Monument Valley is one of the rare games that immediately caught my attention at this year’s Game Developers Conference. The game was only one of many at the Unity booth but it managed to draw a crowd.
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Monument Valley stars Ida, a girl who is trying to right a wrong by returning artifacts to the world’s beautiful temples. The art draws heavily from Islamic architecture and reminds me of the game Journey.
If [a level] couldn’t be hung on the wall as a piece of art, it wasn’t going in the game.
The gameplay is simple but the puzzles are challenging. Each level requires players to move parts of the level to help Ida progress. Need to get to a higher part of the level? Rotate the walkway to change the perspective to link two floors. Each level has a series of buttons Ida must stand on to unlock different areas to make it to the end.
Music also plays a big part in Monument Valley. Dragging and rotating parts of the level manipulates tones, almost like strumming a guitar. It provides pleasing aural feedback and adds depth to the puzzles and levels.
The level design is influenced by the mind-bending art of M.C. Escher. If you’ve ever played Echochrome on the PSP or PS3, Monument Valley will feel familiar. Each level has been carefully crafted with a different feel and visual style.
“If [a level] couldn’t be hung on the wall as a piece of art, it wasn’t going in the game,” said executive producer Dan Gray. The visuals of Monument Valley are so beautiful that developer ustwo added a mode where players can pan around the level, take pictures, and share it on social networks.
The game will be short, only taking around 90 minutes to complete if you’re great at puzzle games. Some players may take longer since the puzzles get quite challenging in later levels. Hopefully ustwo will release more puzzles in post-launch updates.
Monument Valley will launch April 3rd on iOS for $4. With a game this beautiful, you should really play it on an iPad. An Android version is in the works and it shouldn’t take long since the game was developed in Unity, a developer tool that makes it easy to export games to many platforms.
