And Everything Started to Fall

Gaming Genres: Platformer
Story Genres: Drama
Graphical Styles: 2D, Pixel Art, Minimalist
Platforms: Windows, Browser
Pricing Model: Free
Developer(s): Alexitrón
Publisher(s): Alexitrón
Initial Release Date: December 21, 2009
Website(s): Game Jolt, Browser Version
Description:
A game about life and its unavoidable end, death, and the things that happen in between. A story told through images. A pretentious attempt at making art through game mechanics. Start as a baby and grow all the way into the grave, gaining and loosing abilities as time passes you by.

Opinion:
A fantastic charming platformer about life and death that is just so good at representing a life lived. It is very minimalistic and quintessentially indie. It simply spoke to me and just seemed very profound, a terrific experience.

Images (+):

Related Media (+):

• The Meaning Behind the Game [rewritten to fix errors] (+):
The world never stops moving, representing the fact the time doesn't stop to wait for us. A clock in the background not only spins faster as you grow, but also shrinks, representing how you get closer to death with every passing day; We are running out of time. The world also gets faster as you reach the teenage and adult years, since those years can be very agitated. In the teen stage you always have the option of multiple paths, representing how much choice is put in front of teenagers. Two kinds of life are represented on each side, but you can always go from one side to the other.

No matter how you go about it the result is always the same, you will become an adult and will enter the laboring world. At this point swimming is introduced, with this swimming taking place in pools full of money. Money suddenly becomes a part of everything we do, and it doesn't matter how much we don't like it, we simply can't live without it. The pools are there to represent how easy it could be to drown in financial problems; Plus everything that is going on at the same time during these adult years, like keeping up with your job, getting married, children, paying bills, buying a house, buying a car, pay pay pay; It is very suffocating.

Then comes middle age, at this point the game starts moving slower; Not because life is getting easier on you but because you start seeing yourself limited, you are getting old, your health is getting bad. Maybe you CAN do a lot of the things that you used to, but it now takes extra effort. These limitations are represented by blocks that you have to push out of the way, and sometimes even have to use them to reach a certain place, reprecenting how you have to work with your limitations.

After this you reach a very old age in which you can only do as much as when you were a baby. With just the ability to move left and right, and someone is actually doing this for you, as you are in a wheelchair. At this point you are not very far from dying so this is a very short stage. Once you reach the final ladder you no longer have control over the character; The clock starts spinning faster and going backwards and you start having flashbacks. At some point you reach your tomb, the clock stops, the screen stops, your last memories fade away, it is all over, you are dead.

Indieness: Quintessentially Indie
Play?: Should Play