Of Their Shadows Deep
Amanda Walker
Inform 7
[note: I tested this game, so my thoughts will be brief (though wide-ranging)]
I think we must be close—if we aren’t there already—to having the phrase “Amanda Walker Game” as a meaningful descriptor. It must imply economy: economical yet effective language; narrow but deep implementation; player-centered authorship; brevity (in poetry workshop we would say that the games are “tight”). I lament that most IF writing these days is rhetorically structured as a review. I have been writing them too, here in front of god and everyone, so obviously I do not mind them too much. Still, it would be nice to see some craft writing now and then. Obviously, reviews have merit and do a lot of good for the community, but what else might we have?
In the world of craft/literary fiction, someone would likely define an “Amanda Walker game” and then go further. There might be interviews, assessments of her influences, a bit of the previously-mentioned craft writing. Someone would want to determine, mechanically, why her recent games have been so well-received in the IF community.
Speaking more generally, this type of discourse would eliminate an author’s need to say, within their own texts, what their art is about. We could let the critics handle it.
This was my first thought, when I realized that I would write something about Of Their Shadows Deep and post it in a public place: “Wouldn’t it be nice if we were able—if we had the time—to treat IF the way specialists treat art in other fields?” I’ve tried to do as much over at Gold Machine, but it is always a struggle to balance reader interests and credibility as a so-called “serious” critic.
Of Their Shadows Deep invites such inquiry. It is, in a primary sense, about the loss of language. But its heartbreak, its real horror, is the loss of literary art. To me, it is so impossible to imagine myself without John Donne, for instance, or John Berryman, or even Robert Stone, that I must settle for imagining that I don’t exist, perhaps that I never existed. This is a serious work in a world (speaking not of IF specifically, but of art generally) where we too often settle for the appearance of seriousness, for gestures toward seriousness.
This is a game (yes, games are art) where the landscapes match the problems which correspond to the overall Problem of memory and grief. Its puzzles are not hard, and I can tell that pains were taken to ensure that they weren’t. Brain teasers, I think, would feel downright crass in such a game. Instead, the problems are in place to effectively pace the game and center its themes.
I recommend Of Their Shadows Deep.