let us review:

Cheap horror that spoils things a bit - 1.5

Technical flaws - 1.0

The final score for Family Secrets 1: Empty Plate is...

7.5/10 - Pretty Good