The dreamscape aspect of the game means that during gameplay the player is given special powers and abilities as they venture deeper into Desta’s mind. This should provide a wide variety of approaches to combat. Despite its novel interpretation of a child’s game, however, the story of Desta: The Memories Between is one rooted in the challenges of family, friendship, and love. Ustwo’s upcoming foray, for all of its new additions, clearly builds on the aesthetic and design sensibilities that have made the studio such a tour-de-force in the indie space.
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Monument Valley And The Rise of ustwo games
Monument Valley and its sequel served to put ustwo games on the map as one of the most exciting indie studios in the mobile game space. Releasing on April 3, 2014, Monument Valley hit the iOS App Store at a time before mobile gaming had become the oversaturated behemoth it is now. Relatively small, independently-produced games could go viral and make millionaires out of its developers seemingly overnight. The mobile games space has since become a much less hospitable place to more artistically inclined, paid gaming experiences, and ustwo’s transition to other platforms with ports of Monument Valley and the critically acclaimed Alba: A Wildlife Adventure, have paved the way for Desta to thrive.
Monument Valley was not a game about dreams per se, but MC Escher’s legendary non-Euclidean approach to designing impossible environments and optical illusions has often been considered to have a dream-like quality. Impossible staircases and pathways to nowhere have captured the public imagination and Monument Valley was able to not just recreate Escher’s artistic sensibility, but expand on it by allowing impossible worlds to be navigated intuitively.
From Monument Valley To Desta: The Memories Between
In contrast to Monument Valley, with Desta, ustwo seems prepared to bring players a far more grounded depiction of a dream-like world. With fantastic artistic direction by David Fernández Huerta, long-time art director for ustwo, Desta presents a vibrant and colorful array of cel-shaded characters exploring detailed vignettes from the memories of its protagonist. Much like Monument Valley, the player navigates an environment that is completely visible on just one screen, but unlike Monument Valley’s minimal control scheme designed for maximum accessibility, Desta’s gameplay seems to be attempting a fusion of Pyre and XCOM while still retaining the visual splendor ustwo is known for.
Choosing to create small battle arenas for players to explore in Desta seems reminiscent of Monument Valley’s single-screen puzzle design. With this relatively dense visual design, the environments in Desta are built as catalysts for memory as well as battle. The player’s opponents in the various levels will be people from Desta’s life and past, giving the environments a literal and symbolic significance.
The game’s approach to storytelling is also a significant departure from Monument Valley. The sparse and non-verbal approach to storytelling found in Monument Valley is often incredibly difficult to pull off successfully. With fewer details for narrative designers to draw from, each element needs to be carefully refined in order to be successful. The incredible skill with which ustwo built Monument Valley’s world is on clear display in Desta’s trailer.
With a wide variety of beautiful hand-drawn character designs and fully-voiced dialogue, Desta is clearly a continuation of ustwo’s transition into narratively-driven experiences that rely more heavily on dialogue and character drama. With the diversity of its cast and beautifully realized trailer, Desta: The Memories Between is shaping up to be a shining example of what makes the indie games space so special.
Desta: The Memories Between is available on Mobile, with Nintendo Switch and PC versions coming in early 2023.
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