Monument Valley

Monument Valley

We have mentioned both Valley and Sky Valley and other indie games such as No Man's Sky, RiME and Astroneer, but we have alsmost

forgotten to mention the third ‘Valley’ in the way, Monument Valley.

This is yet another Indie game in the row, developed and published by Ustwo Games for the iOS, Android and Windows Phone platforms

and was released back in 2014. It is a single-player puzzle game directed by Neil McFarland and produced by Dan Gray. For its appeal,

care have taken the designer Ken Wong and the artists Ken Wong again and David Fernández Huerta with the help of the programmers

Peter Pashley, Manesh Mistry and Van Le using the Unity Engine. Its visual style was inspired by Japanese prints, minimalist sculpture,

and indie games Windosill, Fez, and Sword & Sworcery, and was compared by critics to M. C. Escher drawings and Echochrome. The art

was designed such that each frame would be worthy of public display. In Monument Valley, player-character princess Ida journeys through

mazes of optical illusions and impossible objects, which are referred to as "sacred geometry" in-game, while manipulating the world around

her to reach various platforms, as she journeys to be forgiven for something. The game is presented in isometric view, and the player interacts

with the environment to find hidden passages as Ida progresses to the map's exit. Each of the ten levels has a different central mechanic.

Interactions include moving platforms and pillars, and creating bridges. The player is indirectly cued through the game by design elements like

color, and directly cued by crow people, who block Ida's path. The game includes a camera mode where the player can roam the level to

compose screenshots. It includes filters similar to those of Instagram. The game's soundtrack features music by Stafford Bawler, Obfusc, and

Grigori and was developed under the working title, Tower of Illusion. It began with a piece of concept art drawn in the style of M. C. Escher, and

the final design did not deviate far from this original. The gameplay was designed to let the player find the object of the game through exploration,

without direct guidance. Its story can be described as a symbolic "song" rather than a narrative book.

One interesting thing that you might notice is that the game uses colors to signify where the you can interact,

similar to Mirror's Edge.

Written by: Adrian Dimitrijeski

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Monument Valley