Restage photographs to explore the past in Snapdragon
Grab your camera
Y'know that photographic trend of trying to match an old photo by snapping a new pic in the same location? Snapdragon riffs on that, taking a handful of old photos to a wee deserted island where things have changed quite considerably. Scrutinising ruins and landmarks to line up my view and recreate the photos also reminded me of Photobomb, and I'm always happy to remember that delightful dystopian snap 'em up. Snapdragon is a short, colourful, chill, and spooky explore-o-puzzler, and that's it okay go have a look bye.
We arrive on the pink-tinged island with a photo in hand, having to find the original spot where it was taken. Recreate it and it'll swirl into another photo, leading us on a winding path across the island and through the village snap-by-snap. The deeper we get, the more different the present looks. And the more awful?
It's a calm and quiet game but I did get a bit spooked, starting when I stopped simply scanning the landscape for matching features and looked at smaller details. It's a good eeriness.
Snapdragon doesn't demand we line up shots perfectly--we're not doing it for the 'gram, remember--but I found a satisfaction in matching shots anyway. It probably only took me fifteen minutes to reach the end so I was in no hurry. And yeah, that's a good length for the game. I would've liked to see just a touch more of the strangeness but I was satisfied doing mild puzzling while wandering a pretty place.
Snapdragon is available on Itch.io for Windows, Mac, and Linux as pay-what-you-want with no minimum price. It's made by Jan Orlowski, I believe as part of a university class.