Passage

da newb

Passage

I found this game on the 1Up 101 Free Games page. Play the game and think about it. There is no true goal and in many ways Passage is not even a game, but I still found it insightful and emotional. If you're still confused you can go back to the website and read some of the author's statements (click on the links, too).

I spoilered my quick take on the game.

This game is about the passage of life. When you start, you can see the future ahead of you, but it is compressed and blurry. As you continue through life, you can find a wife and collect treasure. While with your wife you get double the points but can't collect all the treasure. Without her you are more maneuverable. As you approach the end your character starts to age. It was at this point that I felt a longing to go back, even though I had just been playing for around 3 minutes. When my wife died, I decided to explore the surrounding area, and in a way, this made me stay by her side. I ended up choosing to die beside her.

It made me think: which is more important: how many "points" you get in life, or how long you spend living. Is companionship or success better? Is it the journey or the point at where life ends?

Enjoy!

urahonky

Yeah this game was posted a while back, but there seemed to be a love/hate relationship with it. I thought it was made of pure awesome, but many people would disagree.

DiscoZombie

pretty deep imo, thanks for finding it. pretty good metaphor for life. and no matter how many 'points' you gain, it always ends the same...

Pemulis

First time: ?
Second time: wow

thorpe

I'm leaning towards the various backgrounds being an abstract representation of your "character"s mind. They seem to start out open, then into the active, brightly colored and adaptive state, until in old age they grow monochromatic, conservative, and with a deeply ingrained pattern, until the very end where they simply fade into a murky watery backdrop.

Sueve

Post this shit in the indie game thread fool!