Originally developed back in 2008, Verge was Kyle Pulver’s entry into the excellently creative H.P. Lovecraft Commonplace Book competition, where a range of indie developers based short games around single-line concepts left by the now-topical horror writer.  It’s been a long time coming, but the game has now been refined, updated and ported to flash so that everyone can experience this clever little bit of platform puzzling.

Gameplay footage above is from the original standalone version. I really shouldn’t spoil anything, as the entire game revolves around a clever dual-world mechanic that’s best experienced first-hand. As you can tell from the trailer, it’s the music that absolutely steals the show, completing the experience. While the art itself does have some emotional resonance taken on it’s own, the hauntingly lovely soundtrack (by Alec Holowka, of Aquaria art n’ sound fame) really pulls it together.

Despite it’s origins being rooted in a Lovecraft quote, the game has a much brighter (although still slightly sinister) atmosphere to it than you’d expect, and the whole thing has a really quite curious feel to it. Hopeful, curious, driven forwards. This in particular is emphasized a little more strongly in the Flash version, too. Anyway, the game is well worth your time. If you liked it, it’s also well worth checking out Depict1, another platform puzzle thing by Pulver, this one with a Portal-esque antagonistic narrator angle.

[Verge]

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This article’s game is A Valley Without Wind for the PC (code is redeemable on the official site), by Arcen Games!

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