The Olive Tree
Francesco Giovannangelo
I swear it’s just the RNG that put this author’s two games almost next to each other in my list…
The Olive Tree is a lovely, poignant game. It tells its story to you, an olive tree, as you try to navigate a sort of growth sim. Somehow, the contrast of the sad story of your Palestinian owners is brought into a tighter focus when all you’re trying to do is grow up and make olives. It’s a simple conceit, and it… just worked.
And then of course I replayed it trying to min/max the sim, and found some weird edge cases like where I think I had too many leaves, and therefore even when I absorbed water every turn, my water levels immediately sank to zero. And sometimes a number would be green even when the text said it had to be ‘at least’ a number higher than its current value. But, like, why am I trying to maximize my olive yield when my Palestinian owners are being forced out of their homes? I dunno, man, I’m just an olive tree. Maybe if I can be the best olive tree, things won’t be as sad.
Did the author have anything to say? Yes. It was one of the most effective stories I’ve seen so far, actually.
Did I have anything to do? Yes. And it kind of didn’t have anything to do with the story the author was telling me, but… it kind of did? Honestly, it’s a little mystifying why this worked. But, for me at least, it did.