Sick days, books, and games
Game Design Log #42 / Monthly recommendations #2
This week’s post comes late because I had to deal with some annoying tonsillitis at the end of the previous week, and after three days of feeling well, I got the flu.
I guess that looking back at the previous months, this year has been much difficult regarding sickness. I have experienced a streak of four out of five months getting some kind of mild illness. Probably my immunity is low, maybe is the wear and tear of a body that has been homesick for years, or maybe it's the world situation, the uncertainty, the global outlook, which, without a community, looks pretty bleak (that is one of the reasons why this year I plan to return to my country, to return to the communities with which I maintain tides, to create more communities, to carve out a space for action in the city, so as not to feel stagnant, paralyzed, and hopefully, create life in the voids left by a system that in many respects does not seem to work).
So today I just wanted to share with you some of the things that have given me joy this month, things that have helped me feel better about the world, things that have helped me have fun, or things that have inspired me in some way.
Probably, I will try to make one of these posts monthly.
As in a previous post, I already talked about “The Dawn of Everything: A new history of humanity” by David Graeber and David Wengrow, and how this book has influenced my worldbuilding (and my vision of history and society in general), I’m tagging that post as the first “Monthly recommendations”, making this the second entry in an effort to share the things I have read, played with, listened to, or watched.
So let’s begin, today I will start easy with only two recommendations:
“Black Leopard, Red Wolf” by Marlon James
This is a little of a cheating, because I read it some months ago, but I returned to it again as I started to read the second volume of this trilogy.
But in any case, I wanted to leave it here as a recommendation, as in it I found a voice that helped me feel excited about fantasy again.
The book is written following the tale of an unreliable narrator, and the language that he uses is very particular, is feral, is fast, is emotional, and the way the words flow give as many weight to whom this character is, and how the world around him behaves, as the things he say.
The world on this book has drawn from African history and mythology, and I think that the prose in it helps a lot to make this world feel distinctive.
Some weeks ago I read a post (that I haven’t been able to find again) of someone talking about the future of sword and sorcery as a genre and, in some ways, I feel that this book hits a lot of the emotions that ones feel when reading sword and sorcery books, while bringing with it a lot more. It is a beautiful, non-eurocentric world with powerful prose and mesmerizing imagery. Be warned, however, that there are scenes of considerable violence, which are not recommended for all readers.
"Drova - Forsaken Kin" by Just 2D
This is an isometric pixel RPG action game, influenced by classics like “Gothic”, and is inspired by Celtic mythology.
What I loved about this game is the feeling of discovery and the way it plunges you into the world without any guidance (don’t expect to have a “live map” or any kind of guide for the quests). Here, every letter that you find, every crafting material that you collect, every person to whom you talk, every item, feels special because there is no easy way to know what or whom is more important to your goals; the only way is to interact with the game.
In respect to mechanics, I loved how the designers included some very simple particular mechanics or procedures that make the game feel more diverse, and when you find each one of these mechanics, it feels like a discovery.
Although the narrative is simple, I felt the world was beautiful, it has some magical moments and a constant underlying sense of how magic is tied to nature, how divinity is nature, which really makes the end of the game feel special.
This is for today. I hope these two small recommendations inspire you, or at least give you some fun. Next week, I expect to return for the tables of the travel procedure for “No Peace for the Heathen”.
Now, I have to rest to get better!