Before Your Eyes is a game about blinking as life flashes, well, before your eyes. You witness a collection of moments from the life of a talented artist, with a few twists along the way, but one of its most effective mechanics comes from outside that core blinking mechanic.

Spoilers follow.

This is a spoiler for a specific mechanic in Before Your Eyes, so tread lightly, but one of the most effective late-game moments during the extended conclusion of the game are a handful of sequences where you must hold your eyes closed and just listen. The change in gameplay is incredibly effective and forces you to focus wholly on the narrative in a new way. We recently spoke with game director Oliver Lewin and creative director Graham Parkes about brining Before Your Eyes to mobile devices, care of Netflix, and during that conversation we dove deeper into that specific mechanic, how it came about, and why it's a high compliment to be told something you made is sad.