White Lavender

One of the most whimsical games I've played! I've recently started a Tom van den Boogaart games marathon, first beating Brume and now White Lavender. So far, this is easily his best game. The art style has been perfected, and the gameplay, while still rough around the edges, is much better suited to its focus - exploration. In that regard it is absolutely perfect, in comparison to his previous works this is no longer a tech demo, but a much more complete game. If in the game Brume the best description would be "out of place"—both for the cute-dark fantasy contrast and the way it is highlighted by the awkward controls—here the game doubles down on the cute, whereas the dark fantasy and Soulslike inspiration lies in the subtext in a much more subtle, yet powerful way. This becomes evident in the clash between the "bug world" with which the player interacts and the "human world" that lies beyond the boundaries of that cosmos. But the two don't exist as separate, closed universes; rather, the human universe and the leftover of its byproducts (simple items like pencils, needles, old books, among other stuff categorized as trash by humans) provide not only the weapons and knowledge the bugs use to fight each other, but the very fuel that sustains bug culture and their cosmos. Like an inspiration or even revelation from higher beings that has fueled humanity's imagination and folklore, from ancient mythology to modern space exploration programs, the mysterious objects that come from above, as if "falling from the sky," inspire the little bugs to think higher, to "look up, to the sky and beyond," searching for meaning and the essence of everything, even things that at first glance seem too mundane to be of any inspiration (such as the homework from a kid who is struggling with math in school). This is the key aspect that makes the bug world transcend, and should inspire us to do the same in the real "human world." An amazing piece of art that by Tom, who unfortunately, hasn't quite perfected its gameplay side yet.