[I.D.: A gifset containing four gifs of the puzzle room game Waiting For Evening.
Gif 1 shows a slowly rotating top down view of a bedroom. Three rings surround the view, along with five hand drawn portraits of the characters Rehan, Feroz, Frieda, Najma, and Meher.
Gif 2 shows a shot of a bedroom. Majma’s character portrait appears, with her dialogue box saying, “You are Feroz Saab’s (Sir’s) son?” Rehan, the player character, replies, “Yes, how did you...”
Gif 3 shows a top down view of the room. It’s surrounded by three rings, one labeled 1927, one labeled 1943, and one labeled 1959. An item labeled “The Cricket Bat” is highlighted in the room. When the player selects it, the characer Feroz appears says, “Our best cricket players were Parsi back then. like us...” To the right of the screen, a red book is opened to a live action black and white photograph of Indian cricket players.
Gif 4 shows the player looking at a nightstand with an open book and a clock on top of it. From the corner of the screen, a red book opens to reveal a handrawn image of a horse that extends from the book to the rest of the screen before fading away.
Waiting For Evening - सांझ का इंतजार is a gentle, generational drama about the personal life of Frieda, a queer Anglo-Indian woman, and her past in the colonial then independent Bombay (now Mumbai). Play as her stepson, who searches Frieda’s home for papers after the death of his father. With items holding history from the 1920s to the 1960s, explore Frieda’s life in this ode to places left behind, cultural crossroads, environmental shifts, intimacy, and relationships at the bounds of society.
Developed by Varun Saxena, a game dev, animator, and filmaker originally from Mumbai, India. He uses his backgrounds to depict new-age storytelling to explore the cross-sections of culture, diversity, and human intimacy. He worked with Alina Constantin to make this game, whose work focuses on our sense of heritage and connection.
