Demand recheck — 2026-08-28

Observable customer behavior

• Before Your Eyes combines an emotional narrative with a blink mechanic that changes the story. Its Steam page lists a normal price of USD 9.99 and 15,496 English reviews with 98% positive sentiment. This is strong purchase-and-rating evidence for meaningful bodily interaction in emotional narratives. https://store.steampowered.com/app/1082430/Before_Your_Eyes/
• Thing-in-Itself explicitly presents itself as a 15-minute interactive short story without win/lose conditions. Steam shows 101 purchaser reviews and 77% positive sentiment. This supports a smaller market for short, nontraditional interactive narratives. https://store.steampowered.com/app/569340/ThinginItself/
• Looped sells a short hand-animated interactive story for USD 5.99 and has 22 reviews at 100% positive. Review behavior specifically praises the animation, music, emotional story and light interaction. https://store.steampowered.com/app/2727850/Looped/
• Tribeca Immersive has operated for 14 years and curates interactive narrative work across games, XR, film and installation. This is a later-stage exhibition route, not evidence that this 48-second work will be accepted. https://tribecafilm.com/press-center/festival/press-releases/tribeca-festival-2025-announces-immersive-program-in-search-of-us-in-partnership-with-onassis-onx-and-agog

Limits and decision

These comparables run from roughly 15 minutes upward; applying their demand to a 48-second browser work is an inference. They do establish real payment and recommendation behavior for emotional narratives with meaningful interaction. The opportunity gate therefore passes for a private five-viewer validation only, not for public launch. The next evidence must come from viewers of this exact work.