'Gorogoa' Is a Puzzle Game That Brings Picture Books to Life
It's a much needed jolt of creativity in video games.
Gorogoa is a point and click adventure, but it separates itself from that genre’s worn conventions with the fresh creativity that we often discover in indie games that debut at PAX shows. It is a game that challenges how you look at the world through its shifting puzzles that play out in animated storybook panels.
All of the action takes place within a gorgeous series of hand-drawn, animated panels, depicting each with a different scene, set on a four-panel grid. Players move these panels around the grid, trying to get them to match up. Clicking on a panel allows you to zoom in or move the scene up, down, left, or right, giving you more options for setting the scene and solving the puzzle. Once everything is lined up, you can progress through the story. It’s all very cerebral, and we recommend seeing it with your own eyes to gain a full understanding of how unique this game is.
The artwork is an intriguing mix of real life and the surreal — images as benign as a rooftop garden exist alongside a giant squid gobbling a skyscraper. Joel Corelitz composed Gorogoa’s soundtrack, completing the game’s ethereal atmosphere.
Gorogoa is expected to launch this spring on iOS and Steam.
