Games: Gorogoa
Gorogoa is a puzzle game where the player must arrange tiles on a grid to progress the story (spoilers below!, plus philosophy). The game’s mechanics are simple: click to zoom in or out of interactive elements in a picture, and drag a tile along the grid to reposition it.
The plot involves a lad who spots an otherworldly creature as it moves through the city. This person is inspired to research the origins of what appears to be a dragon and to understand more about it. Such is an endeavour that turns into a lifelong pursuit, maybe even an obsession.
From the player’s perspective, the story takes shape through continuous exposure to phenomena, in the form of new pieces to the puzzle. We are developing a narrative as we go, interpreting all of the available information with the tools at our disposal.
This, alone, is a metaphor for how our life works and how we derive meaning from whatever is peculiar to our condition. Nobody starts out knowing why they are here and what all this is. There are no clear answers, no manual with precise instructions, and no proof to justify our most deep-seated hopes. We do that which our very being renders inescapable.
The story of Gorogoa unfolds through many levels of depth and different perspectives. You click on some detail in a drawing to discover another drawing unto itself. There are worlds nested within worlds as you move in and out of them. This is an artistic representation of the cosmos, only that is of infinite zoom levels.
Take a dog, for example. To speak of “a dog” is in some way precise and in another completely arbitrary. There is a form that we discern in the cosmic continuum of life as something that is distinct from the totality, which we name “a dog”. Though this is the case with a certain scope of application, analogous to the effective zoom we have in the game. At another level of abstraction there is no dog to be discerned, for all we are dealing with are particles in a field or galaxies as the tiny constituents of a greater organism. At each level there are systems of systems.
Against this backdrop, to think of something as “fundamental” or “more true” is to assume that there can be a given presence without the preconditions for presence. It is, in other words, to fall into a trap of statements, to take names literally, and thus to limit your horizons. Metaphor, analogy, and simplification are all we can ever employ to describe in finite terms that which is inexhaustible.
“That which is inexhaustible” is a figure of speech. It shows how we cannot afford to provide a definition that covers everything, as such a definition would be identical to the cosmos. Even the definition of a dog is simplistic!
This is how many an intellectual suffers from overthinking and the attendant uneasiness: they try to place boundaries on boundlessness. Much like our hero in the story, it will take them a lifetime to realise that however effective their digging is it will never probe deep enough. Whatever they discover will not be the terminus, but another starting point, which itself is arbitrary.
Coming back to the game, I admire the art direction of Gorogoa. Its story-telling is subtle and effective. The gameplay is intuitive and free from distractions. A fine piece all around!