Presented are four separate thoughts on video games and games writing that I’ve had percolating in my brain for the past year. Beware: These are rough thoughts, only loosely edited. Just to get them into writing.
Proteus is a beautiful little game, visually. It appeals directly to my love of low fidelity video game aesthetics, and even seems to anticipate the 90s videogame aesthetic revival that would hit several years after its release, with retro shooters like DUSK, or Devil Daggers. Unlike those recent games, Proteus uses its simple visual style to illustrate nothing more than a peaceful island, randomly generated for the player on every unique session. The game is composed of simple sprites transposed on simple polygons. Chunky pixelated textures cover every surface, allowing the game’s bold color choices to dominate. The style allows for some striking tableaus, like when the glaring red sun begins to set behind the figure of an obscure sculpture and the sky melts into vivid hues.
“Monroe’s mother had always been much better at starting things than finishing them. When she died, she left behind over 300 canvases, not one of them finished. Along with Monroe, who felt pretty unfinished himself. The orphanage allowed him to keep only one painting. And so he chose the unfinished swan that had always been his mother’s favorite. But that night he woke up to find the swan had disappeared. So he took his mother’s silver paintbrush, and followed the footprints into a little door he hadn’t seen before.”