"The House is the same size as the world; or rather it is the world" Asterion (noun) I. (Mythology) The Minotaur of the Cretan labyrinth. II. (Anatomy) A point on the exterior of the skull. III. (Astronomy) A star in the Canes Venatici.
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Playing the House of Asterion highlights the importance of context in art. One could certainly go in blindly(literally) and let the game speak for itself, that was probably the intention given the extremely spartan ReadMe file included with the game and itch.io page description. Its also a common feature of Gareth Damian Martin's games (Citizen Sleeper, In Other Waters) to seemingly drop the player in the setting and encourage them to hit the ground running, narratively. So whilst I would encourage you to play the game and see what you make of it, I can provide the equivalent of the little art piece placards in museums that let you in on part of the creative process.
The House of Asterion is a game based on the short story of the same name by Jorge Luis Borges. The story is further based on the story of Theseus of Greek Myth, wherein our hero Theseus volunteers to be sent to the labyrinth of Minos to slay the Minotaur Asterion, a half man half bull seemingly born of some terrible act by the Queen of Minos. The labyrinth is described as a truly impossible structure built by the famed inventor Daedalus, with near endless twists and turns and one way paths to confound the beast and prevent its escape.
Its perhaps fitting then, that Borges would adapt this story, given so much of his works center the idea of infinity (garden of forking paths, library of babel, funes the memorious etc). The story of the House of Asterion tells the story of the minotaur from the first person perspective of the "monster", who becomes less a monster and more a pitiable creature, its upbringing isolated within an torturous infinity resulting in a sort Lenny from Of Mice and Men type. Through changing the perspective of the story even Theseus becomes less of a hero and more of the villain of the story, as the final lines of the tale reveal that Asterion let himself be killed, presumably to escape his cruel fate. Its a well told tale that plays with the idea of the inherent connection of the reader to the main character in a story, how our perspectives and lack thereof affect how we perceive character motivations, an idea that Borges was seemingly interested with, given another of the stories in Ficciones Tlon, Uqbar, Orbius Tertius starts with Borges discussing a possible story with a first person narrator who would present a relatively innocent story but which eagle eyed readers could decipher as revealing an atrocity committed by the Main Character.
House of Asterion the game plays a similar card by putting us in the shoes of the titular Asterion, blindly (literally) wandering around the infinite labyrinth whilst hearing voices narrate parts of the short story. Presumably being spoke aloud by Theseus? As the direction of the voices seems to be from above the Labyrinth, though given the story it might make more sense to be simply a product of Asterion's jumbled memories, endlessly tortured by fragments of others speaking of him but not with him. In another common feature of Gareth Damian Martin's games, House of Asterion tries to compensate for its faults, though less successfully here. Given the blindness of Asterion and difficulty in a solo developer in building a whole ass detailed labyrinth, the game limits what you can see with a listening mechanic; you can press a button to "see" for a second, mainly to tell where you're going through a maze of basic lambert shaded default unity cubes stretched out into semi convincing architecture. It feels like a Game Jam game, though I can find no confirmation that this is the case.
And well, as a tool to make us empathise with the plight of Asterion its effective, certainly. I too, would wish to be killed by Theseus is this was the extent of my existence, slowly wandering about blind an infinite expanse of repeating, endless corridors with nothing else to see or do. I can respect it in that sense, but without the context of the story it just falls flat and even as a companion piece it cannot help but be one note. I do not even know if its actually ends. Because I had read the story and wandered around for ages with no end in sight (going in circles even) I assumed that the game simply does not end, much like Asterion's life before Theseus shows up. But maybe it does? There are no documented let's plays or even comments on the itch.io page so who knows. Imo it almost works better if there isn't one, but on the off chance someone figures out how to finish the game, let me know.
The House of Asterion is a game based on the short story of the same name by Jorge Luis Borges. The story is further based on the story of Theseus of Greek Myth, wherein our hero Theseus volunteers to be sent to the labyrinth of Minos to slay the Minotaur Asterion, a half man half bull seemingly born of some terrible act by the Queen of Minos. The labyrinth is described as a truly impossible structure built by the famed inventor Daedalus, with near endless twists and turns and one way paths to confound the beast and prevent its escape.
Its perhaps fitting then, that Borges would adapt this story, given so much of his works center the idea of infinity (garden of forking paths, library of babel, funes the memorious etc). The story of the House of Asterion tells the story of the minotaur from the first person perspective of the "monster", who becomes less a monster and more a pitiable creature, its upbringing isolated within an torturous infinity resulting in a sort Lenny from Of Mice and Men type. Through changing the perspective of the story even Theseus becomes less of a hero and more of the villain of the story, as the final lines of the tale reveal that Asterion let himself be killed, presumably to escape his cruel fate. Its a well told tale that plays with the idea of the inherent connection of the reader to the main character in a story, how our perspectives and lack thereof affect how we perceive character motivations, an idea that Borges was seemingly interested with, given another of the stories in Ficciones Tlon, Uqbar, Orbius Tertius starts with Borges discussing a possible story with a first person narrator who would present a relatively innocent story but which eagle eyed readers could decipher as revealing an atrocity committed by the Main Character.
House of Asterion the game plays a similar card by putting us in the shoes of the titular Asterion, blindly (literally) wandering around the infinite labyrinth whilst hearing voices narrate parts of the short story. Presumably being spoke aloud by Theseus? As the direction of the voices seems to be from above the Labyrinth, though given the story it might make more sense to be simply a product of Asterion's jumbled memories, endlessly tortured by fragments of others speaking of him but not with him. In another common feature of Gareth Damian Martin's games, House of Asterion tries to compensate for its faults, though less successfully here. Given the blindness of Asterion and difficulty in a solo developer in building a whole ass detailed labyrinth, the game limits what you can see with a listening mechanic; you can press a button to "see" for a second, mainly to tell where you're going through a maze of basic lambert shaded default unity cubes stretched out into semi convincing architecture. It feels like a Game Jam game, though I can find no confirmation that this is the case.
And well, as a tool to make us empathise with the plight of Asterion its effective, certainly. I too, would wish to be killed by Theseus is this was the extent of my existence, slowly wandering about blind an infinite expanse of repeating, endless corridors with nothing else to see or do. I can respect it in that sense, but without the context of the story it just falls flat and even as a companion piece it cannot help but be one note. I do not even know if its actually ends. Because I had read the story and wandered around for ages with no end in sight (going in circles even) I assumed that the game simply does not end, much like Asterion's life before Theseus shows up. But maybe it does? There are no documented let's plays or even comments on the itch.io page so who knows. Imo it almost works better if there isn't one, but on the off chance someone figures out how to finish the game, let me know.
I found this game purely because it was by the same guy who made Citizen Sleeper. This game piqued my interest from the trailer and seeing how it was free on itch.io I gave it a shot. House of Asterion is based off a short story of the same name which was adapted from a Greek myth. I gave the Wikipedia page a quick glance not bothering to read the story itself. The game itself is just a walking sim, the player moves at a snails pace. There's intermittent muffled voices which say vague dialog on repeat. (i think they're excerpts from the story but idk) You are forced to press spacebar every 2 seconds to see/blink. The only redeeming quality is the ambient sound design. I didn't finish the game itself because I was forced to backtrack and it felt like I was just aimlessly wandering around.