Every once in awhile a game comes along that defies definition or explanation. That's Quiet as a Stone [official site]. You're introduced to these...environmental vignettes, I suppose, where you're given a small floating island of rocks and trees, and perhaps some inexplicable element like a giant's skull, and you begin to recast the environment into a new image of your making. Perhaps you arrange the conifers into an even more natural arrangement, or perhaps you introduce a stonehenge into the picture. It's kind of up to you? There don't appear to be any win scenarios, and the way you might figure you're reaching the endgame in each level is that you start taking lots of photos of your creation. See? I told you Quiet as a Stone defied definition or explanation.
If, like me, you've inexplicably thrown 100 hours into David O'Reilly's Mountain—y'know, that game where you spin around a mountain floating in space that begins to acquire random consumer goods—then the things I'm trying to iterate about Quiet as a Stone are already starting to pique your interest. Perhaps you're an archaeologist, but you're digging up your memory of the place. Or you're a demigod city builder, but your worshipers are invisible to you. This is how I imagine game developers go about building a Skyrim-sized role-playing game, but doing it one day at a time, acre by acre, crafting miniature scenes, until everything congeals into an entire game world. I love it.
Quiet as a Stone is out today, November 20, on PC, peacefully handing out antidotes to the busy AAA gaming season.
