The Mountain is as it Always was
released on Nov 14, 2023
A small narrative game about mountains, emptiness, loss, and remembering what it means to be alive.
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It's a short not really interactive narrative game. It talks about growing, experiences and emptiness in a more reflexive and touching manner.
Personally these kind of game shouldn't be jugde on their simplicity or lack of gameplay. These are meant to be used to tell something and they do alright with the very few things they use.
Personally these kind of game shouldn't be jugde on their simplicity or lack of gameplay. These are meant to be used to tell something and they do alright with the very few things they use.
A first approach to what itch.io now identifies as 'bitsy games,' very simple and very short games created with the free bitsy software, which indeed gives its name to this video-game wave.
On itch.io and other platforms, these games are also often referred to as Interactive Fiction. From what I understand, to get a clearer idea, the actual genre should often better fit into narrative adventure (there are also many action games, such as platformers and rhythm games), but, of course, reduced to the bare minimum: there isn't supposed to be dialogue options or choices (code-writing is minimal or basically null), there shouldn't be particular interactions with any element in the game, and exploration seems to be extremely linear and limited to what is visible in a few animated frames. It's somewhat similar to what happens in Japan when distinguishing what we in the West call Visual Novels: although in Japanese culture there are specific distinctions, we as human beings tend to make a simplifying synthesis in creating an identity.
Nevertheless, authors themselves identify their works as Interactive Fiction, even though the non-textual component is as important as the textual one: it is a fact that by removing all the textual components, the experience can still take place through the playable avatar
What is certain is that the artist's will imposes itself almost absolutely on the player's actions. The metaphor most frequently used when talking about agency in video games is that of a theater, viewing each player's playthrough as a separate performance: being a prerogative of video games as such, the same can be said for "The Mountain", but given its essential nature, if one experience differs from another, it will be solely due to choosing to move right instead of left before proceeding: there are no new and personal situations to tell about this video game, except for the feelings experienced during its execution. It might therefore be more accurate to speak of a ludic version of video poems or, at most, an evolution of old Atari adventures - a genre that now has entirely different representations and implications.
In this case, we are dealing with a work that is perhaps autobiographical. The player experiences as directly as possible the reflections and emotions conveyed by the author, certain fears related to growth, adulthood, and the losses that come with it, intimate memories tied to a maternal figure, and the sensations experienced in the face of the sight of a mountain.
On itch.io and other platforms, these games are also often referred to as Interactive Fiction. From what I understand, to get a clearer idea, the actual genre should often better fit into narrative adventure (there are also many action games, such as platformers and rhythm games), but, of course, reduced to the bare minimum: there isn't supposed to be dialogue options or choices (code-writing is minimal or basically null), there shouldn't be particular interactions with any element in the game, and exploration seems to be extremely linear and limited to what is visible in a few animated frames. It's somewhat similar to what happens in Japan when distinguishing what we in the West call Visual Novels: although in Japanese culture there are specific distinctions, we as human beings tend to make a simplifying synthesis in creating an identity.
Nevertheless, authors themselves identify their works as Interactive Fiction, even though the non-textual component is as important as the textual one: it is a fact that by removing all the textual components, the experience can still take place through the playable avatar
What is certain is that the artist's will imposes itself almost absolutely on the player's actions. The metaphor most frequently used when talking about agency in video games is that of a theater, viewing each player's playthrough as a separate performance: being a prerogative of video games as such, the same can be said for "The Mountain", but given its essential nature, if one experience differs from another, it will be solely due to choosing to move right instead of left before proceeding: there are no new and personal situations to tell about this video game, except for the feelings experienced during its execution. It might therefore be more accurate to speak of a ludic version of video poems or, at most, an evolution of old Atari adventures - a genre that now has entirely different representations and implications.
In this case, we are dealing with a work that is perhaps autobiographical. The player experiences as directly as possible the reflections and emotions conveyed by the author, certain fears related to growth, adulthood, and the losses that come with it, intimate memories tied to a maternal figure, and the sensations experienced in the face of the sight of a mountain.
“Mountains are giant, restful, absorbent. You can heave your spirit into a mountain and the mountain will keep it, folded, and not throw it back.”
- Annie Dillard, Pilgrim in Tinker Creek
Beautifully written, simple yet not simplistic, evokes similitude for things I have never experienced.
- Annie Dillard, Pilgrim in Tinker Creek
Beautifully written, simple yet not simplistic, evokes similitude for things I have never experienced.