Terry Cavanagh, of Don’t Look Back and VVVVVV, and Stephen Lavelle of Whale of Noise have collaborated on a morbid little exploration of the link between psychological space and display limitations.
Snowdrift is filled with simple, flat-shaded rendering. You walk with WASD or arrow keys, and aim with the mouse. There’s a haze over everything — either from the snow and fog or, later, from the darkness — and unless you spend your time memorizing scant landmarks you’re never quite sure what’s over the next hill. Given that it’s cold out there, and the world seems more or less endless, that could be a problem. Sure, you can explore as far as you like. But how do you find your way back?
This is a scenario familiar to anyone used to early 3D games, and (to some extent) even more recent entries of huge-world games like Elder Scrolls. What Cavanagh and Increpare have done here is study the narrative possibilities of these technical edges of perception. Other than Silent Hill, I’ve not really seen another game take creative advantage of these limitations.
Snowdrift is a short game, yet it makes its creepy point. You can play it in about five minutes. It’s available here.
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07/13/2010 12:46 AM
[...] games often toy with this horizon, to an extent that commercial games do more rarely. Snowdrift studies the same ...