The Complete Writings of Mme. Esther Darwin is an experimental game under development by Niall Moody. It features hand-drawn graphics and simple animation.
The player controls one Mme. Esther Darwin as she journeys through a surreal series of islands documenting the chimeric animal inhabitants she finds on each with a cryptic, even poetic, page of writing in her journal. The link to Charles Darwin is explicit as well as implicit - her first journal entry is a letter to Charles. The three hearts in the upper-right-hand corner seem to reassure that this is indeed a game, but in reality it is not one that can be lost just yet. (Losing all the hearts to sea monsters does not impede your ability to complete the journey.)
While it's somewhat premature to deliver a full evaluation of this game, it's not too early to say that it illustrates some promise. It's such an unusual experience that one can't help but find it memorable, particularly with the planned addition of elements that change based on real-world time. At the same time, the strangeness borders on alienating. Time will tell how the story of Mme. Darwin unfolds.
Comments