PEGBRJE: The World Begins With You and Boa Retina
Vague world building and gut-punching bluntness.
The World Begins With You is a narrative platforming experience made by Fabian Denter, an environmental artist who created it during Wizard Jam 6 within 2 weeks. Within this Unity game players follow a nameless protagonist who has awoken within a bizarre location, apparently trapped and with a small blue receiver-like device sticking out the back of their head. The protagonist has no idea what is going on, or why they can read these bizarre characters etched in light on rocks, but is determined to venture forth into this bizarre world in the hopes of finding out why.
Let’s first begin with my absolute favourite part of this game; the environmental work. It’s utterly fantastic. Fabian has built a world that radiates with a lost energy, where monuments stand isolated amongst the sand and dirt only to be dwarfed by mountains and pillared buildings. There are broken and destroyed sections, empty voids where one runs for stretch of time with nothing to see and abandoned temples with little to nothing within. This is where the game shines, in these cinematic moments when the protagonist turns a corner and the camera pans out to show a massive landscape ready for exploration, where the sun beams throw the holes of the ceiling and illuminates the shadowed areas. It got a little distracting at times, but the lighting model was so good I couldn’t help but give it the mention it deserves. There is also the contrast between the future tech and the ancient ruins, where neon blue light is seemingly engraved in rock monuments for the player to read and learn of the lore, while also being the driving force of the puzzle environment later on.
Which brings me to an interesting part that I’m still uncertain about feeling; the minimalistic gameplay elements. Most of the game is exploration, peering at the set pieces in wonder while questioning where we as players are going. At times, to continue exploring players must perform platforming jumps across chasms to ensure they can continue, which can be somewhat hit or miss due to the nature of 3D platforming; depth perception is extremely difficult, especially when the player has no control over their camera. Most of my deaths were at the hands of the controls not registering a jump, or my inability to land properly due to not seeing the depth difference between platforms. The puzzles that are introduced are simple variations on mazes, and while I struggled against the camera in the second maze which had me running into walls I found them both to at least add to the experience of exploration and discovery. The lasers were not my favourite, to put simply, since they exploited my enjoyment for the lighting to kill me.
The World Begins With You is an enigma to me. On one hand, the gorgeous visuals and backing soundtrack work to create a beautiful atmosphere. On the other hand, what I could do within that atmosphere felt lacking. Due to the nature of game jams, this game is understandably quite short, yet it also feels like a vertical slice of a game much larger than is on display. I never truly felt compelled by the text discovered due to their vague and detached nature, but feel as if there is something underlying the protagonist still that makes me wonder what they may be or where they are. There’s something in TWBWY that will appeal to many players, the untapped potential of a unknown character with a receiver in their head. Unfortunately that isn’t what I was looking for, so I can’t say that this game was for me. If an environmental adventure through an unknown world is what you’ve been looking for, The World Begins With You will satisfy the need to witness a journey through this world.
Boa Retina is a surreal narrative experience brought to you once again by Jennifer Raye, with Imperishable Memories being an earlier entry in the bundle but a later release than this title. Players are given an in-depth and personal experience of another who wishes to break free from a giant monster eyeball who uses some, uh, colourful words to demand that the player prove their self worth. Players then look at pictures, listen to a transcript, learn more about who’s being interrogated, play an old atari game, and feel kind of powerless against this bizarre creature. It’s… well, it’s a lot to be quite honest.
Like many games of this topic, I’m super not qualified to be discussing at any length about it — topics of transphobia and how individuals deal with breaking free of those that attempt to belittle and create doubt is all super foreign to me as an individual, and I only have second-hand experience at best. I know that it’s a very personal experience to come out in the first place, let along fighting against another to get validation for your existence, and Boa Retina sure feels personal. The language and tone from the eye-thing is supercharged with disgust and disappointment, while the only words one can ‘clap’ back with are curt and small. Any argument that players may feel is solid is immediately questioned and shamed. There is no ‘winning’ at this.
The little sections in which the player gets a ‘break’ from the eye-monster serves to give context to the emotions and understandings that the protagonist is attempting to convey. From the confusion and adoration of another who appears confident in their skin, to the video game stylized as an Atari title (which if I’m frank, I’d believe if it was real) to show context of where some of these feelings had originated, to pictures of the protagonist in dresses and in makeup. It’s all there to show this isn’t a ‘fad’ or a ‘phase’, but an active understanding of one’s self, even if the protagonist questions it and the eyeball shames it.
Boa Retina barely clocks in at 30 minutes, but in those 30 minutes it tells the tale of one wanting to break free from the ever present, quite transphobic and downright terrifying monster eye, a metaphor for one that many may be too familiar with. Again, I’m not confident in my knowledge nor understanding, but I can safely state that this game made me uncomfortable at just how personal it truly is. It’s an experience that makes its point fast, and holds nothing back. If you wish to experience this yourself, give it a try and be prepared for some serious emotional weight.
