Among the Sleep

[Ashtoreth]

i dunno if im just slow as fuck or what but it took me 3 hours

Glad to know I wasn't the only one!
Although I played the game slowly, I did lose some time due to a severely annoying bug that made me die a couple of times and forced me to reload the last checkpoint, because I couldn't progress at all. The guy who reviewed the game for PC Gamer had the exact same issue and he mentions it in the review.

Seriously, for a game that had almost 40 people testing it before release (they're all listed in the credits), and considering the time it took for such a short game to be developed, the amount of bugs, glitches and physics issues that I encountered is fucking unbelievable!

Anyway, I think that playing the game at a slower pace really helps to perceive the meaning of the hints that are given as the story progresses...

(Stop reading if you haven't played the game yet and intend to do it)

Spoiler below!

For example, the drawings on the walls and the booze bottles.

At first I thought the game would be about an abusive husband/father. My initial theory was that he was violent towards the mother and eventually the child. Also, that could explain why the mum disappears from the house after the intro (the father could have beaten her to death or something - yikes!).

When I realised that the monster had female characteristics, I felt a bit confused, but for some reason I still stuck to the theory that the "bad parent" was the father, and the booze bottles reinforced that idea in my mind (alcoholic dad).

However, I didn't feel entirely surprised or shocked by the ending, because I started to put the pieces together (female monster + the drawings with an apparently female figure showing signs of mistreatment towards a child figure).

I felt sorry for the mum actually, I think she might have been going through postpartum depression or something.