Thomas Was Alone

Thomas Was Alone is a game where the player controls coloured rectangles, and yet it is one of the most cited examples of how a moving story can be told with minimal means. The main character, Thomas, is a red rectangle who one day wakes up inside a computer system and starts looking around. He gradually meets other shapes, each with a different size, a different form and a different ability, and through a narrator the game turns them into real characters with worries, vanity and loyalty. The narration is dry, British in its humour, and surprisingly kind.

In terms of gameplay, it is a calm logic platformer. The goal is to get all the characters to their target spots, which requires making use of their differing properties. A small rectangle jumps high but not far; a large block serves as a step and as a bridge; one shape floats on the surface of a dangerous liquid, another can reverse gravity. The player switches between them, building a living scaffold out of them. The difficulty stays gentle, since the game's centre of gravity lies in atmosphere and rhythm rather than a test of dexterity, and the levels are short, which suits short sessions well.

The graphics are deliberately reduced to simple shapes on a dark background, so all the meaning is carried by movement, narration and music. The piano and string soundtrack is understated but remarkably effective, and contributes to the overall impression just as much as the writing does. The Vita version launched alongside the PlayStation 3 release, and gave the game a home where it works beautifully in moments when there is only time for a few levels. Critics received the title very warmly, praising above all the writing and the voice performance, and the game became one of the symbols of that era's wave of small independent projects. It also showed that a narrator's commentary can be a fully fledged gameplay mechanic in its own right, since it is precisely this that gives otherwise neutral shapes motivation and weight. To this day, Thomas Was Alone manages to leave an impression in two to three hours that much bigger productions fail to achieve.