Immediately upon loading the game, an atmosphere is being projected by the music and text. The usage of an erratic and practically unreadable font makes it seem almost alien like. The music is deceivingly calming with a background beat that feels ominous. Coloring of predominantly black and white suggests some sort of dark tones as if the player is shrouded by darkness. The choice of the developer to include instructions on how to play the game should be noted because it shows that the learning and focus of the gameplay is not centered around learning the controls but rather learning the patterns within the game. On a first playthrough each song is new to the player and it would be likely for them to fail. However, because the song notes stay static across all playthroughs, the player can actually remember the notes of a song and even play it without looking at the screen. This design decision rewards multiple playthroughs and dedication to learning the game. It could also play into the reason for having no random elements in the game. The developer probably intended for it to be purely skill based based on these decisions. I found the mechanic of clicking the notes in itself to be very satisfying when you get all the notes in a big combo. There was no need to add in the color change to green on a correct press for the game to function, and yet it adds a lot to the playability of the game. Imagine if the green color was not in the game. The only way to know if you had pressed the notes correctly would be to wait until the end screen to see if you woke up the person or not. This would be extremely frustrating from a player experience standpoint because learning the timing for the key press would take many attempts of trial and error. I think it shows how the addition of a small detail can drastically change the user experience when playing through. Coming back to the aesthetic of the game, the sound of the notes on the piano is one of the most defining factors of the game. The way that the notes sound almost out of tune sometimes gives the feeling of something being "off". The other defining factor in setting the mood for the game is the large picture that takes up a large part of the screen. It is extremely difficult to discern what is in the picture but the way that the figure depicted seems to be looking directly at you as the player conveys a feeling of uneasiness, as if they know you re there. There is also a sense of tension and stakes created for the player due to how the story is laid out. If the player does not do the actions correctly some consequence will occur. On the first playthrough, the player feels like they need to hit every note and that makes it very exciting. After more playthroughs, it becomes apparent that not that many correct notes are required, but that feeling on the first playthrough is very unique.