Perfectly Peculiar Pixels [#27]

By now you should be familiar with the ludo-narrative spectrum. Games that have barely any interaction with them, boiling down to ‘choose your own adventure books - but digital’, on one end, and on the other games that are pure gameplay, like Tetris, whose blocks aren’t known for having an existentialist crisis despite their purpose being imminent destruction, to the player’s sadistic delight.

But there is another spectrum, another axis if you will, I’d like to explore and share today. On one end, we have emotionally supercharged escapist fantasies, be they sword wielding, gun wielding, or anywhere in between. It will use its visuals in the entire high dynamic range, volume cranked up to eleven, and by Thor, if your controller shakes, it will try to shake itself loose from your grip. On the other hand, you still have an emotional charge; stemming from whatever lose state the game presents you with. There is a clear path forward to you to push through. There will be harrowing sequences where you will hold your breath. But the developers of these games seem hell bent on doing it the way the architect Mies van der Rohe said: “Less is more”. 

Flow came about from Jenova Chen’s master’s thesis. His work, and title of the game, are based on the ‘flow state’, experienced by professionals everywhere but at the time perhaps most notably recorded by athletes and their trainers. It describes a state where a task is neither so trivial the mind considers it boring, nor so overwhelming that it considers it impossible. It was first released as a Flash game, playable straight from the browser. for those who might even remember that technology. It was later picked up by Sony and featured on the PS3, 4, and their portable consoles like Vita. Sadly with the Sun having set on Flash, your best best of playing it will be to get it via the Sony route, but I hardly recommend you do, as it’s the pure, unrefined essence of dynamic difficulty adjustment. It’s, for better or worse, a beautifully animated, 360 degree of motion, version of Snake from the old NOKIA phones, but with things that bite back as well.

Flower is described as ‘the spiritual successor to Flow’, but honestly I find that to be a bit of a clumsy gaming journalism template statement. The gameplay is described as ‘the player controlling the wind’, which sounds a lot more like a flatulence simulator than what it is. The player does indeed wield the wind so to speak, to propel petals around areas that have had their literal and figurative saturation turned down a few notches. It is the kind of high concept that will not appeal to everyone, certainly has not, nor will it ever have the player base that say Fortnite or Overwatch have. But, both mechanically and conceptually, much like the hate-it-or-love-it convex rear end of an early 2000s Renault Megane, I’m glad it exists, because someone had courage to try something different.

Despite ThatGameCompany’s success over the years, Jenova Chen was clearly never treated for his UI allergy, and truthfully, we’re all better for it. Journey for me, is the pinnacle of that… trek. Perhaps for no other reason than I haven’t played it’s successor, Sky. Plus, no hype having reached me about Sky, suggests to me a maturation of the studio, where they turn inwards to refine what worked, instead of experimenting further. Whenever you think something you’re doing is taking too long, I would like you to remember that out of the three years this game took to develop, two were spent figuring out how the sand looks and behaves. But the result is a masterpiece of textless story telling. Unlike Flow, Journey is mercifully available on Steam and Epic, so it’s unlikely to be lost to time, and being rather mild in its presentation, to angry Karen’s either. No goal is stated, but you will intuitively know where to go. No ‘minimalist’ white bar shows you your jump charge, but you will see what it is. No prompt will tell you the wind is so strong it will push you back or that sand will slow you down, but you will understand. If we all focused on mechanics as much as ThatGameCompany does, the AAA gameplay landscape wouldn’t be as stagnant as it currently is.

I played this game on a friend’s phone when it came out. There is a stigma in the gaming community, connected to ‘casual games’, and for good reason. Most these days stem from mobile developers, most are done with predatory practices in mind, and most are held up by the pacified, if not numbed, mind’s micro transactions. More annoyingly, it’s the kind of games that you have to concede to your parents that it does indeed, rot your brain. Yet, Monument Valley is a by all accounts a casual game, but certainly of a different calibre. The peculiarity you might find in its presentation, stems from the fact that this was made by a mobile app design studio turned gamedev studio. The sleek lines, the minimalist expression in both form and palette scream, or rather politely suggest this was ‘a designer job’. What is it? Oh, it’s a super simple puzzle game. To be honest, the cosy vibe would probably best be enjoyed on a mobile device with a hot beverage of your choice, but as it’s currently free on Epic, (and it’s sequel will be next week), there is no reason you shouldn’t give it a try, and take notes.

Monet would be proud