Rain, Pain And A Soul Train: Transmigration
Delightful downpour
News about games reaches me in many forms. Sometimes it's a personal email from a developer, a conversation with a friend or another website's reporting, but more often it's a press release. They're often coldly efficient, those press releases, listing a stack of genres, throwing buzzwords at the wall and hoping that at least a couple will stick. Not always, but often.
This afternoon I discovered that the best way to receive news about games is in the form of a few words twittered into the world by former journo-critic turned developer Tom 'Gunpoint' Francis. "Look at fucking Transmigration. What the fuck is this delightful shit." What the fuck indeed.
It's certainly delightful, Tom's right about that. As for what it actually is, the official website is more interested in telling us what it isn't. Here's what Transmigration doesn't involve:
- no 3d environments
- no upgradable weapons
- no revolutionary combat AI
- no combat
- no destructible terrain
- no crouching
- no running
And here's what it does involve:
- lots of rain
- engaging, story-driven experience
A game about my life, eh? Well, it's close. This is the story of Joseph, a miserable grump of a man who works for a company. "Yes, a company", the site helpfully explains. That gives me a shiver in the old Kafkas, that does.
To tell you the truth, we suspect that he might not even remember what the company does anymore. But he’s there every morning, queueing to clock in. Oh, and it seems he’s been having trouble with sleeping lately. In fact there are nights when he can’t sleep at all. There are also days when he considers visiting that Transmigration Clinic they’ve opened nearby...
There's a handy flyer about Transmigration just here. Eternal Trial Of The Metamorphing Mind perhaps? I could go for that. But part of the joy of a discovery like Transmigration is both the sweary method of discovery and the pleasure of having no answers. Bring on Joseph and his company. Bring on Transmigration Clinics and gorgeous tormented rainscapes.