By Teejay(@HafizTargaryen)

Remembering Annapurna

In the wake of Annapurna’s staff leaving, I look back on their catalogue and lament their passing.

I had planned this article to have a much lighter tone. I wanted to highlight some games from a publisher I love and encourage the industry to take note and follow their lead, as the tweet suggests. I wanted to showcase my favourite games from Annapurna Interactive, a game development studio that has been likened to A24 Studios in terms of artistic output. This in the sense that it was a studio that produced games quite unlike any that had been on the market before. It is my hope that there are video game auteurs, besides Hideo Kojima, who can take the medium to new heights.

All of that isn’t possible now because Annapurna Interactive is no more. A dispute involving the studio and their parent company — plus various instances of mismanagement — has led to the mass resignation of the entire staff of Annapurna Interactive. The President of Annapurna Interactive, Nathan Gary, was in talks with Megan Ellison, the founder of Annapurna Pictures, to spin off the video game studio into its own entity. These talks were a result of Ellison’s desire to either sell or break up the company due to losses from the film division, which wasn’t doing so well despite similar studios such as the aforementioned A24 finding success. Reportedly, the idea was for Annapurna to create a new game development subsidiary called Verset which Gary wanted to separate from Annapurna in order to maintain creative rights and reduce management oversight. Ellison walked away from these talks, clearly uninterested in giving the gaming team independence and wanting to keep them in order to maintain profits. This would have entailed greater cooperation with larger gaming publishers such as Epic Games and Remedy Entertainment, which might have not meshed well with the ‘indie game’ vision that the team had. No longer able to work in a place whose employers did not pay them or their creative vision any respect, Gary and all 25 of the staff members of Annapurna Interactive resigned.

The news was disheartening, especially given the recent spate of studio closures and layoffs in the gaming industry. Companies like Tango Gameworks, Arkane Austin, Volition, Bungie, Sony Interactive Entertainment, and Epic Games have been affected in the past by these events. These were companies whose output we enjoyed and hoped to see more of in the future. However, with the layoffs and closures, it meant that there would be no more of this sort of content coming out. That, for lack of a better word, sucks.

Of course, all hope is not lost. Michael Thor Hall, founder of Pirate Software, wisely points out that what matters are the people. Not the companies, not the name brands and logos, but the people within them who made cool shit. Undoubtedly, Nathan Gary and the other developers who left Annapurna will start their own game studio. It’s possible that they will include those who were laid off and left unemployed when their previous studio closed down. By following this new studio, we can expect to get the same cool stuff that we wanted. Of course, this assumes that these devs will get the capital to start said studio. And that they can afford to market their games in such an over-saturated industry that forces even a Triple-A offering to shut down mere days after launch. And be able to provide after-services such as patches, server maintenance, if necessary, and roadmaps of further content. So yeah, no problem at all.

Of course, I can’t claim to have played every Annapurna game nor can I claim that I liked all of them. But I liked enough of them that the studio’s closure really affected me. Like the tweet mentioned above, I saw Annapurna’s offerings as a kind of art-house selection, eclectic works made by people who had something to say and a unique experience they wanted their audience to have. Whether video games are art or not, that old chestnut, is a debate that has been going on forever. While many gamers do consider their favourite medium as art, this view isn’t shared by many outside of the gaming sphere (and by some within it, with some surprising voices). I’m not going to throw my hat in the ring for this. I am not in any position to dictate what is art and what isn’t. I do have opinions, of course. I may not know art, but I know what I like and what I don’t.

One game that I don’t like is Shadow of the Colossus.

I think it was around the early turn of the century, the early 00’s, when the go to example for video games as art was Shadow of the Colossus. I did not agree at all. To me, to hold Shadow of the Colossus up as evidence that video games were art was a bit like putting a tiny glove as evidence in a trial and staring in shock as the defence attorney says “If the glove don’t fit, you must acquit”. Shadow of the Colossus is not only a bad example of video games as art, it’s a bad example of a video game, period.

Yeah, I said what I said.

The graphics were awful. I don’t mean in comparison to games today; I mean by itself. The gameplay loop was overly simplistic — ride horse here, climb colossus, stab weak spot, rinse, repeat. The controls suck, especially the horse controls. Even Roach from the Witcher 3 wasn’t this bug ridden and/or hard to control. The central premise, that of fighting gigantic monsters, comes apart when you realise that these monsters are just walking platformer levels where all you do is just run, jump, climb and stab weak points — you don’t actually fight them. Even if you did, JRPGs where the last boss has you literally fighting God quickly outshines this game. Even the story sucks. Why are we fighting these colossi? To revive our loved one and turn into a colossus ourselves at the end. Yawn.

Look at that. You can’t tell me that it doesn’t look like hot garbage.

Back then, expressing an opinion such as that was tantamount to heresy and an invitation to mock and ridicule my taste in video games. If you feel the need to say something to assuage me, don’t. My tastes and opinions are my own unaffected by what others think of something or what others think I should like, for better or worse. If you need ammunition to discount my clearly bad taste in video games, I’d like to supply the first bullet and suggest that you mock me for liking 50 Cent: Blood On The Sand. (clip)

Ah, 50 Cent. You couldn’t escape him back when I was growing up. When he decided to have himself star in his own third person shoot ’em up video game, everybody and their moms laughed. Not at Fiddy himself — shiieeettt, he could do what he wanted to, homie. But it’s the super cynical idea of a celebrity making a video game starring himself to make himself more money that we found amusing. But then I played the fuckin’ thing, and I found that I enjoyed it. What? It was fun. Blasting fools, making a point to press the ‘cuss’ button to make Fiddy cuss his enemies out, listening to Fiddy rap all through it. Look, the point is, this game is not going to be nominated for any ‘art’ categories anytime soon, but I like it way more than ‘ahh, oui oui, zis is art mon-sewer hon hon hon’ Shadow of The Colossus above.

That may be because I am, at heart, not one who can tell good art from bad. But hey, I may not know art. But I know what I like.

What I do like are several games made by Annapurna Interactive. Firstly, they always have this unique art style with their graphical presentation. Each game’s style is not only one of a kind in the gaming sphere in general, but distinctive to each other as well. Stray looks completely different from Donut County, for example, and both of them share no resemblance to Journey. The commitment to making sure that each game has its own stylistic DNA is a refreshing take on video game graphics. It offers plenty of opportunities for showcasing jaw-dropping visuals or using said graphical fidelity to further the game’s themes and feelings that the developers intend to invoke in their audience.

The gameplay of each game is also noteworthy. Instead of a loop of actions repeated by the player that end in one of two states: Success (A Winner Is You) and Failure (Game Over, Man), Annapurna games tend to be noteworthy even in this department. They tend to deconstruct what a game is, as I’ve already defined, and instead offer the experience to be a loop of actions that end in various states — if that at all. Sometimes there is only one state you can end up in; sometimes there are many, and sometimes it’s not the game state that changes, but yourself. Oooh! Mysterious.

Below is a list of Annapurna games that I enjoyed including a quick review from me (read: gushing).

Kentucky Route Zero (KRZ)

A haunting, magical realism road trip through Kentucky. The game follows furniture delivery man Conroy and his faithful straw hat wearing dog as they try to make one last delivery. Despite being inspired by Appalachian ghost stories, nobody ever bats an eye at the weirdness. The haunting hymns and Kentucky bluegrass soundtrack make this a game so southern you can taste the whiskey at the back of your throat (I’ve been told that Kentucky’s status as a southern state is hotly debated because of its border status between the south and the Midwest, but that just lends it that liminal air).

Kentucky Route Zero is Annapurna’s stage production, a story told in five acts with accompanying intermissions that tell a thematic story. Indeed, in one of these intermissions, the player takes the role of an actor in a stage play (albeit a silent one). Like all good works of art, it isn’t at all clear what the story is supposed to mean, if anything at all. That’s left up to interpretation, and if art is meant to be a mirror held up to the viewer then KRZ is a twisted mirror maze. The maze is not haunted, but haunting, clinging to the player long after the game is done as they ponder its themes.

Also for the longest time I confused this game with Oregon Trail. Shut up.

Stray

A game that cat owners and fans of cyberpunk (the aesthetic, anyway) will love. Stray follows a…well, stray cat who stumbles into a city inspired by the walled city of Kowloon inhabited by androids. From here, an apocalyptic tale of the human race and the last man alive unfolds, but undoubtedly the main draw would be the cat antics you can engage in. Scratch up carpets and posts. Push stuff off ledges and pretend you had nothing to do with it. One particular scene that cracked me up so much should be familiar to anyone who’s ever tried to dress their cat up. If you have cats, I suggest letting them join you for this particular gaming session and watch their reaction to the onscreen cat. It’s sure to entertain both you and the cats.

Stray marries mass appeal with its auteur’s vision by having its Cyberpunk aesthetics (and cat antics) leading the former and the headier themes of post-apocalyptic humanity for the latter. It tells a cautionary tale, a plea to society to change its ways, and a beacon of hope that what makes humanity human may survive even humanity itself. Stray asks us not only what it might mean to be a cat (which is awesome in a vacuum), but also what it might mean when humanity is gone, leaving nothing but its works. Which frankly sounds like every post-apocalyptic tale out there, to be honest. However, with this game, Annapurna managed to respin a standard post-humanity apocalypse story into a fresh offering by having its protagonist be an orange cat.

Gorogoa

I remember this game being used to promote iPads back in the day. You know this one, this is that game about shifting perspectives, where you can zoom into a poster or something and get a key you can use when you zoom out. Despite the incredible frustration I felt trying to solve some of these puzzles, this was still a breathtaking experience. The hand painted art style was so luscious, it’s no wonder Apple used these games to draw attention to their iPads. I definitely took a look and had to fend off multiple Geniuses (Genii?) so I could play the demo and not have to buy an iPad. I bought and played it on Steam eventually.

Gorogoa is one of many examples (three in this article) of Annapurna using visuals, sound and gameplay to tell a story. Yes, I said this was a puzzle game, and Annapurna managed to leverage the interactivity of the video game medium to tell a story through puzzles. Not a single word is spoken or written on screen, just images, and yet you get the sense that something bigger is going on as you progress. Gorogoa manages to use its graphics and gameplay to weave a tale of a boy, a dragon, an offering, and a faith rewarded through time. Which is probably what you need to carry yourself through this game if you’re as smart as I am because some of the puzzles are headscratchingly fiendish — to me, anyway.

Outer Wilds

Word of mouth has done the work for this one. Not to be confused with The Outer Worlds, Obsidian Entertainment’s role-playing game. In this one, you are a space explorer caught in a time loop lasting exactly twenty-two minutes, after which the sun goes supernova and you start back at the top of the time loop. There is precious little hand holding and one can go and do just about anything, really, making this a true sandbox style game filled with various interesting points to visit as well as things to do.

This is a game where the less you know about it going in, the better, as it is a first person exploration game that scratches the itch of exploring a strange galaxy fueled entirely by the player’s own curiosity. As with Stray above, the production values of modern gaming serve to heighten the player’s immersion as they explore strange planets and piece together information on their own, bereft of quest markers and combat encounters. The game puts the player squarely in the driver’s seat, shows them a huge sandbox for them to play in and says “Have Fun” while turning to leave, contrasted by modern gaming’s desire to curate the player experience to justify their bloated costs of development. Which is perhaps ironic, considering the corporate oversight that would have happened if Megan Ellison got her way.

What Remains of Edith Finch

All I knew about it going in was that this was some sort of walking simulator. It’s not. It’s more of an anthology of minigames unified by an exploration of an eccentric family home as a framing device. The game tells of the Finch Family who lived in this huge, strange looking house with various secret passages and strange extensions. The family seems cursed with untimely deaths and disappearances, and as Edith Finch, the last of the Finches, the player explores the family’s history and tries to uncover the truth behind their supposed cursed fates.

Annapurna’s first is also one of their absolute best, and sets the Annapurna standard of capitalising on the interactivity of a video game to convey its themes. Just as a family consists of different people with varied temperaments, fears and interests, each exploration of the life (and death) of the family member includes one a kind visual styles and gameplay loops (I told you this isn’t a walking simulator). The result is a work whose themes of life, death, superstition and family connections are reinforced through gameplay. Notably, this game made me walk out and stare at the sky for a few minutes contemplating mortality and my own family dynamics.

Journey

Another game whose fame it owes to word of mouth. You know this one — it’s that game with the person with the scarf and the sliding down dunes on PS Plus. You never knew what this game was about. I didn’t when I booted it up. I know better now. This game is…well, exactly what it says on the can. It’s a journey — an adventure, a pilgrimage, a trip. It’s a coming of age metaphor, a lamentation for things past, a tale of apotheosis and transformation, a struggle to rise above, the manifestation of a desire to see an ending you don’t know will be good or not, a tale of faith rewarded. A heart stopping thrill ride, a meditative walk, or even a brief rest in a cosy place. Of course, the real Journey is the friends we made along the way. And I say that with absolutely zero irony.

Annapurna doesn’t just excel at thematic storytelling, it excels at immersion as well, as proven by Stray and Outer Wilds above. The reason I waxed poetic about the game being a, well, Journey, is because that’s what it felt like. Of course, I wasn’t some tall figurine dressed in a red hooded cloak with a magic scarf, but I felt like I was there, sliding down dunes, trudging through snow, and leaping about in underground caverns. I didn’t feel like I played Journey — I felt like I undertook it, and I mean that in a good way.

Florence

Two people meet and fall in love.

No, seriously, that’s the whole game. With Florence, which tells the tale of Florence Yeo who meets and falls in love with a cello player, one expects a lot of text to help tell the story. Annapurna has, as with Gorogoa and Journey, managed to convey the experience of falling in love with someone without using any words. This one is a personal favourite; love stories may not be everyone’s cup of tea (who wants to spend hours re-living someone else’s love life?) but when told well, they can be emotional rides that elevate the human experience from the drearily mundane to the heights of operatic drama. My only real complaint is that this game is too short, but all that this means is that it doesn’t overstay its welcome.

Donut County

A corporation run by raccoons decides to deliver ‘donuts’ to people across the county, which actually are holes in the ground that sends people to the hollow centre of the earth. And yes, you are the one driving the donuts — the holes. The…look, man, this is a game with an accompanying “Trash-o-pedia” whose entries seem to have been written by a bored millennial intern (which is more entertaining than I’m making it out to be, I swear). This is a game where you talk to raccoons and justify why you broke their awesome cool quadcopter. This is a game where there is nothing, absolutely nothing stopping you from spamming the duck emoji at all your neighbours during the texting sequences for hours on end.

Annapurna was (and I note here that I hate having to type “was” instead of “is”) also versatile. Their ventures into the mobile game space did not end with Gorogoa and Florence, and neither are their techniques only for navel gazing theatre-kid-bait emotional drama. They can do good old Spongebob Squarepants style wackiness too, and they can do it the same way they did the drama. The Annapurna DNA remains — gameplay informs the story, the artstyle helps immerse you in this goofy ahh world, and the sound design is fantastic. With Donut County, Annapurna proves (sigh ”proved”) that they are artists first and foremost, with video games as their oeuvre.

I hope you understand by now the roots of my dejection. I don’t know art. I preferred a game made cynically by a rap star to one that most gamers tout as art. I wouldn’t trust myself to curate a collection of ‘art’ video games. Yet Annapurna games managed to reach even me, the ignoramus that I am. These games may not have made me happy all the time, but they did make me feel something at least. And I appreciate how skillful they were made, the ability of the developers to blend sights, sounds and interactivity into a one of a kind experience.

Maybe I’m depressed that Annapurna is no more because their games changed how I view video games. They were a reminder to the rest of the industry that this is what your medium can do. This is how a video game can touch someone, can make them feel something, can make someone who couldn’t tell art from a stain on his floor finally, finally experience that goosebumps rising on the back of his neck sensation that comes from experiencing art known as frisson, a sensation he definitely did not feel playing either Shadow of the Colossus or Fiddy Cent.

Maybe I’m depressed because I went back to the place where I first found this feeling and found it empty with a ‘CLOSED’ sign on the front doors.

But as I said, it’s not that the developers aren’t around anymore, and there are definitely other games coming that can provide the same sense of fulfilment from the people who made these games in the past. Ultimately, though, instead of a shining beacon of what gaming can achieve, this article now stands as a candlelight vigil for what has been achieved, and an expression of hope that someday, someone out there will make a Journey, an Outer Wilds, a Kentucky Route Zero that will excite me as these games have.

Studios come and go, true. But I’ll always remember Annapurna.

This article was brought to you by Teejay(@HafizTargaryen) of Sundry Scribes, a Malaysian writing collective. Interested? Our Discord is open to writers and readers alike.

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