This was a very strange-looking little character.
In the opening story, it seemed to revolve around a family. The child suffered abuse within the household, and it was genuinely uncomfortable to watch.
However, the story was not the core of the game. The core lay in its gameplay.
After just a few brief story fragments flashed by, the game officially entered the playable section.
The small figure from the story began wandering around a square room, wearing an expression of pain.
For some reason, the young man with the afro felt a strong sense of déjà vu—as if he had seen this scene in another game before.
It wasn't hard to guess which one.
The visual style and room-based layout were simply too familiar, too classic.
This was exactly like the early Legend of Zelda games.
The original Zelda placed players in a series of boxed-in rooms, adventuring from one area to another, defeating monsters, collecting artifacts, and ultimately saving the world and the princess.
But The Binding of Isaac had no princess to save.
The protagonist here felt more like a fugitive.
In the game, the main character was constantly fleeing from a nightmare, growing stronger step by step during the escape.
Each dungeon contained items or equipment with random attributes.
At first, the afro-haired young man felt the game was a bit difficult—but still within a controllable range.
He thought to himself: If this is all there is, then the game would be pretty boring.
But then again, that was understandable.
This was a game made by the God of Games in just a few days.
No matter how skilled someone was, without enough time, it would be impossible to make a truly deep game.
It was just like the 2D side-scrolling infinite-world game he himself had made during the competition.
All the content he wanted to add had only been rough prototypes. Time simply hadn't allowed him to implement more ideas.
That was also why he hadn't even finished the game within the required time limit.
Every time he cleared a dungeon of monsters, the items he obtained provided certain buffs to the character.
Soon, the afro-haired young man noticed that these items and pieces of equipment all came with modifiers.
Some had "Mom" modifiers.
Some had "Fly" modifiers.
These modifiers clearly represented different traits.
And when different modifiers were combined, they formed sets with distinct effects.
Completing a set dramatically boosted the character's combat power—far more than the earlier, minor upgrades.
At the same time, monsters began appearing in greater numbers.
Their strength steadily increased, and their combat behavior became more intelligent.
Some enemies were so formidable that the young man even felt as if he were fighting a real player—like a PvP battle against a living human.
When the gameplay reached the mid-game stage, enemy difficulty surged once again.
That was when he suddenly realized he needed to deliberately aim for more complete sets.
Because sets were the most efficient way to massively increase strength.
Unsurprisingly, since he hadn't paid attention to set collection earlier, he couldn't withstand the monsters' attacks in the mid-game and died—forcing a full restart.
This restart-from-zero mechanic was something he was already familiar with.
Wasn't this just a roguelike random dungeon system?
This kind of system had a major advantage:even if a game didn't have a lot of content, the roguelike structure could greatly increase its depth and replayability.
That was exactly why so many indie games loved this approach—it was the classic "small investment, big payoff" design solution.
Previously, the afro-haired young man had looked down on this kind of gameplay.
He felt it was a shortcut—lazy design.
But now…
He started a new run.
This time, he consciously focused on collecting equipment and completing sets to prepare for later battles.
Now he really had to think.
And merely thinking wasn't enough.
He also needed solid execution skills—and, more importantly, a deeper understanding of the game.
He had to gradually familiarize himself with the effects of many different items and mentally plan how different sets might synergize.
Lost in this process of thinking and experimenting, he completely lost track of time.
"Hey, what are you doing?"
A voice suddenly sounded behind him.
The afro-haired young man snapped out of it and looked back, only to see the head of the game development department frowning at him.
"Ah—sorry, Boss. I got a bit absorbed."
"Absorbed? You mean… absorbed in playing a game?"
"Uh… yeah. I'll get back to work right away. My tasks—"
As he spoke, he glanced at the wall clock—and his eyes widened in disbelief.
The department head said with a strange expression,"It's already nine in the evening. Didn't you notice?"
"That can't be… I clearly remember…"
He clearly remembered it being a little after one in the afternoon.
He had just finished lunch and decided to download the game to kill some time.
So how had it suddenly become nine at night?
"All right. Get back to work tomorrow. Go home and get some rest."
The department head waved his hand.
He hadn't had much to do that day and had just stopped by the company.
Seeing lights still on in the development building, he got curious and came up to check.
That was when he saw the afro-haired young man playing a game.
A game he didn't recognize.
"O… okay."
The young man still couldn't quite believe it himself.
He had actually played nonstop for that long.
Even though he initially thought the game didn't seem particularly fun.
Yet without realizing it, he had been completely immersed.
He clearly remembered not thinking much of the game earlier.
And this was only a demo.
At that moment, he recalled the comments below the game.
Some players had said they'd lost track of time while playing.
So that's what they meant…
"Oh right—what game were you playing just now?"
The department head turned and asked.
"It's called The Binding of Isaac. It's a game made by Takayuki."
"Takayuki made it? I haven't heard of him releasing a game called The Binding of Isaac recently."
"Oh, this isn't a big company-led project. It's an indie game he made by himself—to drive traffic to the indie game crowdfunding section."
"Crowdfunding? Indie games?"