#gorogoa

The game engine is fully data-driven, with interactions modeled in a big YAML file that I wrote out by hand while going through the game. I've modeled through Act 3 for testing so far.

so first up! my initial interpretations were big on the motives of the characters. but then i watched a few presentations on the game by its creator. and a lot more focus was put on the mechanics than the characters! i think the boy was mentioned a grand total of twice, and the beast never at all! so the medium is important. the characters are little objects, props on the stage more than actors. still, my old manner of interpretation will probably leak through

preceding this with a bit of symbolism coming from the interviews, the maker says that in the game symbolically squares correspond to mundanity whereas circles are closer to the otherworldly/intangible. i can see where it comes in!

the basic plot of the story on a surface level and in chronological order in my view goes like. there's a boy (henceforth referred to as "adull") who sees a beast (henceforth referred to as "velzie"). adull reads up on velzie and finds some passage along the lines of "offer a bowl with five fruits to velzie and something good will happen". adull is like "ok" and goes out and collects fruits, velzie watches carefully and guides adull. the crow puzzle is used as a symbol for this bc it's recreated in art later. makes sense since it's used so much in the game's marketing to show off its mechanics. heck, a gif of that puzzle being solved is the best explanation for the gist of the mechanics that i can think of.

at the end adull gives the offering, but velzie deems it insufficient, blackening the fruits and shattering the bowl, and breaks adull's leg leaving him wheelchair-bound. the fruits are a metaphor for experience/memory in my view, and the bowl is a metaphor for the self/soul. the fruits are blackened representing adull's experience coming to naught, and a perceived lack of purpose/direction. the bowl shatters representing his shattered health, both spiritual and physical.

eventually adull moves to crutches but then is caught in a devastating war from which he hides, still holding onto the hope that there's sanctuary and that velzie is protecting him. the "sanctuary" in question is represented through a green glade, quiet and with birdsong, door forming a circular arch at the top. it's shown to be present within small things and within hope. just as during the destruction, a glimmer of green on a mural is zoomed into to reveal a part of velzie. circular, too.

as a young adult adull moves to a cane and the city starts being reconstructed. he begins researching what he thinks to be velzie (the three-tailed hippocampus, decidedly NOT velzie). to no apparent avail, despite mixing bouts of feverish desperation and hopelessness. surrounded by bookshelves, graveyard. what he is seeking is always around him. not found in the hippocampus. the moth is shown to flutter to lamplight, anything it thinks looks like light. i initially thought going towards a lamp represented being drawn to a false god, but the lamp is circular so i actually think it's more reminiscent of pursuit in general. when the goal is reached the fluttering stops and the wing-pattern can be observed more closely.

older still, adull decides "pilgrimages work as spiritual connection for some people, maybe they'll help me see velzie again?" so goes on a buncha pilgrimages. but still velzie is absent and adull is hopeless. gears are a big motif here, the repeated movement turns the gears along. this parallels velzie's own movement turning day into night in the transition between puzzles. like backend computer admin stuff that you only notice when it stops working. the frames of stages of adull's life are all square except for the last one which is circular, possibly representing finding meaning in creative pursuits as shown in the fifth chapter. also unrelated details, the frame of the window is smaller, despite looking over the same streets nothing has changed. i've seen interpretations that the date marked on the calendar is a planned suicide, but i don't think this is the case; maybe it is in a metaphorical sense, but in a more literal sense it's the anniversary of when adull first saw velzie. in something that could be interpreted as akin to a suicide attempt, adull frustratedly topples the mementos from pilgrimages, shattering them.

then much older, adull turns to creative pursuits to order his thoughts. these definitely work to an extent, because he's substantially happier with his situation. but still no velzie. but the memories are being ordered. connections in tapestries. portrayal of the crow puzzle. inspiration being garnered through reframing of memory (big component of the latter half of the chapter). even the trolley sequence is representative of this, using reframing of memory to break from (creative) loops. so on the brink of death adull goes back to the tower where he initially made the offering, now surrounded by reconstructed buildings that have a less-rosy tint to his eyes.

from there the thoughts are ordered. and something close to an epiphany occurs. the bowl was meant to be a metaphor for the self, and the fruits for experience gained and harboured through memory, as stated earlier. both as a child and over the course of the rest of his life, this was done, though it was substantially easier as a kid. two offerers of different ages depicted in the first sequence. the first/red fruit is the sacrifice of his physical/spiritual health when he was cast away. the second/green is the hope for rescue and sanctuary during the war. the third/yellow is the pursuit, deeper into the depths of devotion like a moth to flame. the fourth/blue is the ritualistic pilgrimages slowly turning the rattling gears of thought into place. the fifth is the joy of creation and the patchwork unity of the other fruits. the second offering is recognised, and adull is repaired and burned away, to become part of velzie. the bowl forms into its pupil, darkened, and adull's physical form vanishes. hard to read but i think he sees this as a good thing and welcomes it impatiently. velzie certainly seems pleased with the affair to some extent, because it rewards the player with a coherent glimpse of itself.

a selfish interpretation that i don't think aligns with themes but it's a justification of velzie's actions: it wants to be able to perceive the world as a human would. greater depth of perception and all that. so it picks out adull because it's pretty sure he'll provide a good amount of experience over a lifetime. hence the darkening of the pupil at the end. cave-dwelling critters don't rely much on sight so their pupils are pale, but dark pupils like those of many surface-dwellers (like humans) are able to take in more light.

anyway that's just my view! do you agree? do you disagree? any further thoughts?

HOLY WOW THIS IS FANTASTIC . I think you got everything!! I love the use of evidence to back a claim on how symbolism contributes to the meaning of the work <- english nerd

all I got on my playthrough was the fruits being memories, specifically the interpretation of memories. I was very curious on what each individual fruit represents; the yellow being pursuit of knowledge was apparent, as well as blue for the passage of time, but I got stuck on red, green, purple, and find your conclusions very satisfying

using not only adull's age but also the healing of his body to timestamp the puzzles into a chronological story is clever!! I was surprised that the two offerings are a lifetime apart (perhaps thinking that adull gets metaphorically younger as he travels through memories) but the reasoning behind the narrative is solid

I've tried a new delightful puzzle game. Gorogoa is somehow a puzzle in 4D? They're all flat images, but you need to also think about layers of depth and time. Beautifully drawn, too. I wish it was longer.