Gorongoa: the epic quest

Essay written based on the game Gorongoa, by Jason Roberts.

First, definitions:

Mechanics: rules and systems that create the game/ the math behind the play/ the rules that guide the player’s moves or actions, as well as the game’s response to them.

Dynamics: actual experiential playing.

Aesthetics: Underlying reason we turn to that game.

Gorongoa: Name of an imaginary monster created by Roberts as a child.

Writing about the mechanics of Gorongoa is very interesting simply because while other games use mechanics as the backbone to gameplay, this beautifully crafted puzzle flaunts its intricate mechanics as a way to navigate the fantastic world created (and illustrated and directed and animated and everything else except the music… yes, intense) by Roberts.

In a nutshell, Gorongoa is a wordless, hand-drawn puzzle game in which people, objects, and places move across time and space allowing schenes to meld together and, through juxtaposition, solve intricate puzzles that tell a story.

My words cannot make this game justice, so below is a link to a walkthrough (contains spoilers) where you can get a taste of the dynamics of this fantastic world.

Observe that, despite some elements of fantasy, the carefully crafted schenes are still very real-world(ly). That was a constraint imposed by Roberts himself who observed that the more “ordinary” the scenes look, the more “miraculous” it was when they connected. The music further supports this stylistic choice by taking backstage and using primarily “real sounds”.

It is easy to solve a problem by making something complex. True value is in creating a simple solution that works.

Now, back to the mechanics of gameplay and why is it that those of Gorongoa make this such an amazing experience? The game mechanics are governed by apparently very simple mechanisms: different puzzle pieces that can be shifted in a simple 2 by 2 grid. You get to zoom in and out of each puzzle piece, click objects to further explore them, all of that many times hinted in the game itself by arrows or circles. There is a clear feedback loop where fewer hints are given as you progress and the pieces fit into one another in ever more intricate ways. This apparently simple interaction, however, allows the narrative to dominate the gameplay without making Gorongoa a stressful or overly complex experience; the puzzle is, mechanically, the same over and over again: shifting and overlaying of pieces on a grid. The complexity of these combinations, however, increases as you progress along the game that was designed, in the words of Roberts to avoid “puzzles that are possible to solve by accident”.

By keeping the mechanics of Gorongoa seemingly simple, Roberts was able to create a fantastic world and craft an epic quest that is rich in details and wonder. Adding any more complexity to the mechanics would mean having to cut back into the narrative of this remarkable tale or risk creating a game that was too complex to be engaging. Glad he didn’t do that!