The idea is to die young as late as possible. — Ashley Montagu — Wednesday April 30th — —

“What art does — maybe what it does most completely — is tell us, make us feel that what we think we know, we don’t. There are whole worlds around us that we’ve never glimpsed.” Greil Marcus — Wednesday April 30th — —

I love listening. It is one of the only spaces where you can be still and moved at the same time. — Nayyirah Waheed — Wednesday April 30th — —

Monument Valley

We aren’t major game fans, but since the elegant Monument Valley was released for iPhone and iPad at the beginning of this month, we have really been appreciating it. The newest adventurous game from ustwo, who created Whale Trail and Blip Blup earlier, is a surreal exploration through fantastical architecture and impossible geometry. Guide the silent Princess Ida through mysterious monuments, uncovering hidden paths, taking advantage of optical illusions and outsmarting the enigmatic Crow People. Inspired by the art of M.C. Escher, Japanese prints and minimalist 3D design, each level is a unique, hand-crafted combination of puzzle, graphic design and architecture. Like listening to an album or walking through a museum for the first time, Monument Valley is about discovery, perception and meaningful beauty.

Monument Valley introduces new game mechanics subtly, allowing players intuitively to discover their abilities and the rules of the world. Balancing difficulty and delight, the developers want as many players as possible to complete the game and see Ida’s quest through to the end. Players interact directly with the architecture of Monument Valley, twisting and dragging to reshape the world to help Ida to explore. As you manipulate the environment the audio reacts to provide a atmospheric and beautiful soundscape. Every screen of Monument Valley has been carefully considered as graphic design, so that each one could be printed and framed. Players can enter ‘Camera Mode’ to zoom in and compose their own take on the artwork, which they can then save or share with friends.

Neil McFarland, Director of Games at ustwo says:

We’ve focused our attention on the design of game alongside a lot of user testing, and we really hope Monument Valley is what people are looking for right now – a premium game of the highest artistic quality offering players a satisfying journey from start to end.

Such a fun and elegant game!

Monument Valley is available from the App Store: here. An Android version will follow soon.