In the modern video game industry, especially in indie games, originality is a valuable commodity. Gamers always rejoice when presented with a fresh, innovative title sporting quirky level designs or memorable characters. “Among the Sleep,” an upcoming horror game by Krillbite Studio, certainly has a memorable character: you play as a two-year-old crawling and toddling precariously through your house, searching for your mother while avoiding the demons that stalk you in the night. Nobody can deny the novelty of such an idea, but is it executed in a way that lives up to the premise?

My answer is a resounding yes. The overall mechanics of “Among the Sleep” smooth out the experience and accentuate the subliminal horror of the game.

This is a game of simple controls: mouse click to look, WSAD keys to move, space bar to climb on objects, and left control to switch between an agile crawl and a slow, tottering walk, which aids in the movement of chairs and other objects (which are manipulated by clicking the mouse). These controls provide a sense of momentum and efficiency that is remarkable for a game with a toddler protagonist. Crawling under counters and tiptoeing discreetly through the darkened house, you start to feel enmeshed in the captivating world. This can no doubt be attributed to the simplicity of the game mechanics.

The graphics, fortunately, are excellent as well. You might be fooled, with a cursory glance at some of the game play, into thinking that “Among the Sleep” was a console title released just a few years ago to limited publicity. The character models and design of the house demonstrate the painstaking effort of the developers, with copious detail diffused into the simplest objects, such as a piece of fruit or the child's toys. The lighting is wickedly effective as well: shadows are distributed with clinical precision, and soft waves of light pop up at just the right moment, creating a tension that many horror games fail to pull off. The jump scares, and the game's eventual digression into surreal environments, are both deftly handled.

From the limited amount of time I spent with this title, I'm already sold on the finished product. It is undoubtedly one of the greatest horror games of the past few years, and certainly one of the most innovative.