Side Quests Episode 152, Monument Valley Transcript:
Why hello there! My name is Louis Dozois, I’m a game developer, best known for Suzy Cube, a 3D platformer available on Steam and mobile devices and the writer and artist of Press Start, a short comic about first loves set in an arcade in the 90’s. You can follow me on Twitter @LouardOnGames to check out what I’ve been up to.
I’m so glad to have been invited here on Side Quests to talk about a game I absolutely adore and why I love it so much. That game is UsTwo’s Monument Valley.
I’ll start off by saying that, what I probably love most about Monument Valley is that it really seems to be what you get when a team prioritizes polish over scope.
For those unfamiliar with the game, Monument Valley is ostensibly a puzzle game, built for mobile phones and tablets, in which you are tasked with leading our silent protagonist, the little princess Ida, through Escher-like perspective puzzles.
Why do I say it’s ostensibly a puzzle game? Well, it’s that Monument Valley never seems to be out to stump you. The puzzle solutions are mostly straightforward and guiding Ida through each level usually takes the form of simply manipulating the next obstacle in her path in order to progress. Rarely will you be stuck scratching your head wondering how to proceed. Instead of delivering on so-called “ah hah!” moments, as more challenging puzzle games often strive for, Monument Valley, instead seeks to delight by the cleverness of the results to its often straightforward solutions to the obstacles it places in Ida’s way.
And there it is, delight. Delight is how I would describe the experience of playing Monument Valley. I delight in how each toy-like little world of the game begs me to interact with it. I delight in watching their walls and walkways slide, turn and twist as I manipulate the various levers and handles. And I delight in seeing little Ida scurry her way between these wonderful little puzzle boxes.
And delivering on this delight is an overall marvelous package that’s utterly deceptive in its smallness. As a developper myself, I can’t help but feel the years of work which were poured into making what can seem like an unambitious game. But that’s what happens when you prioritize polish over scope. Monument Valley seems to aim low, it’s short, narratively conservative and stars a very small cast of characters. What is felt more than seen, however, what can’t be counted as bullet points on the back of the proverbial box, is just how ambitious the team over at UsTwo were when it comes to how meticulously the game is put together.
Monument Valley offers a stylish, cohesive experience from start to finish. It’s minimalist approach to everything from the user interface to the storytelling, to the visuals and audio belies an attention to detail which is rare to see executed so well. So many aspects come together to give the game its wonderfully tactile feel, from the soothing colour palettes to the very way you manipulate the puzzles themselves, grabbing, moving and rotating parts of the very level to reveal new paths for our diminutive heroine. Each interaction made all the more felt by the game’s pitch perfect audio design as you hear the satisfying grinding of stone against stone, are transported by the melodic tones that accompany progress through these puzzle spaces and smile at the pitter patter of little Ida’s feet as she hurries across these abstract landscapes.
That’s it, really. That’s why I love Monument Valley. In a market dominated by games which strive to be bigger, in which being ambitious takes the form of doing more, more levels, more enemies, more dots on a map, more icons in your skill tree, Monument Valley instead answers the question “what if being ambitious meant doing less, but doing it really well?” All while delivering a soothing, relaxing and delightfully surprising experience with which it is almost impossible not to fall in love.
Years ago, when I was still writing game reviews, I wrote a short writeup about the game. I wanted to get across how Monument Valley strives not to be literal, but to be evocative. I summed it up as “Monument Valley is to video games as poetry is to literature.” And I think that remains a pretty good way to describe this absolute gem of a game.
Thank you so much for listening. Again, you can find me on Twitter @LouardOnGames, that’s L O U A R D On Games. And a huge thanks to Matt and everyone at the Fun & Games podcast for giving me this opportunity to share with you my love of Monument Valley, one of my all time favourite bedtime games.
Here’s hoping I get invited back to talk about the sequel!
For Side Quests, I’m Louis Dozois. Thanks again and happy gaming!
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