I do enjoy watching the occasional Ghibli movie, and something is relaxing about it. Whether is those colorful nature scenes, or just characters finding joy in the most mundane. Apparently, I´m not the only one, as someone was inspired to create a gaming experience that conveys those same feelings.
A short but lovely game called Behind the Frame.
Players get to experience the life of a young painter. Every day, she makes her breakfast, greets her neighbor (an old painter who for some reason ignores her) does some sketches, and tries to finish her art piece for an exhibition.
The game, however, revolves around solving art-themed puzzles. Simply the main goal is to complete the painting by using the right colors and paint it according to the artist's notes. As I quickly noticed, there are a few colors missing, and the only way to get them is by exploring the apartment and complete some of the other art.
There is also a couple of tile box puzzles and figuring out codes similar to other escape-the-room games.
What I loved about it, is that the puzzles aren´t just put there randomly, they tell a story, and it also pays to pay attention to the plot as it unfolds as they can give clues on how to solve them.
Of course, not all of them have a point, but there is some enjoyment to be had in the beginning of each chapter, I work on the painting progressing it a bit more, get up, put some nice much, make myself some breakfast, a cup of coffee and get settled into a nice routine.
But the real star of this game is the animation and character design, as you solve the story, you get to see some small cutscenes with this gorgeous 2d animation that looked like something out of movies like Kiki or Totoro. The story itself is something that has managed to pull at my heartstrings, we figure out more about who the old man is and what is his relationship to our main protagonists.
There is also an exploration of what is the meaning of art, what inspires its creation, how art tells a story, and how sometimes artist shares something of themselves in what they create.
It also taught me to appreciate abstract art a bit more, imagine my surprise when I found out what I thought were a bunch of random shapes and colors is actually supposed to represent a beautiful field, once I learned about its backstory.
This game might be short (one or two hours to complete in fact), but it made me feel like I was a Ghibli protagonist. This was done by a small indie studio, which I found pretty impressive and has given me a lot to think about. If you still have any doubts about playing this game, their Steam page offers a demo for players to try it.
