Taking Artistic Liberties || Shapeless (PC)

"Art is an experience, not a formulation of a problem." --Lindsay Anderson

Title Screen

Shapeless is short artistic puzzle game about a creature fixing paintings that have somehow been altered in a nefarious way. Created by ISART DIGITAL ,you play as a creature composed of what looked like a painters palette and copious amounts of paint. The creature is rather cute in their own way. This creature has the ability to enter paintings like a magical portal.

During the game you solve short puzzles involving objects that belong in the paintings, then you return the objects to the paintings to restore them to the full beauty. The puzzles are not too difficult. They involve rotating different parts of the object in order to line them up properly. My spatial reasoning isn’t top notch, but I was able to get them together. The light bulb was the hardest for me, but it still only took about a minute or 2.

This light bulb....

There isn’t really a story given about the gallery you are in or what is happening, you’re just sort of thrown in and you see a rather nefarious looking vortex form over the exit. I wasn’t sure what was happening at first, but figured it out pretty quickly. You can make up your own narrative about why this happened. I’m going with evil wizard, that seems like a good bet.

The visuals in the game are just astounding. I love the multitude of paintings around the gallery, even if some of them are a bit unsettling. The colors are vibrant in the paintings and the gallery itself is somewhat dark an ominous—this may be in part due to all the rather off putting paintings of creepy eyes. Stylistically the game does a great job. When our creature enters the paintings, they become is sort of blue haze with eyes. I think that a small touch that would have really make this game shine would have been if our little creature took on the style of whatever painting they jumped into. The body colorful style of Van Gogh? The quiet realism of Edward Hopper? It would have been phenomenal.

Feel like you're being watched?

In terms of game design, everything worked as it was supposed to. The controls were smooth and I didn’t have any issues. I was really just sad that the game was so short. Before I knew it I was at the end and I wanted it to just keep going. I was hoping this was just a demo, but I don’t see any indication on the Itch.io page that this game is being developed any further, so we will just have to enjoy what we have.

Something small that I also appreciated in this game is the gallery, where the developers provided information on the paintings that you help to fix in the game. It seems like such a small thing, but being able to read a little of the history on each painting made the art nerd in me really happy.

Restoring my favorite painting. 

Overall, I felt like this game was really something special and could most certainly be expanded into a full length game. Everything about this game felt enjoyable and I can’t really think of any negative experiences I had while playing. Definitely grab the game for yourself, you can download free from Itch.io HERE.

Do you have a favorite painting, or a painting that you would have liked to see in this game? Let me know in the comments below and I will see you all next time. Until then, happy gaming, friends!

Reliving a Memory || When the Past Was Around [DEMO] (PC)

"Past is a nice place to visit, but certainly not a good place to stay." --Unknown

Title screen

When the Past was Around is a unique point and click, puzzle solving tale created by Mojiken Studio.  I played and wrote about another game by Mojiken Studio a while back called A Raven Monologue. Mojiken Studios branches out into these experimental types of story telling that are charming and wonderful to behold. If you haven't played A Raven Monologue, I suggest you do so because it too is quite a tale. 

In When the Past was Around, you unfold the tale of a young woman and a beast in a surreal world where the woman’s memories play out in vignettes. This game is still just a demo, so the game will be build up and things might change in terms of how the game plays, but for now we’re going to talk about the demo.

The art style used in this game is absolutely stunning. The colors are soft and gentle, the characters and the environments are crafted lovingly with great care. Everything flows together nicely from scene to scene, lead along by the beast. I have to say, it feels wrong to call him a beast. This game feels so gentle and loving that using a harsh sounding word like beast feels wrong.

Photos of Memories

The music and sound design are also delightful and add to the overall gentle and relaxing flow of the game. The puzzles are rather simple, and you can manage your way around simple by clicking on everything if you get stuck. Good old trial and error. Nothing was too difficult, and the game focused more on the journey than creating a struggle with the puzzles or mechanics.

There is no spoken dialogue in this demo, all of the story telling is told through the imagery and puzzle solving. This game manages to do that very well, particularly towards the ending of the demo when we get a small idea that perhaps not everything is sunshine any rainbows(and also a small assault on my ears). It reminded me that this was a demo and that there was something more to come.

Where will they lead us to next?

Overall, I think I fell in love with this demo. The art style was enchanting, the music was relaxing and the story was told in a beautiful way. I’m definitely looking forward to seeing what more comes from this game in the future.  I definitely recommend that you pick up the demo and experience it for yourself. You can grab the demo free from Itch.io HERE.

How do you feel about a game that uses the art to tell a story as opposed to words? Have you played a game that plays in a similar way before? Comment down below and let me know what you think. Until next time, happy gaming, friends!

You're Not Rotten, Just Forgotten || Forgotton Anne (PC)

“Athazagoraphobia: the fear of being forgotten or ignored and fear of forgetting.”

Beautiful environments

Forgotton Anne is a 2D indie-adventure game that is heavily story-driven. Created by ThroughLine Games and published by the Square Enix Collective, Forgotton Anne follows the tale of Anne, the Enforcer of the forgotton world. When the game started, I was reminded of a movie I watched called OblivionIsland: Haruka and the Magic Mirror. In the movie, Haruka loses a mirror that was a precious possession to her and finds her way to a world of lost and forgotten things. Forgotton Anne is very different from the movie, but the world made me think of that movie.

Anne is the Enforcer of the world, which means it’s her job to keep the forgotlings from getting out of hand and dealing with the rebels (forgotlings that want to stop the construction of the Ether Bridge). Anne seems to have a bit of a ruthless reputation to the forgotlings, which I suppose is well warranted since Anne could distill them without thinking twice about it.

The color schemes are beautiful as well

The story is well told, nicely paced, and deeply emotional. The characters all have their own motives and personalities, and I enjoyed meeting all of the different forgotlings in the world. There are many decisions to make, mostly related to whether you’ll distill certain forgotlings, or try to reason your way out of it. Given my own personality, I tried my best to talk my way out of everything.

The game is overwhelmingly beautiful, with a style similar to a Miyazaki film. Anne herself reminded me a little bit of Sophie from Howl’s Moving Castle. The animations are pretty smooth, and I loved the variety of movements, and the thoughtfulness put into how she moves—like stepping on every step when taking the stairs or having a specific turning animation while crawling.

There were a few things that ruffled mt feathers, but some of it is really nitpicking. For example, in the plant, when Anne descended a set of stairs, I noticed that the stairs appeared in front of her feet, instead of behind. A small issue, but I still noticed. Once when I was trying to drop down from a ledge, instead of falling, Anne changed to her animation pose when she hits the floor and fell down in that pose. I also was moved around the screen once as if I was on a moving platform, but I wasn’t.  The other issue I had was with the platforming. Sometimes I would be holding the run or wings buttons, but when I tried to jump it wouldn’t work—and sometimes it didn’t register my jumping at all and I would just fall.

This game gave me plenty of reasons to be sad.

Despite these little issues, I still found the game amazing. The music was beautiful, the sound design was thoughtful and created an immersive atmosphere. I often felt like I was strolling though a Miyazaki film. The environments are so detailed and well put together. I appreciate the time and effort that was put into it. I *highly* recommend you pick the game up for yourself and give it a play through. You can pick it up on Steam *here* for $19.99. The game took about 7.5 hours for me to complete, and it was a joy the entire time, so I feel it’s worth it.

Be sure to let me know down below what you thought about it! Did you stay with the forgotlings, or return to the Ether?

Thank you, as always. Until next time!

Bellannmae