“Leave your apartment and go on an adventure,” asks Au Fil De L’eau. I’d like to, mate. Getting out of the flat and popping off right into a gently heat Parisian night? That sounds simply the ticket. But that is the gray north. We’ve acquired Portobello, not Paris. I suppose I might cut up the distinction and hitch a experience down the canal in a discarded procuring trolley. Not actually the identical, is it?
Au Fil De L’eau (over the water, you pesky anglophones) is a meditative little expertise by Samson Auroux and Lawrence Steele.
I’d wish to dwell the form of life Au Fil De L’eau presents: wordlessly agreeing to bail to the nation within the small hours. Time, cash and climate won’t enable proper now, however I’ll take this scenic little different.
Au Fil De L’eau’s pastel picturebook is beautiful. A ten-minute experiment in presentation that (largely) fires on all cylinders. Auroux works in panels, beginning with a backwards and forwards between the tight areas of an inner-city residence earlier than zooming laterally into city landscapes. As I go away town the game opens up additional, giving me extra management over our experience earlier than escaping the panel construction fully upon arrival on the riverside.
The world shifts in hue as you progress, shifting from darkly heat hues within the metropolis by way of cool mountain passes and welcoming morning woodlands. If nothing else, it’s actually fairly good to take a look at.
Unfortunately, Au Fil De L’eau is commonly a bit too clunky (and intelligent) for its personal good. I crashed my automobile quite a lot of occasions, and each Alice O and I had a little bit of hassle with the format of early panels. Auroux seems to pay attention to a few of the buggier points, and that’s why it’s free proper now.
“I put the game for free until I fix all problems,” Auroux says.
Au Fil De L’eau is out now on Itch.io.
