The Farnese Hercules

The history of humanity is a history of sculpture. Portable figures whittled from ivory, stone, and wood have been our companions longer than animals and fire. So too have we created art through the application of materials in painting, but this is a literal imprint on nature. The subtractive force of sculpture demonstrates the imposition of human force and desire into matter, rather than onto it. If painting is an additive construction, sculpture is a deliberate violence enacted onto an object. Clay wrenched from the soil, bone torn from the dead, wax stolen from the biosphere, marble hacked, wood uprooted, bronze turned molten. The material itself is acquired through action, and it is manipulated in the selfsame manner, obliterating it into unrecognisability from its unmolested state. The likes of Michelangelo considered sculpture to be an act of freeing art from within an object. Surrounding material was superfluous, detracting from a physical realisation of universal forms. The Farnese Hercules applies that subtractive notion to the puzzle genre, inverting the logical tropes of nonograms in favour of an alogical approach. The necessary solid nature of sculptable material makes a full understanding of three-dimensional realisation oblique from the outset. Gazing upon a block of matter might impart the idea that a figure can be crafted through reduction, but it is a continuous process of re-evaluation of the medium physically and conceptually. The Farnese Hercules takes this into consideration by limiting the player's gaze into the material to three blocks or until their view is interrupted by already hewn material. From the outset it appears as if it adheres to the logic of nonograms in requiring the player to deduce where blocks are to be excised, but in due time the player realises they can go after only sure-fire tracts of squares, and that this is the intended mode of play. That errors are labelled as faults instead of mistakes underscores this idea. Player errors are not a flawed application of logic, but the fault of the player on the whole. Their fault is proceeding without ensuring they are completely correct, in clicking too quickly or inaccurately. There is no moment of "how should I have known that," only "that was my fault." Subtraction is not present only in the sculptural approach, however. Richard Sherriff has reduced the totality of the experience to bare elements. The Extended ASCII rendering suggests we need not extensive graphical prowess to impart the sensation of sculpture and art. The Farnese Hercules does not even need to exist as a contemporary creation; it would not be out of place as a ZZT-adjacent piece of software in the early 90s. Further still, works are quickly made of non-contiguous squares, showing depth through omission of blocks. With the Nefertiti Bust we realise the particulars of realisation are irrelevant, we need only grasp the essence of the work itself. Less truly becomes more, to the extent where so much is taken away without the end product being any worse for that subtraction. Jacob Epstein's Pieta is so bare in its presentation, yet it is undeniably honest to the original. 2022 has been a year of working with less for me. I have come to appreciate those most minimal of approaches.

It always feels like a gamble to purchase a game with 0 steam reviews, since its usually a good indicator of relative quality, but boy am I glad I took the dive with this. Its a weird little puzzle game influenced by Picross, but at the same time, totally different. The ASCII art is gorgeous and the theme fits the gameplay for a perfectly cohesive feeling game. After 3 worlds of levels, it does feel a little bit repetitive, but at the same time, it feels "satisfyingly compelling" - I want to keep playing, and heck even want more levels than exist in the game right now, but can generally only do a couple at a time. Playing while baked like a potato is a very enjoyable experience

It's a genuine shame that this game really doesn't seem to have picked up much attention; I was sold on it mostly through the good-word of a friend, but going through it shows such a clear love of both classic computer puzzle games and sculpture itself in a way I just find precious, in as non-condescending a way as I can phrase that. For a while, this game became a bit of a Picross replacement for me, and to hit that same sweet-spot is something I think a lot of games like this should strive for. Genuinely wonderful, absolutely worthy of the light price-tag.

Really nice little logic puzzler with some of the best ASCII art I've seen - all serving as digital impressions of sculptures throughout history. Highly recommend if you're looking for something new in the vein of Picross or MineSweeper

GOTY

Very quaint retro-style game about replicating various sculptures from throughout history. Minesweeper-like, but substitutes the top-down mechanic for examining the grid from various angles/"slices". The game never gets particularly difficult, but is a relaxing play and has enough content to justify its price.

Genuinely upset to be living so close to 40,000 BCE, if we were further in the future there could be more sculptures to turn into levels. The gameplay is so intuitive and completing a level to reveal the statue illustrated in ASCII is beyond rewarding. I can see myself coming back and playing through again in the future.

Please make more of this.