Release Date: 02/04/2009
Played On: Win
Available On: iOS / Mac / Wii / Win
Time Played: 2h 32m
Progress: Completed
Developer: Broken Rules
Publisher: Broken Rules
There once was a time where you'd be forgiven for thinking that "indie game" was synonymous with "small gimmick". At least, that's how it seemed for a while, when many successful little indie titles made a name for themselves for whatever unique mechanics they employed. Braid had the rewind-time thing, Super Meat Boy had the tight-controls-but-totally-difficult thing, even Minecraft had its procedurally-generated-blocky thing.
Of course I'm generalising with a wide brush and all that, but for a while there it did seem like indie games needed some genius aesthetic or gimmick to get noticed. Bastion had its dynamic narration and beautiful art, Snapshot had its camera that edited levels on the fly, and that's just mentioning a few. The point is that when I talk about And Yet It Moves, I feel like it has to be read in the context of its time, or not at all.
I remember And Yet It Moves as one of those little games that cropped up in a bunch of Humble Bundles and deals when bundles were just starting to pick up steam. In fact, I think I have multiple copies of And Yet It Moves, simply by default after purchasing a number of cheap bundles that it was included in. Along with the likes of VVVVVV and Cogs, this was a game that seemed hard NOT to have in your library.
Despite all this though, And Yet It Moves seems to have disappeared into the void of old indie games past. Let's not pretend that this is a lost darling that everyone needs to get into, but at the same time there are some interesting aspects that I feel are worth noting.
The game is essentially a simple platformer. I'm not sure of the story (if there is one), but I don't really pay attention to stories in platformers anyway, so don't take my word for it. The main takeaways for And Yet It Moves are the interesting mechanics, and the unique art style. Suffice to say that I haven't really seen either executed in quite the same way before or since.
Immediately it's easy to see that And Yet It Moves has a deliberate aesthetic of torn paper. Everything in the environment, including the player-character looks as if it's been torn from the page of a book in some way. The levels are made up of pieces connected together to create obstacles, all the while being textured by real photographs and drawings. Yes, it's a perfect blend between interesting and super ugly.
I have to admit that at the end of the day, I really don't like the look of this game. During the first level where everything looks like brown or white paper, the torn aesthetic worked well enough and made sense. However, as you can see in some of these screenshots, the photographs-as-textures often clash and create a highly dissonant colour palette for each stage.
It's a shame because I quite enjoy the player-character, who is a drawn sprite that moves and animates on their torn piece of paper. This cartoony style is fairly simple on the eye, but it's an endearing style that lends a certain amount of softness to the screen. Hence why it's a little alarming to have this fuzzy little sprite clashed and jarred against the harsh backgrounds and textures of the environment.
The shining light for the game's aesthetic, is that it is just that, and aesthetics are essentially measured by personal taste. I concede that the photographic textures and torn paper style does work together and make sense. I'm just not a fan of looking at it for too long.
Thankfully though, the real draw to And Yet It Moves is its platforming system, which incorporates a simple, but unique mechanic. There's the usual running and jumping, as you ultimately need to find a way over and through obstacles from one end of the level to the other. Just about everything in the environment has physics and collision, so it's not as simple as running past a tree or a rock; you need to find a way to run over whatever stands in your way.
Bring on what I'll be calling the 'world-rotation' system. As you run through each level, you have the ability to rotate the entire environment at any time. Each input will rotate the world by ninety degrees, opening up new ways to progress over and around obstacles, and ultimately through each level.
Imagine that you're running along, only to be stopped by a ginormous tree blocking your path. You can only walk forward and jump a short distance, so there's no way you're getting past this obstacle. Except, by rotating the world, suddenly the tree's trunk is now the floor, while the ground you were standing on is behind you as a wall. Then you can simple walk forward and up the tree, rotating more to walk under the branches and over the top, eventually ending up on the other side unscathed.
As I said earlier, it's an interesting mechanic that I haven't seen used all that much before, or since. In fact there are only a few exception that I can think of who have used some kind of world-rotation system as a primary mechanic for traversal. What's more, And Yet It Moves does the excellent job of utilising its unique mechanic in interesting ways that I hadn't originally anticipated.
Everything in each level also has physics attached, which means that when you rotate the world, loose objects will move according to gravity and the contours of the ground. Is there a boulder blocking your way in a long tunnel? No problem, just rotate the world so that it drops all the way through the tunnel, clearing a path for you to move through. Still, no need to stop there; why not jump onto the boulder as you rotate the world, so that when it drops you get to ride it all the way to the end of the tunnel.
It's these fun ways that the game uses the world-rotation system that really sets it apart from the rest. There are many sections where you have to jump, rotate, fall past something, rotate again, then land. All while taking care to fall for too long or too far, as you build up momentum while you're in the air and too much speed will splat you against the ground.
Now imagine the usual gamut of platforming obstacles, but with a world-rotation slant on them. Platforms appear and disappear in sequence, but some of them are rotated and require not only precise timing, but multiple inputs at once to secure a landing. Swings let you travel across large gaps, but require some world-rotation to get moving, and some more to avoid obstacles along the way. Suffice to say that And Yet It Moves does a decent job at using its world-rotation gimmick in every conceivable way it can, even within its short playtime.
After all, this is a short game that can be completed in a single sitting if you're keen, but if you haven't already picked it up in bundles or sales then maybe wait until you can. I'm not really one to quibble about the price of games, but this is a very simple and short game, so I understand if its fifteen bucks price tag is a little high for some gamers.
Ultimately though, And Yet It Moves will always have a place in the original days of indie game gimmickry that encapsulated something wonderful. This was when many gamers were starting to discover that there's more on offer than the blockbusters that dominate consoles and PCs alike. We started seeing digital distribution as a viable way to get unique and interesting experiences from independent developers who weren't beholden to shareholders.
It may seem like the norm these days, but I remember a time when little experimental indie games were niche and hard to find. It's only thanks to the indie darlings of the era who managed to break into a more mainstream audience that we have the over-saturation we know and love today.
And Yet It Moves might not have been the forerunner of its era, but it played a part in my own head-canon toward the maturation of the indie game scene. It's a product of its time with a unique (albeit polarising) art style, and simple mechanics that change the way you play. This was when a little indie game could get away with being nothing more than a gimmick, so we saw some truly interesting and compelling gimmicks being introduced.
I hope I don't sound like I'm being too harsh on And Yet It Moves, but I feel like I enjoyed it for more reasons than its own gameplay loop. It might be true that this is one game where simplicity is both fascinating and a bit of a letdown at the same time. I wouldn't recommend this game to everyone, but if you enjoy small experiments with interesting mechanics and systems, then it's definitely worth a look.