Sova
Special thanks to Daniel Wallin for assistance with translation.
When people think of videogames originating in Sweden, most people tend to think Minecraft. With over 230 million copies of the game sold, it’s easy to see why. However, another title from Sweden may have an even greater impact over time. Skiftande Räckvidd, based in Stockholm, worked on their first title for 8 years. 'Sova', which translates to 'sleep', was released in June of 2020.
Sova uses a soft pastel colour scheme of warm pinks, cool blues and soft yellows. The only character, mMm, is an amalgam of baby elephant and cat who serves as a mentor, companion and mascot. She is soft, round, pink and floats lazily around the screen, sometimes hovering on a cloud of gently pulsating smoke. Her movements are slow, buoyant and clumsy, like a lazy bumblebee's.
Gameplay is simple. Players follow simple instructions to progress from screen to screen. The visuals are rhythmic and fluid, the soundtrack an aethereal blend that slowly undulates from left to right speaker. One screen requires the player to click a series of flower petals in order, another requires the player to weave the cursor through lace-holes in a dull boot. On one screen, mMm had me roll the mouse wheel to blow a leaf for her to play with, clawing at it with her paws whilst lazily swaying her trunk around. Everything is soft, gentle and slow. There are allegedly over 10,000 different screens, which are randomly selected as your progress. It is a calming game, a cosy game, at heart a very simple game.
So if Sova is so simple, why did it take Skiftande Räckvidd eight years to create it?
The answer is surprising. The game is not played for entertainment.
It is medicinal.
Doctor Holmgren, the Project leader behind Sova, is in her early forties with tightly woven hair and steely eyes. She speaks to me via Webcam from the Skiftande Räckvidd office in Stockholm. It is well decorated, minimalist, with a view of the city outside. She's dressed professionally, but with a tiny badge depicting mMm on her lapel. The strange little beast smiles at me, bearing her three flat teeth in a broad smile, as she does whenever a challenge in Sova is completed.
”80% of what we have been able to do with Sova was just common sense. We know what sensations make people feel like falling asleep – we know the things that people use to help them fall asleep when they are tired. The video game element helps the player to engage with the techniques, and experience the sensations we have inserted. The final 20% relies on brand new technologies we have developed over the past eight years.”
It generally takes players (without sleep or anxiety disorders) between 10 and 20 minutes to start falling asleep when playing Sova. It is at this point that the game recommends simply dragging yourself to bed, but it is very common to fall asleep at your desk whilst playing. Personally, when I tried playing, I started feel the effect within five minutes and had fallen asleep after 14. It was a deep sleep that lasted six hours before I briefly awoke, crawled over to bed, and slept for a following three. For me, as it is for most players, it was a deep, dreamless sleep.
Unfortunately, like all medical treatments, Sova can have side effects. Perhaps in a bid to be treated as a serious medical treatment (something that Skiftande Räckvidd are finding difficult in some regions) the side-effects are published in the same manner as any other medication.
List of side-effects from medical records copy and adapt.
COMMON side effects (experienced by 1 in 100 – 1 in 10 cases)
Anxiety
Difficulty Sleeping
Dizziness
Excessive Sleeping or Overly Deep Sleeping
Headaches
Generalised Lethargy
Loss of Appetite
Nausea
Nervousness
UNCOMMON side effects (experienced by 1 in 1000 – 1 in 100 cases)
A Type of Abnormal Movement Disorder Called Dyskinesia
Changes in Vision
Chills
Confusion
Depression
Dry Mouth
Elevated Heart-rate
Excessive Thirst
Mood Changes
Motion Sickness
Vomiting
RARE side effects (experienced by 1 in 10,000 – 1 in 1000 cases)
Abnormal Heart Rhythm
Agitation
Cognitive Impairment
Difficulty Keeping Balance
Excessive Sweating
Generalized Weakness
Heart Throbbing or Heart Pounding
Hyperactive Behaviour
Memory Loss
Mental Problems
Muscle Tremors
Night Terrors
Sleep Paralysis
Sleep Walking
Unusual Dreams
'Vibrating' Eyes
VERY RARE side effects (experienced by less than 1 in 10,000 cases)
Abnormal Heart Electrical Signals
Aggressive Behaviour
Brief comatose spells
Distortion in Time Perception
False Memories
Feelings of Shard Consciousness
Hallucinations
Manic Behaviour
Obsessive Behaviours
Paranoia
Rigidity of Thought
Sleep Violence
Suicidal Thoughts
Uncontrollable Shaking
”Side-effects are part of any medical process, especially something as ground-breaking as what we have achieved with Sova,” Doctor Holmgren assures me. ”I urge all users to read the instructions carefully before use, as you would with any other medical product.”
Sova enjoyed a burst of early sales, partially brought on by a number of celebrity endorsements and a carefully targeted marketing campaign across Sweden that maximised engagement for a relatively small budget. Parents of children with sleep disorders were quick to engage with the product, despite numerous warnings across the product stating it was not to be used by anyone under eighteen. mMm quickly gained popularity as a mascot in Sweden and a huge range of official and unofficial merchandise was soon available.
“Social media played a huge role in the success of Sova,” says Doctor Holmgren. “We are a relatively small company, and there were times when we were pressured to sell, both to games companies and pharmaceutical providers who had no intention to continue the product but would simply have shelved it to promote their vastly inferior alternatives. Without the support of consumers and the word-of-mouth advertising that occurred, we would not have survived the first few months. Since then, we have had huge success.”
However, on November 30th 2020, the Sova website was brought down by technicians at Skiftande Räckvidd. When it returned 3 hours later, a number of features, including the official forums, had been completely removed. What prompted this? Doctor Holmgren claims it was a streamlining of the user experience. Popular consensus says otherwise.
SiTanner (real name, Niklas Stromberg), registered for the official Sova forums when he purchased the product in September 2020. His first few posts were in the technical support area of the forum and his problem was quickly solved by a Skiftande Räckvidd technician. However, beginning on October 16th, SiTanner began cataloguing his experience with Sova via a dream diary.
“SiTanner said:
(16/10/2020 19:41 CET)
”Began using Sova three weeks ago after messed up shifts at work threw my body clock out. Does anyone else have these really intense dreams when using Sova? I sleep well for what feels like an hour or two, but then these dreams start and they're all the same. I have been talking in my sleep a lot. I know that these are listed as possible side-effects, should I stop using Sova?”
“SiTanner said:
(17/10/2020 12:34 CET)
The dream started and I was in a field or desert, just like others have suggested. I'm standing in this wet, warm sand and I can see smoke rising up out of the river and out of the ground as well. In the distance is a sort of settlement that looks Ancient Greek or maybe Egyptian? I try to get to the settlement but the smoke gets thicker and thicker until I can't see where I am going. Suddenly, there is this wet and sickly sound. It sounds like something dying in the river, but it is definitely alive. I can hear it behind me in the smoke but I can't see it and I start running for the settlement but before I can get there I feel this stabbing in my back. I woke up standing in my kitchen.”
“SiTanner said:
(19/10/2020 03:11 CET)
I am in the desert and the smoke is coming out of the river again. I don't know that I'm dreaming, but I know I have been here before and I start looking for the settlement. I have this overwhelming sense of dread and a sense of deja-vu but I cannot remember what is going to happen until it's too late. The smoke rises out of the river and this time I see this thin silhouette floating from beneath. I turn and run in the opposite direction but I can hear that wet, choking noise again. Something swoops down behind me and stabs me in the back. Woke up in bed, drenched in sweat. These dreams are much more vivid than any others I have ever had.”
“SiTanner said:
(20/10/2020 13:30 CET)
Should I stop using Sova? It has helped with my recent lack of sleep from work stress and lack of routine and in fact I am sleeping better than I ever have since college, but the dreams are making sleep so unpleasant that I'm starting to feeling anxious approaching bedtime.
Last night, I woke up in the desert and this time I could see the river is more like a chasm in the ground that the smoke rises out of. I knew there was something bad coming and I remembered the settlement so before the hints of pink smoke even started I ran. The ground was like wet sand and I couldn't run properly (something I tend to have in dreams anyway). This time, I made it to the settlement and didn't turn around. Place was in ruins, definitely some ancient civilisation. Lots of people there but all sort of obscured the way people are in dreams. They were asking me things in Swedish, but in the dream I couldn't understand and they were getting frustrated with me. Suddenly, they all froze and looked across to the ravine that was miles away. One by one they started pointing with these terrified expressions as the pink smoke began pouring up. At this point I knew what was coming and managed to actually wake myself up just as the wet, choking noise started. Even in the settlement it was loud though. Didn't manage to get back to sleep for several hours.”
The responses to the dream diaries fell into two camps. One group were dismissive, almost to the point of defensiveness regarding the dreams. They highlighted that it was a side-effect listed in the instructions and that if the dreams were worse than the sleep disorder, he should stop using the product. However, another group emerged, those who not only suffered with nightmares, but were suffering from similar nightmares.
“Loffhalder said:
(19/10/2020 19:18 CET)
Yes! I have been telling my husband about this and he thinks I am crazy now. I started using Sova when it first came out and gave up within a week – kept dreaming about being chased.”
“Erasmus said:
(20/10/2020 05:22 CET)
It's like looking into my own brain – I didn't remember until I read your story, but I am SURE I have been to the settlement you describe. I can't remember the desert or the smoke, but I remember standing in Egypt and the people pointing and the fucking fear in their faces! Not sure I will be using Sova tonight.”
The dreams continued for SiTanner and he continued to document them within the forum.
“SiTanner said:
(22/10/2020 12:36 CET)
The more times I dream about it, the clearer it becomes and the longer the dream seems to last. Normally my dreams are very quick, they feel like maybe only a few seconds have actually passed, but these dreams feel like they are happening in real time.
This time I started in the settlement, which is new. I could see the ravine in the distance but there was no smoke yet. I started trying to warn the people in the settlement but they are just walking in and out of these ruined buildings and completely ignore me. They seem to be able to understand me, but I can't understand them, even though they are still speaking normal Swedish, the words don't really make sense together. Or maybe they do and I just can't understand them in the dream.
The smoke starts and the noise and now they stand and point in terror at the ravine for several minutes whilst I'm panicking and completely unsure what to do. I start to get the vague sense that it's a nightmare and try to wake myself up again but it doesn't work. I hear whatever it is coming through the smoke towards me and as I feel hot wet blood coming out of my stomach as it stabs me. I'm not sure if the other people at the settlement want to help me or not.”
“SiTanner said:
(24/10/2020 20:03 CET)
This dream felt hours long, like it lasted the whole time I was asleep.
The village is bigger than it looks from across the ravine. I've started exploring the village and it is consistent from dream to dream. I can almost map the place in my head. The villagers are becoming clearer too, though I still can't understand them. They perform simple tasks whilst they await the smoke from the ravine and whatever hunts inside it. I've seen its silhouette again, vague and fuzzy but it's a man I think. It's incredibly thin but it moves so quickly through the smoke that it might as well be teleporting around in there.”
From the 25th of October, SiTanner's posts become increasingly disjointed. He begins to include hastily sketched diagrams in his pictures to show things he remembers from his dreams. His post on the 25th is only one sentence but contains a hastily sketched view of the settlement in his dreams.
“SiTanner said:
(25/10/2020 04:56 CET)
Where are all the children?”
“SiTanner said:
(26/10/2020 02:13 CET)
I have finally seen some of the hunter in the smoke! Only a foot or lower leg emerging, it is anemic and withered but its poise suggests strength and speed. It reminds me of the leg of a greyhound. It feels only fair that the thing which murders me night after night should be unveiled to the world? Forgive me, I am no artist.”
”SiTanner said:
(03/11/2020 05:26 CET)
I wake up in the village and the children know I am looking for them. I know they are hidden somewhere with this settlement. I ignore the smoke, I know the hunter in the smoke will find me so I have limited time. The largest temple has a set of stone stairs at its rear that lead into a series of stone tunnels. They are like a maze. The smoke permeates but the hunter does not find me straight away. I search for the children in the maze of shadowy corridors. The hunter finds me before I can get to them.”
”SiTanner said:
(06/11/2020 09:54 CET)
Dreams have become unsettling enough that I won't be using Sova again. Family and doctor have recommended I stop. Dreams now lasting hours and hours – feel longer than I am asleep, distortion of time perception is listed as side-effect, maybe this is what is meant?
The children hide in the maze, as I suspected. They know the hunter in the smoke. They sleep on stone floors and eat rats and birds that get lost inside. There are maybe a dozen of them, maybe more. They are wary of me, but warier still of the hunter. They take me deeper into the maze, places I would become lost within. At the very bottom of the maze is a room the size of a city, a colossal space that gives me a sense of vertigo to look into. Before I can go inside, the children scatter frantically through their hidden pathways and thin crevices in the rock and I am completely alone as the smoke envelops me and the hunter stabs me through the back of my skull. I don't want to dream any more. I will not be using this product again.”
Forum users showed concern for SiTanner's mental health. Through internet detective work, one forum poster was able to contact his family who responded with a very brief message explaining that SiTanner was done with Sova and was recovering. Most believed that would be the end of the story, but SiTanner returned two weeks later. From this point on, the posts are increasingly littered with spelling errors. In translating the text from Swedish to English, the translator has rectified these spelling errors, however, they have also made an attempt to capture the strange choices of language made in some areas.
“SiTanner said:
(21/11/2020 14:07 CET)
Have not played Sova since beginning of November but the dreams have no stopped. They become longer and longer. It feels as if I am asleep for entire days now but I wake up only hours later. Doctors have prescribed other sleep remedies but no effect.
Now, if I don't go to the children's temple, they send children to get me. If I refuse to follow them, they are still in the village when the smoke comes. I feel so guilty on these occasions that I have no choice. They do not bother trying to talk to me, they know I can't understand them, but they tug at my sleeves with their dark hands and plead at me with their dark eyes. When the children come to the village, the adults point at them and follow them with their hands until they are out of sight but their faces are blank, not the faces of fear they have for the smoke.
I have started naming the children, even though my wife has told me not to. She worries about me and worries about how I talk about the dreams.”
If you are considering using Sova for sleep disorders I beg you not to.
“SiTanner said:
(22/11/2020 00:19 CET)
I have seen the hunter in the smoke. Too tired to write now.”
“SiTanner said:
(22/11/2020 14:00 CET)
The children avoid the hunter in the temple, it becomes lost in the maze. I cannot follow them and the maze is as hard for me to navigate as it is the hunter, but I can lose it in the maze for a while. Last night, I stumbled upon it. Worst nightmare so far. I turned the corner to see it emerged from the smoke, sat, waiting for me, facing the opposite direction. The wet, spluttering, choking noise that it makes is phlegmatic, like an animal drowning in its own lungs. Is it hungry? Is that why it hunts?”
“SiTanner said:
(25/11/2020 09:12 CET)
Jasmine, Alice, Adam, Isis, Lotus, Ramses, Skylar, Zane, Ebba, Lucas, Noah, Matteo are the children.”
“SiTanner said:
(25/11/2020 10:32 CET)
Now I have seen it once, I see the hunter more often – not in full, just flashes of its bony body as it slips in and out of the smoke. It stalks me through the corridors and caverns and waits ready to pounce.
The children are less wary of me now. They are often there when I appear in the dream, waiting for me as if they know I am coming. My last dream felt days long.
It stalks me and I stalk it because when I know where it is it cannot kill me. When I stumble upon it, I find myself shaking and paralysed with terror. I KNOW it is a dream but the horror is so real. I try to wake myself, but I sleep deeper than ever now. The children feel guilty for abandoning me but they know there is nothing they can do. Why do they bring me here when they know it attracts the hunter? Am I a sacrifice? Is there something they are trying to show me? Maybe I am supposed to kill the hunter?”
“SiTanner said:
(25/11/2020 11:44 CET)
Tonight, I WILL try to kill it.”
“SiTanner said:
(26/11/2020 04:24 CET)
SHE is horrifying. I wish I could go back to the time before I had seen her face.”
“SiTanner said:
(26/11/2020 06:49 CET)
I attacked HER last night but it feels as if I was in the labyrinth for months. She HATES it there but SHE comes there every night to hunt me. Perhaps SHE wants me to lead her to the children? Or perhaps she just hunts me. I don't know if she even knows the children are there.”
“SiTanner said:
(26/11/2020 07:21 CET)
I have not played the game for so long but maybe this is the rest of my life – each night taking me further into this dream for longer. Is there a goal here? I cling violently to the idea that perhaps I have a mission, perhaps to kill HER and then I will be released from this ongoing hell?”
“SiTanner said:
(26/11/2020 08:50)
Last night, I attacked her. I let her stalk me through the labyrinth until I found myself deeper than ever before, deeper even than the temple room I had been searching for. The catacombs deep deep below. The air was thick and stale and the breath of dead men. Even the children had not been down here.”
“SiTanner said:
(26/11/2020 13:21)
---
Quote: SiTanner said:
(26/11/2020 08:50)
Even the children had not been down here.”
---
THERE the children had not been THERE I am home right now. The catacombs are huge and gaping. They are pitch black. I crawl over things that crumble to dust and wriggle and scuttle in the dark. SHE followed me into the depths and even her smoke could not reach there. I hoped to lose her in the dark, leave her trapped down in the catacombs maybe. I crawled in what I hoped was a circle, leading her deeper with calls and bellows, hearing her spluttering, sucking, wet breaths howling back at me. I pushed further and after months, perhaps nearly a year of crawling I found my way back out towards the labyrinth. Noah was waiting for me, beckoning me to hurry but then his eyes widened and he vanished back up the sandstone steps. I knew she was coming and I rolled over to face her. I stared into her face for the first time.
Her arms are far too long, I managed to pin her at the elbows but she could still scratch at my back, but it is that tongue that kills me. It strikes like a snake.”
A cat-like skull emerging from a leathery neck with occasional patches of hair and muscle sinewy giving the impression of something starving and sickly. The cat's upper and lower jaw are longer and extend outwards and from between them extends a long semi-rigid proboscis somewhere between an elephant's trunk and a mosquito's proboscis covered in thin hairs.
“SiTanner said:
(29/11/2020 04:17 CET)
I am at a hotel. I am not doing sleep. I don't sleep for three days.
I could see HER in the corner of my eyes when I was living at my house. She is stalking me beyond dreams, on some border between. SHE is stalking me in waking but I will not sleep until I have to. DO NOT PLAY SOVA. DO NOT ALLOW OTHERS TO USE THIS PRODUCT. BOYCOTT THIS PRODUCT.”
“SiTanner said:
(29/11/2020 05:35 CET)
She has found me here in the hotel. When I turn on the shower, plumes of pink smoke pour out with the water. When I open the window, pink smoke comes in. It is only a matter of time until she finds me here and I am too exhausted and sick to face her. Maybe here I can kill her. Maybe not. I'm going to wake up.”
“SiTanner said:
(29/11/2020 05:35 CET)
I mean go to sleep.”
”SiTanner said:
(29/11/2020 11:13 CET)
She is mMm. mMm is not her name. I knew it in the dream but I can't remember it now. So close to remembering it. DO NOT PLAY SOVA. If you work for Skiftande Räckvidd then please CONTACT ME URGENTLY. You must NOT use this product or allow others to use it. The more people SHE IS AWARE OF THE MORE SHE WILL HUNGER. There are peopl at Skiftande Räckvidd know what is happening and cannot be allowed to continue. BOYCOTT THIS PRODUCT!!!
I do not sleep within the dream, I do not grow hungry. My hair and nails do not grow. There is almost no way to track time other than to guess. I think I spent over a year last night in the labyrinth evading mMm. I would not go back into the catacombs so I would not see her – that starved cat's skull, the empty black eye sockets, the body so starved I could count each rib, the bloated round stomach, the scraps of mangled fur and sores on leathery skin that cling to her bones. The children did what they could to lead me. I found the cavern that I had thought was the bottom of the temple and what the children were trying to show me – its a damaged carving. It's symbolic maybe? Shows mMm in the ravine, people above, the town, the temple. Maybe its a map? It's a warning maybe? But for what? What can they possibly show me that I don't already know.
SHE eats dreams I think. I think that is what the she is drinking from me. SOMETHING to do with dreaming. NOBODY would know. I have done my best.”
“SiTanner said:
(29/11/2020 14:22 CET)
I passed out from exhaustion. You can't understand the hell this has become. According to the clock, I've slept twice in the last twelve hours, maybe for a total of 3 hours combined. For me, it has been about 9 years?
They took me back to the damaged carving. I think it's a story? I'm too tired to understand it. I wish I had seen it years ago, before I was this exhausted all of the time. Then they showed me something else, a statue. Its mMm but from before. Before what? I don't know. I don't even know what I'm talking about anymore.
Jesus Christ, Niklas, focus.
It is a statue. I THINK its HER from before she was starving. It is lifesize – have I even said how tall she is? I can't go back and check – I just can't read this shit – she's about ten foot tall. In the statue she is fat. Round and busty. Like a statue from – the old ones – can't remember the word – the statues to get you pregnant. I'm such a fucking idiot now. Focus. Fertility statue. Her breasts are comically large on the statue, her arms and legs blubbery with fat. She has round, soft cheeks and thick fur. Her eyes are like plates. Now she has a skull. In the statue her mouth is closed – thick female lips to hide the proboscis.”
“SiTanner said:
(30/11/2020 00:07 CET)
I waited for her in the village because she won't come if I wait. Like a cat, mMm wants to hunt me now. When I stand in the village and wait, time passes without her coming. I wait and hope that she will come in the smoke so I do not see her body. How many years did I wait so that she would kill me in the smoke and I would not have to see her? Standing motionless, maybe for a decade? Do I go into the temple and let her hunt me, knowing I might see her terrible body? Or do I wait forever in the village and live eternally with nothing?”
The website was taken down less than two minutes later.
”These rumours of nightmares are just silly urban legends,” Dr Holmgren tells me with an amused smile as she cleans her glasses. ”They fit a narrative that people like. A very very small number of players may experience more intense dreams, but this is vastly more common as a side-effect in prescription medication. Any stories suggesting a shared dream experience are just that, stories. Sova has been remarkably succesful and we are eager to to be using this technology in a range of other ways. The overwhelming success of our flagship product has already secured investors for four further titles. ”
On the back of the success of Sova, Skiftande Räckvidd’s future release schedule has already been announced, each game promoting a 'different physical experience'.
Quarter 4 2022 - Tillfredsställelse
Quarter 1 2023 - Rensing
2024 - Graviditet
2025 - Dödshjälp
———
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