#etter studio

[cybermonk-butterfly]

Found in Plug & Play

[theslothfulexistentialist]

Plug & Play

Overview:

Plug & Play is an Indie point-and-click adventure game developed by Swiss Mario von Rickenbach and Michael Frei, who coded and drew/animated it respectively; it is published by Etter Studio. It is based on the short film by the same name, created by Michael Frei. It has received various awards as a game and as a short film. The game is a casual, comical, and seemingly not too serious title. Nevertheless, it does have high levels of philosophical implications and symbolic imagery that may not be -and are most likely not- noticed by most people who play the game. The short film version conveys the core message in a much more direct way. It is an artistic expression. This game is about the human condition.

Story:

The game has a very ambiguous and vague way of telling its story. At first glance it is a slightly vulgar game that has much apparent sexual innuendo, phallic and yonic symbols are also ever-present in the game and play an underlying, much more profound role than what they may represent at first sight.

A ‘plugman’ connects and disconnects with other ‘plugmen’. They run, hit, get hit, touch, pull, push and converse with one another. You will laugh throughout all of this, since it’s an unexpectedly hilarious experience.

Gameplay:

There’s not much to the gameplay, you click and drag objects and ‘plugmen’, and hit switches which turn lights on and off.

Design-wise it expects you to get out of your comfort zone. Yes, it’s a fairly linear game, but there are parts of it that require you to try different things out, and the game doesn’t necessarily spell those things out for you.

Visual:

It’s a significantly minimalist game. All there is are drawn characters, hands, and objects such as light switches, electrical plugs, cables that plug in, and cables that get plugged into.

The ‘plugmen’ are actually very well animated, it’s one of the first things I noticed and appreciated about the game. Animations are very comical and don’t take themselves too seriously, but are very fluid.

Sound:

Most of the game is silent, unless you’re interacting with something or watching a sequence happen, and those sounds have a fairly high quality.

The beginning of the game has a choir singing, and it was actually a very pleasant choir, it gave the game a sort of duality. What I mean by duality is that the game seems so casual, not serious at all at first glance, and the choir gives it a kind of dramatic alien atmosphere that does feel very serious. I believe this is because the undisclosed themes that you have to read into -such as heartbreak, insecurity, and generally connecting with people- are actually very serious and very relatable to people as human beings.

Final Thoughts:

When I first saw the game on my activity feed, I surely didn’t think I’d end up writing a review for it; I was simply intrigued by its “what-the-f***edness”. The first time I played it I laughed harder than I have in a while, and the second time I played it I almost teared up. I had to play the game twice to really understand the themes that it experiments with. Once I did understand I related to the game on an emotional level. I enjoyed it and found it almost cathartic by the end of my second playthrough, which led me to write this review.

This is very much a work of art in its own right, a manifestation of self-expression. The biggest theme (the way I see it) is human connection, that’s the whole point of the game in my opinion. The theme of human connection serves as an umbrella for several other themes. Themes of love, relationships, friendships, insecurity, indecisiveness, trust, heartbreak, and mostly behaviors towards and from other people. All of these things affect us as people, as human beings; all this manifests everyday when we wake up in the morning and turn on the light. and when we turn the light off to go to sleep at night. This game is about the human condition.

Bonus

If you think you might like the short yet enlightening experience of playing this game but are doubtful, watch my playthrough and decide. Either way, I do believe experiencing it first-hand is much more special than watching someone else go through it.

If you’re interested in the short film that this game is based on, click here.

For more information, click here.

[grabitmagazine-blog]

Plug & Play: A surreal game from Etter Studio about the binary relationship of two characters and their plugs. Buy It Now = http://geni.us/PlugandPlay