Raindrops on Roses (Part Fourteen) -- Anatomy

(purchase link)

I noted what could perhaps be a poor response to the opening paragraph of last video. I made what some considered to be a leap in logic between the title of certain films and phallic imagery. So instead of leading with a similar paragraph here, let’s jump straight into talking about… Anatomy.

One of the weird things about video games is that, because the medium is so new, there isn’t much clout behind, say, some of the “B games” like there is behind “B movies”. Sure, there are rather large-profile independent games (for example, Fez, Super Meat Boy, and Braid, as featured in Indie Game: the Movie), but the large majority of games go unknown and unloved.

One of the more recent “B games” to break out is Getting Over It with Bennett Foddy, which actually commented on this. Bennett’s game is actually an interpretation of Sexy Hiking, and in the game he talks about his fascination with creation on a personal level. Getting Over It is his, and not just because his name’s in the title. He talks about how some games don’t really care about the player because it’s more of an expression of the creator’s intent than the ideas the player puts into it.

Anatomy by kittyhorrorshow doesn’t care about the player. Not because of anything Bennett Foddy says (though that’s certainly part of it), but because really every moment in the game expresses how much it doesn’t want the player there. This isn’t even the first kittyhorrorshow game to tackle this theme, 000000FF0000 (that's, uh, hexadecimal for Black Red) managed that a little earlier, but it doesn’t do so as completely as Anatomy does.

Anatomy is about a haunted house, which is exactly the type of house that one would expect to not want the player there. But it’s not the type of house that has spooky ghosts (though technically it does have one), it’s more about emptiness and loneliness. I asked last week, “What happens to a house when it is left alone?” and that’s what I was talking about.

But what’s more is that Anatomy is about familiarity. At every point in the game the player is exploring some facet of the house, wandering around the house searching for some unexplored nook or cranny. But when you go back to where you’ve been before, you realize that something’s off, which in turn only gets worse and worse as the game goes on.

And by the end, it’s all the player can do to not be consumed.

-F

Next time: Short, not often sweet, but worthy of discussing nonetheless.