Riddled Years

Controls:

WASD to move

E to grab and drop

Space to continue dialogue

Riddled Years combines themes of logical thinking and a playful quest to achieve the aims of the game. Its first person perspective allows players to feel a sense of embodiment to the character who seeks to prolong something which is inevitable - the passing of time and progression of years to old age.

The narrative revolves around a dialogue with, Mdai, time-travelling from the future to give a second chance at delaying the inevitability of ageing and thus slowing down the years through a series of riddles. It is the players role to fulfil the task and find the answers within the surrounding objects in the scene. Reflecting back at the player is their facade evidently and gradually decaying to wrinkles until the quest of proving their knowledge is achieved.

The project is inspired by Hayao Miyazaki's well-known Studio Ghibli animation film, Howl's Moving Castle. Youth and old age are themes always present in the film, from the moment when little Sophie is transformed into an old lady, for a curse that will last the whole vision. Being old gives you physical ailments, it makes you notice “how hard it is to move”, but it also gives you an astuteness that you don’t have when you’re young, and the wisdom of who always knows what’s right. In any case, one thing is sure: when you love, you no longer age. And in the movie, we often happen to see Sophie fluctuating halfway between the advanced age (gray hair that no longer go away) and the strength of youth (when her face loses every wrinkle and turns again into a child’s one) - it’s when her feelings for Howl are stronger.

In the case of this game, it is not love that restores the characters youth, but instead, it is knowledge.