One of my favourite things in games is when the world wraps around.
You race all the way to the right of the screen, and then - wow!
- you’re suddenly back at the very left.
It’s wraparound screens: the video game.
Arranger tells the story of Jemma, a misfit trying to escape from a culture of cheerful stagnation.
There’s more, of course.
This is a puzzle game, and this stuff forms the heart of the puzzles.
Most objects just come along with Jemma, wrapping merrily around as she does.
- but it also almost always feels like a revelation.
Can’t wrap left?
Or up or down?
Can I move this object that’s blocking my path at all?
Can I shunt it onto another row or column?
If so, what does that do?
Navigation challenges are the game at its very simplest.
Eventually the fish will give up and just pop out of the water.
Everything in Arranger starts to feel like this: like a physical skill you have picked up.
Arranger has two informal modes, I would say.
Here’s where Arranger feels like a sort of speculative, day-dreamy logic doodling.
Compact and playful and ingenious in the lightest, and least overbearing of ways, Arranger is just lovely.
A copy of Arranger: A Role-Puzzling Adventure was provided for review by Furniture & Mattress.
