Warning: the page may contain spoilers. Read at your own risk.
Warning: the page may contain spoilers. Read at your own risk.
The Lodger is the protagonist of Knock-Knock. He lives alone in a house that was inherited from his father, in a clearing in the middle of the woods. He works there as a "World-ologist", studying the flora and fauna of the forest, as his father and grandfather did before him.
Appearance[]
The Lodger is a short man with messy red hair and pale skin. His wide, round eyes are framed by dark circles - heavy evidence of his insomnia. He is dressed in a night gown, a striped blue scarf, striped blue socks, and plaid green slippers. He is always seen holding an oil/kerosene lamp in the real world (which is replaced with a candle in the dream world).
Personality[]
Nikolay Dybowski, founder of Ice-Pick Lodge and lead designer of Knock-Knock, describes the Lodger as businesslike, narrow-minded, focused, stubborn, and dull.[1] His focused nature comes off as near-obsessive of his rituals, including closing the door and writing in specific measures. At some point during his childhood, his grandfather gave him a diary and told him he would write his entire life down in it, and with the last page his life would end. Believing his grandfather's words, he only wrote sparingly and in his smallest handwriting, which became a habit for him.
The lodger appears to be somewhat mentally unsound. He suffers from insomnia and perhaps hallucinations depending on how the events of the game are interpreted. He appears to have repressed some memories of his past, that which could be the reason for what he perceives during the events of the game.
Plot[]
Not much is known about the Lodger’s past, and deciphering it is a challenge, as he is seemingly an unreliable narrator suffering from at least some detachment from reality.
By the time the game begins, he is living alone in a secluded cabin in a remote forest. He claims to be a “world-ologist”, a profession he claims to inherit from his ancestors, and dedicates himself to the study of the nearby forest.
it is highly likely that the lodger has suffered some sort of trauma or tragic event which has caused him to isolate himself, repress his past memories, and develop several problems in regards to insomnia and sleepwalking. The events of the game are hard to describe, but appear to be a result of his poor state of mind. During the game, he lives through two phases, one in which he wanders through his house aimlessly and another where he appears to be in a nightmarish hallucinatory state where he must survive until dawn from cryptic entities.
Dialogue[]
Most dialogue has some sort of trigger. For the dialogue that doesn't come from anything in particular, the Lodger will say them while moving under a light/at the center of the room/passing through a room - the trigger for these is labelled as simply "walking". These lines appear to be scripted to always play at certain points, for example, the beginning of house levels. Some lines have a less discernible cause, however, and appear to be more random. Though considering the nature of Knock-knock, it is more likely the trigger is not random, but rather, more vague. More experimentation may be needed.
See The Lodger/Spoken_Dialogue for details.
Gallery[]
References[]
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