TAKUME

You know what sucks about being a soon-to-be-40-year-old, short woman? Metabolism, and knowing you’re going to have to give up that piece of cake with your daily coffee pretty soon. I’ve increasingly started to take my flat white, in its environmentally friendly and spill-proof sippy cup, with a small game instead of a sugary snack. Often, it will be a jam game or something 10 mins long and free. Always, I leave feeling inspired and definitely not thinking about cake. Takume, kind of a minimalist micro-adventure, was a suitable treat this month.

You’ll probably understand the experience best if I take an inventory of its elements. As well as beautifully crafted pixel art, there are a small handful of locations. A couple of characters tell you a few things about themselves or the context. There is one puzzle that really solves itself, a choice which isn’t actually a choice, as these things go, and a betrayal. Questions are raised, there’s a journey and definitely a lesson in there, too, even if I’m not absolutely sure what it was. But that’s it, and it’s enough for me. Will you find Takume satisfying? Well, I thoroughly enjoyed some evocative rain. I also googled the title and found that there is a depth to the story that is enriched by real world context. Most importantly, I didn’t order a delicious looking eclair and I didn’t even care, too busy having my thoughts provoked by a little slice of game experience. I generally play these “coffee break games” at home, but I look forward to setting a new hipsterish, microgaming, coffee shop trend with portable VR gear in my golden years.