The first thing you’d notice about the game Gris is very likely to be its stunning art. Highly lauded by critics all around, its praise is very much deserved and it is no wonder that the visuals are the first thing anyone picks out. Where games are typically 8bit, as simple character and background designs are easier to animate, the details in Conrad Roset’s art is certainly eye-catching and sets the game apart from its peers.
The game starts off with a scene where the titular character Gris—which happens to be Spanish for grey— is shown to be singing in front of a statue. The art, accompanied by a rather haunting melody creates a sombre atmosphere despite the intensity of the colours used. In fact, leaves the player with chills. Suddenly, in the midst of singing, Gris loses her voice and the world around her crumbles. As everything falls apart, the watercolours also lose their vibrancy. And Gris is helpless in the way she free falls into a monochromatic grey-scale world.
This game, before we delve into its mechanics and the analysis of it, is one developed by Barcelona-based Nomada Studio. The two developers Roger Mendoza and Adrián Cuevas happened to chance upon Roset at a party. It was there that Roset spoke to them about his interest in trying his hand at game design. The former already were already in talks about creating their own independent game but lacked an artistic flair. This was the start of a beautiful collaboration between the three who had dreams that went beyond mainstream games. And with it, Gris was born, tackling themes of grief and depression.
They were so determined to make a game that was more than just mindless pressing of buttons. In the first year of development, they extensively consulted with a psychologist on how to best capture the grieving process and reproduce it in a format suitable for games. However, making grief ‘playable’ was one thing. The next step they had to figure out was how to make this game reach an audience that was not your regular geek who was already well-seasoned at all things gaming.
For one thing, GRIS is rated E for everyone. It lacks the violence or explicit content one might associate with typical video games.
In their quest for accessibility, they chose to make Gris a platform game. For non-gamers, this means that Gris is a game that only really requires you to navigate the terrain and complete levels. There is no need to do any battling or player-versus-player modes that complicates and confuses us. Typically, the interaction with other players and failures are what makes games so addictive. However, it is also what makes games appeal to a subset of people who already had friends who also play. Making it a solo player platform game hence removes this barrier, though at a cost.
More than that, however, is Nomada Studio’s decision to do away with other regular gaming mechanics and specifically made Gris a game with no fail states. This means even those of us who generally find ourselves with a console in hand will find the game intuitive. While we might need a little brain juice and some level of dexterity, it does not require much. Players can get to sit back, plug their headphones in to enjoy the detailed ambiance sounds that accompany a fantastic soundtrack and really immerse themselves in playing.
Earlier, it was mentioned that Mendoza and Cuevas consulted with a psychologist in the first year of the game’s development. It is due to this very fact that we cannot divorce Gris from a more psychological analysis of the game. The psychology of the general populace was accounted for when choosing what mechanics to incorporate into the gameplay. Likewise, psychological theories surrounding grief are literally embedded into the narrative of the game itself; with the most obvious one being The Five Stages of Grief.
Elisabeth Kübler-Ross introduced The Five Stages of Grief in her book On Death and Dying in 1969. Originally a model to explain the emotional process that terminally ill patients faced when faced with their imminent death, it has since been adopted by those in bereavement. The model has since expanded to include people experiencing any sort of loss — we now understand that grief is not limited to just tragedy.
Laymen people like you and I might recognise the model as it is often referenced in popular culture. For those who remain in the dark, the Kübler-Ross model suggests that an individual first experiences denial; that it had to be a mistake or that somehow something had been misinterpreted.
Then comes anger when denial no longer works, as an individual tries to place the blame onto someone else’ s shoulders.
Bargaining occurs later when the individual calms down; the question ‘if only’ often comes up as one reflects upon the situation. At this stage of grief, the individual spends time trying to rationalise how things can be avoided.
The individual then undergoes a state of depression after recognising nothing can be done to alter the situation. Suddenly, life seems rather meaningless and the individual feels unmotivated to accomplish even the most basic of tasks.
The final stage is acceptance. This form of acceptance is different from just accepting the situation because that was what overcoming denial was for but rather, accepting that things will be okay, and moving on.
Read the next instalment here, where we break down Nomada Studio’s masterful weaving of colour psychology and Kübler-Ross’ Five Stages of Grief into Gris.