A Lakeside Walk in the Dolomites

The player finds themselves on a dimly lit path in a quiet forest surrounding the lake in Alleghe. The ground crunches softly beneath their feet, and the dim glow of street lamps cuts through the dense branches above. There is no music, no voices—only the sound of distant insects and the wind brushing against the trees. Benches sit abandoned under the lights, as if waiting for someone who never arrived. Every step forward brings the forest in closer, and the weight of the night begins to press down. There’s a sense of disconnection, not from the world entirely, but from what the place might be hiding.

Things Left Unspoken

What begins as an ordinary walk quickly reveals patterns too deliberate to be natural. An empty playground stands still under a pale lamp. The slide, the swings, the notices on the wooden board—each feels preserved rather than abandoned. It’s as if something wants you to look, but not too closely. The deeper the player proceeds, the less reliable the landscape becomes. Lights flicker. The path splits, then vanishes. The signs meant to guide now feel like warnings. It’s not fear that dominates, but unease. Something is present, though nothing moves. The place resists being understood.

A Game of Presence and Absence

A Lakeside Walk in the Dolomites is a brief interactive experience created for the Spaghetti Invasion Game Jam 2025. With a playtime of around 15 minutes, the game invites players to observe more than act, to notice more than solve. There are no puzzles, no tasks, and no narration. Instead, there is atmosphere, structure, and suggestion. The lake, always just beyond the trees, is never approached directly—but it never leaves your awareness either. Whether it holds meaning, memory, or something else entirely is left unresolved. What the player brings into the experience shapes what they take from it.