Playing God | ‘Mountain’ An Indie Game Impressions

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Mountain is a downloadable indie game (let’s call it a game for now), recently released for PC and IOS by David O’Reilly. It is a self described ‘god simulator’ and is something far from any other god game I have played before. Almost all god games focus on giving the player power over their own creation, be it a person or an entire civilization. Mountain however, takes a much more passive approach. Rather than having power over the fate of your creation, you simply act as a passage for it to exist. In theory, a game where you have no control over anything that happens sounds unappealing to me. However, my concerns were met with surprise. I was almost immediately engrossed by the mysterious presentation, as I watched my mountain slowly spin in the inky black night. To say I was taken by surprise would be an understatement. Mountain opens by asking you a selection of questions such as “What is sadness?” or “What is Fear?”. You answer these questions with a  rough freehand sketch from your mouse, and then your mountain is generated. No two mountains are the same; this procedural generation combined with the opening questions make the game feel deeply personal. After the generation of your mountain, you simply sit watching. You watch the seasons change. You watch new trees become old as they wither. You watch storm clouds gather. You are a spectator of your creation’s life. What makes this so compelling is down to your personal response with your mountain. The sense that you are the sole creator of a unique object leaves you with an emotional response to how your mountain behaves. At random points, your mountain shares a brief thought, portrayed through text and a soft piano strike. The first thought my mountain presented was ‘I feel great serenity in this empty night’. It caught me off guard and immediately made me invest more of my interest into my mountain. It built the sense that it was a real living thing, and a reflection of my initial answers to the questions. It then dawned on me that something very strange was happening. I was relating and becoming attached to my mountain. As Fullbright’s Gone Home did last year, Mountain is reigniting the argument of what classifies as a game. Whereas I felt Gone Home could easily be classified as a game, I think it would be much more apt to describe Mountain as an experience. It is also easy to understand why someone would dislike this game. Your enjoyment is very reliant on your personal reaction to the game, making it very understandable if someone fails to connect with it. No matter what your own experience with Mountain brings, it’s almost impossible not to appreciate it’s enigmatic nature. You can buy Mountain now for the cheap but appropriate price of $1.00.