Before Your Eyes is an afterlife adventure game that you control by blinking

Your real-world webcam will keep watch as you drift through memories of ‘a life once lived’ in this experimental story game

In the narrative adventure Before Your Eyes, each and every blink matters. Literally! GoodbyeWorld Games and Skybound Games are pitching it as an “interactive afterlife played with your eyes.”

As the instantly-bittersweet-looking story unfolds, the game can detect your blinking in real life, using an actual webcam, and that’s how you’ll move forward through scattered scenes of a life well-lived.

The concept behind Before Your Eyes has been kicking around for years – “for the better part of a decade,” according to game director and composer Oliver Lewin – and it can be traced to Close Your, which won the Independent Games Festival Best Student Game award in 2015. Now it’s back as a fleshed-out commercial project with a more distinct art style, and it’s ready for a wider audience.

Between the life-reflecting premise and the trailer footage showing kittens and a funeral service, I’m expecting a full-on tearjerker. Consider restocking your tissues before the April 8 release on Steam.