Although I not only carry around the classic parental reservations about computer gagging but am also completely unable to play video games myself, I have bought three game apps in the last few months, much like simulation games. Simply because they are so beautiful. After all, art is not only available in museums. Three gaming beauties are now here in a mini-series.

1. MONUMENT VALLEY

Princess Ida is on her way. In the ten chapters of the game MONUMENT VALLEY, she must find her way through confusing architectural worlds, traverse buildings of impossible geometry, and overcome optical illusions and spatial illusions that M.C. Escher would have enjoyed – and which he probably also godfathered.

Ida’s path through unreal architectures

The players control Ida’s small, white, headscarf figure through a universe of stairs, ladders, columns, bridges, and corridors, but at the same time have to turn, push and crank the architecture so that Ida can reach her goal at all. Because it has to reach its goal; she is on a mission to be forgiven for unknown reasons.

A computer game of great optical poetry

Sometimes her journey through the dimensions is a bit eerie, but always of stunning optical poetry. Ken Wong from the independent game studio Ustwo is responsible for this.

Award-winning game app

Not only for Ida, but also for the player of MONUMENT VALLEY there is a clear goal, but until he gets there, he has quite a lot to tinker; Ida’s world is of great constructive complexity and sophistication. Every scene is a feast for the eye and the spherical music is a treat for the ear. With us, the whole family is in love with Ida and her cosmos, and we are not alone. Since its release in 2014, MONUMENT VALLEY has received a myriad of critical reviews and awards.

2. TOCA NATURE

TOCA NATURE is the latest creation from Stockholm-based studio Toca Boca: an app where even smaller children – from the age of six, suggests the official recommendation – can build biotopes and play with animals in them. The starting landscape is a large bare rock on which you can create trees, lakes, and mountains. By means of a magnifying glass, the player zooms into an area of the landscape – and gets into the depths of a natural cosmos that he has built himself.

A self-built natural cosmos

Between trees and rivers, there are plants to harvest and fish to catch: food for the animals that appear during the game. The water splashes, cuckoo calls, and crickets chirp – sounds that make for a very nice game atmosphere.

Subtle graphics, Nordic atmosphere

The graphics of TOCA BOCA are pleasantly different from the cartoonish cuteness of many computer games: landscape and figures are kept in angular, prism-like shapes and look a little like origami; the color spectrum is limited to subtle pastel shades. The vegetation and wildlife with its bears, wolves, and deer tell of the origin of the game from northern climes.

 

ALSO READ: Treating Vintage Watches As Art

 

3. ALTO’S ADVENTURE

Canadians have a flair for snow, so it’s no wonder that a Toronto studio called Snowman has created the most beautiful digital snow imaginable. Playing ALTO’S ADVENTURE means snowboarding across the screen, listening to relaxing music, and sometimes crunching steps in the snow.

A tour through digital snow designed in Canada

But the utterly wonderful thing about this game is the landscape through which you glide while avoiding obstacles, skipping over abysses, collecting llamas, and backflipping. A matt pastel-colored mountain world, two-dimensionally cut out of fine paper, changes its colors from the morning light to the deep night.

Forces of nature in front of pastel-colored mountains

If you leave the game for a few hours or days, you will always continue snowboarding at the time of day you left off before. Nature is just as unpredictable in ALTO’S ADVENTURE as it is in real life. Sometimes there are thunderstorms, and it thunders from the tablet or mobile phone. However, the flashes here are just as poetic as the moonlight.

My daughters, do not share their mother’s computer game inability, like the snowy landscape, the changing lighting atmosphere, and the gameplay of ALTO’S ADVENTURE. While they initially found that you have to wait too long for new elements to come into play in this endless game, they have developed into Alto Addicts with increasing practice. Did I want that?