RPS Feature Flight Of Fancy
Gathering Sky (nee Apsis) [official site] is an extremely simple game to play. You guide at first a single bird, then two, then many, through a collection of levels. That’s it. While there are things with which you can interact, there are no particular goals, no puzzles to solve, no targets to reach. And yet I sat compelled as I played almost the whole game in one sitting.
Murmuration – a beautiful word and a beautiful sight. Swirling swarms of starlings sweeping are one of my favourite parts of autumn in London, and also a pretty fun tongue twister. I’ve rarely felt happier and more awed than floating on my back in a pond watching flocks form. Ooh, and d’you remember that fancy flocking AI from a former Valve chappie’s showreel? Lovely, that was.
All right, all right, I’ll move this along: hey look at Gathering Sky [official site], a game about a growing flock of birds.
I’m so thrilled that explorey games are becoming a bigger thing of late. Low pressure, relaxing games about discovering, as a calming interlude between the DEFEATING. Yes, I’m an old, old man. Apsis looks like it could be a lovely entry into that field – a game about guiding a flock of birds across a landscape, flowing through airstreams, and having a generally floaty flying time.
