You don’t know how good you’ve got it until it’s covered in ash. Last week, Toronto was shrouded in a red haze of smoke, pluming from the raging forest fires further north. It turned an already scorching season into something dreadfully ominous. Already spending a disproportionate amount of time at your computer, you quickly start to miss the breeze, birds, and blue sky you took for granted. And while I’m thankfully able to stroll High Park again, a charmed collection of micro-games from Bilge Kaan will at least let me get my paces in vicariously.
Inspired by a year’s worth of daily outings taken by the developer, Walk is a mosaic of bite-sized, WarioWare-style games, each a novel twist on the zen-like clicker. Like an advent calendar built into a deep blue sky, each tile reveals a new little activity. Fix a cup of coffee. Tie your shoes. Catch a perched bird singing. Pass through a cascading, Mystery Science Theater-y chamber of doors. Look for some rooftop cats. Get a glance at some happy dogs.
Each time you activate a new game, another tile emerges in the picture. Each will have a new set of conditions you must meet to unlock the game inside, pinprick symbols referring to one of the previous games. Deciphering them is easy enough, but as the task list grows longer, and the games become more intricate, these serene slices of life moments begin to bulk up into something more daunting. You find yourself juggling all these scenic little splendors until you start to sweat through it.
It’s a highly amusing bit of poetry, and developer Bilge is no stranger to harmonizing meditative forms of art into something more frenzied. The game takes its inspirations from cartoonist Jiro Taniguchi and the Estonian city of Tallinn, blending these elements together with clicker-style games, the once seemingly predatory Facebook time wasters that were swiftly subverted into something far more beneficial to the world. Walk is a game for every season, as you do everything from building snowmen to watching flowers bloom, and while it may only simulate the outings you should be taking, engaging with it is a good reminder to stop, smell the roses, and count the birds.