Swann's Song

Swann’s Song is a simple visual novel. An old man and a young boy arrive at a pond with a swan and engage in a conversation about life, loss and growing up. The background is primarily static, and gameplay consists of clicking through dialog. There is background music with some environmental sounds, but no voice acting. There are dialog and script choices to make but I don’t believe that these drive the overall conversation in an alternate direction. At the end of each chapter, you are prompted to enter a thought. I don’t believe that these have any purpose other than offering the player a moment of pseudo-participation in the conversation. On the Steam store page, the developer is clear that the game has a single ending. This would confirm that the player’s choices or inputs have no tangible impact. The game is designed to be played in a single sitting (i.e., progress is not saved) and will take you just under an hour. If you follow the prompts and finish the story, then you should earn 100% of the achievements. I found the pace of the conversation to be much slower than the speed of my reading. Thus, it felt like most of my time was spent waiting for the next bit of text. I would have preferred that the script/conversation advanced at my click speed rather than inserting a delay before my click was processed. If you enjoy clicking through a slow-paced conversation of “deep thoughts,” then perhaps you will enjoy Swann’s Song. For me, Mr. Swann was somewhat stereotypic. He is an old person, looking backwards, with regrets. As I become an “older” version of me, I would prefer to look ahead with optimism and gratitude. [quote][url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/32732116-IndieGems/]Follow [b]IndieGems[/b] if you enjoyed this review and want to see more like it.[/url][/quote]

Truly, truly beautifully written. It occurs to me that you might have a totally different experience with this game depending how old you are when you encounter it. Tremendous.

Un juego que trata sobre escribir, sobre patos y aceptar nuestro propio camino.

What is wisdom? Interactive Dreams gives us another interesting game. This time is a conversation between a young boy and an old writer. The most interesting part is the chance for you, the player, to write about anything you want, certainly you will project your relfections, your experiences. The game creator explores quite personal journeys among their projects. This are the first steps for not just a game designer but a game author. I'm impatient for the next game of Luis León.

Brief exploration of how our lives are shaped by time and its utmost expression: death. This game’s two characters are a child and an elder, but players embody neither one, instead choosing dialogues for them both. This makes for a very introspective experience which many will enjoy, but also means that you only get out of it what you put in. And then you die.

Este pequeño cuento interactivo me llego a lo mas profundo del alma y estoy muy feliz de haberlo podido experimentar. Gracias Interactive Dreams.

Es un juego hermoso y sumamente reflexivo. Disfrute inmensamente jugarlo :). Necesitaba ese cambio de ritmo.

a reminder of our inherent finitude and the potential for gratitude when faced with the abject horror of the end. one of the strongest tributes to the power of human connection i have seen in culture in some time.

una conversación de 40 minutos sobre muerte, tiempo y legado donde decides que partes y enseñanzas de tu vida compartir y heredar antes de despedirte del mundo. muy bonito arte.

<3