Playing Every Game in the Bundle for Racial Justice and Equality
PEGBRJE: ‘To Be A Herpwitch’ and ‘He Plays the Piano’
Even MORE Shorts
To Be A Herpwitch is a narrative game crafted by indie dev ‘dragons but also rabbits’. Created originally for the Nonbinary Game Jam of 2019, players will follow a nonbinary individual as they prepare to get rejected from their dream of being a herpwitch.
Players will follow the story of our protagonist on their journey with one major blockade; the game starts with a very familiar phrase of ‘are you a boy or a girl?’. To those that have played Pokemon, this is just how games start, but it does not take long for the only button that is actually interactable to arrive: NO. This schism from the norm then allows for the player to dive in to the protagonist’s problems with the professor at large and their inability to be flexible, which leads to the professor straight up denying an animal to the player.
See, this is more of a narrative ‘parody’ of Pokemon, riffing on that constant and omnipresent intro that every game always has to have. It explores how little importance that question really has to the rest of the game yet how the player cannot actually progress without checking off that box. The reasoning sounds even more absurd once the professor uses it to justify turning down the protagonist; ‘data collection to get the perfect match’. Sure this sounds understandable without context, but once again this is set in a world where animals bond to their witches through trust and companionship. Somehow the gender of the witch matters, at least according to the professor, and that is where the brutal divide between realities begins.
The story continues onwards, but the game is intentionally short; once you choose your new best friend (under dire circumstances), the protagonist gives themselves a goal and the game ends. The point is more to focus on that iconic entry rather than game itself and how it feels so arbitrary. It does not necessarily explore the cultural impact and conversations with other characters in real depth, but it gives a small window to think about. If that’s what you want, then this game might be a great one for you.
He Plays the Piano is an artistic interactive piece created by Sebastian Scaini and Eric Pinheiro. Players will watch as an unnamed protagonist begins his piano recital at a jazz club, and hopefully does not botch it.
When I said ‘interactive’ I truly did mean it; the piano does not play if no inputs are given, meaning that the performance will be quite silent otherwise. How to ‘play’ the piano is a different story, for all it takes is any input. That’s right, mashing away at the keyboard will reveal that the player’s button presses are what causes the piano keys to be pressed and the song to be played. It does not matter which keys are pressed as the song itself is pre-set — all the player needs to do is keep up the inputs to keep the song rolling.
While this gives the hilarious illusion that the player is ‘playing’ the piano, it also allows for the focus to be on the person and the atmosphere rather than the ‘gameplay’ itself. The man at the piano is in his own world, so to speak, as the milling of the patrons continues on no matter how good his performance is. The lights reveal nobody to him but his own hands, and the farther along in the piece the more isolated he seemingly becomes; but not in a bad way. Music has this bizarre way of completely enrapturing the individual that plays it, especially in solo performances. They find themselves slowly sinking in to ever note until the only thing that seems to exist is the instrument they use and the world that has been created by the frequencies. Only when the music finishes or a ‘stumble’ occurs does this seem to break, and even then that feeling lingers.
Does He Plays the Piano really mean all of this? Perhaps. Games of this vein are meant to be interpreted and can often reflect more on the person playing it than the story it wants to tell. As someone who’s played many solo performances (usually on piano) I can relate to this unnamed individual as they ignore everything around them. That does not mean that my idea of the game’s message is correct, though, and that’s the fun part about art. You put yourself in, and you see what you make of it.
It’s technically short, and it definitely won’t be for everyone, but if you enjoy this reflective ‘meditation’ style of game and atmosphere, then you’ll fit right in.
