Freddie L. Almaguer 
2021 has been a great year for artistic design in games. While successful releases have been a bit thin on the pitch thanks to the pandemic, gorgeous indie games lit up 2021. When the site came up with our Game Awards nominations, Best Artistic Design was the category we’re on. become the most passionate. In the end, it’s a little disappointing that some nice triple-Aces that don’t do anything interesting are on the shortlist, but The Artful Escape is a beautiful and cleverly designed game well worthy of its place there, while Sable’s barren beauty is very unlucky to miss. Solar Ash, which launches today and will be eligible for next year’s ceremony, rounds out the trio of sublimely artistic games that brilliantly use open spaces.
I reviewed all three games, giving The Artful Escape a 4.5, Sable a 3, and Solar Ash a 4. As overall experiences, I’d say they’re a mixed bag. As visual spectacles they are unmatched and it’s great to see smaller budget games having access to the technology that allows their artistry to run wild, even if it can’t compete with the photorealism of The Last of Us Part 2.
While I didn’t click with Sable as a full entity, what it looked like and how I felt in a place that looked so beautiful, was always a highlight of the experience. In fact, one of Sable’s big disappointments was its day / night cycle, meaning the rich, earthy undertones of the landscapes were too often washed out into grays and midnight blues. While I personally thought players could have used more tips for finding quests and in what order to complete them, I have to admire Sable’s engagement in an open world. He’s not trying to be as tall as the triple-A stage, but instead chooses to be as open as possible. It’s empty, and as a player that can be a drag, but as a nomadic figure wandering through a colorful desert sight, it’s magical.
Where other games seem algorithmically designed to grab your attention, Sable trusts you. Sometimes that means you don’t know what to do or where to go next, but it also means you can walk these lands undisturbed. Solar Ash overturns that idea – in each area there are specific markers you need to hit and puzzles that you need to solve when you get there. But each marker is in a seemingly inaccessible place – at the top of a tower there are no stairs or ladders, for example – which means that even when you know exactly where you need to go, you have to figure out the journey for yourself.
The color schemes are also reversed – where Sable is natural and baked in the sun, Solar Ash is neon and electric. Bubblegum blue, vibrant purple, and eclectic lemon yellow swirls dominate the palette. Solar Ash clearly doesn’t deliberately go against Sable’s design ideas, given that they’ve been released months apart, but it’s fascinating to see two indie games created on relatively small budgets being able to circumvent the rules of exploration and artistic design in the play space in diametrically opposed but extremely complementary ways.
Then we come to The Artful Escape. As a linear platform game, it doesn’t seem to have much in common with Sable or Solar Ash. There is no freedom to explore offered – you just go ahead, jumping every now and then. Yet there is a freedom in this. Thanks to the spectacular sound design, you can start playing your guitar anytime in The Artful Escape, and it will instantly and seamlessly harmonize with the melody playing in the background. You might not be able to roam freely on every planet you travel on, but you can make every journey your own. The psychedelic visuals add an extra layer to it all, especially when Francis’ impostor syndrome kicks in and the world goes dull again.
As Indie’s will have access to better technology and a greater scope to explore the conventions of the game, we’ll see more experimental titles pushing established genres and tropes in fascinating new directions, and Solar Ash is the latest of this. tendency. 2021 belongs to the indies – the brave, the daring, the beautiful.
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