The “Colour my …” Series – Part I

In this monochrome world, I will search the depths of the earth and the limitless skies for you …

This series of games has been submitted to Newgrounds and Armor Games by a contributor called SilverStitch, and seem to have been inspired by a special someone in his life. All together now, d’awwwww. The thing is, I’m actually a little bit in love with the games. They’re not testing in anyway really, but it’s something akin to being inside an interactive poem at times. One man’s beautiful is another’s hackneyed schmaltz, I know that, but I think that there’s really something here. They certainly touched a nerve with me.

There’s 5 total. I’ll write a bit of an intro and look at the first 2 here, and follow up with Part 2 looking at chapters 3, 4 and 5 of the series.

They’re designed in a high contrast sketched out black and white, and as you progress through the games you will find you need to work a little to bring a bit of colour into the world. And that’s a part of the message at work here. The scores to all the games are written by SilverStitch’s apparent collaborator Coin, and they’re perfect. Simple melancholic piano loops that fit so well with the style and intent of the games.

Anyway, let’s look at them. There’s a story at play, so if you’re going to play them, you should probably do it in order. And I would recommend they are played at night, when you are relaxed, with headphones.

Colour my Heart (title links are clickable)

You’re the little dude there. You see him? He’s on top of the building by the vents blowing out love heart smoke rings. In Heart your little guy is indeed little. It’s simple platform stuff and an easy puzzle to solve, but it’s a nice first look at the universe you’ll be in.

This game is really short, but you’ll want to play the others after and maybe think of it as an introductory chapter – a prologue.

When you get to the end of the level, you’ll have some kind of an idea what this series is going to be about.

Colour my World

World opens with a short animation setting the scene. You’ll notice that the game is now dealing with a much larger canvas, so whilst the images below are difficult to define, click them and you’ll see the full size version. It seems that much more development time went into this chapter. The animation is smoother and more detailed, there ‘s more interaction with items (sparkling levers and such) and you can start bringing some colour into your your hero’s universe: B&W City.

Again the gameplay is very straightforward platformer style, but your guy has a bit of a spring in his step as he bounds across the landscape towards the Sky Trains that will take him to B&W City. Messages are revealed from some dystopian source discouraging you from continuing across the Grey Mountains (No Explorers, No Photos, No Smiling), showing a world and society in deep decay.

As I mentioned before, there’s quite a poetic effect of the feeling of defying the obstacles and discouragement in your path mixed with the saddening music. If it hasn’t got you by now, then it may never, but I would encourage you to play on. The development of the themes continue and the games get a bit cleverer into chapters 3, 4 and 5 – Dreams, Fate and Life.

I encourage you to take your time with these games.

Don’t rush. Enjoy them. Explore them.

Explore your dreams, free your world …

To be continued …