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The Joystiq Indie Pitch: Desi Leaves Town
Indie developers are the starving artists of the video-game world, often brilliant and innovative, but also misunderstood, underfunded and more prone to writing free-form poetry on their LiveJournals. We at Joystiq believe no one deserves to starve, and many indie developers are entitled to a fridge full of tasty, fulfilling media coverage, right here. This week, Jakob Haglof of Pajamahouse gets literally literary with his iOS title Desi Leaves Town, which follows the life of an eccentric, rich frog in the 1880s. As you do. What's your game called and what's it about?Our game is called Desi Leaves Town and it stars an eccentric frog that gets himself into all sorts of situations in his attempts to stave off boredom.Desi is an escapist who blames the world around him for his predicament but everything is pretty much his fault.The game's story is told through cartoon segments, puzzles and action challenges. You do all sorts of things like assembling the perfect chair to knocking kids out with bread.What inspired you to make Desi Leaves Town?Desi Leaves Town came out of a conversation Nicholas Kratochvil -- the game's writer -- and I had at a bar. I had this idea for a mini game with a pompous frog that would berate you if you sat him in the wrong chair.Nicholas said it reminded him of Against Nature's main character Jean Des Esseintes and maybe we could do an interactive adaptation of the novel instead of a mini game. And the next day we started working on it.
Daily iPad App: Desi Leaves Town is a surprisingly elegant puzzle game
Desi Leaves Town, available on the App Store now, has done something remarkable. It surprised me. The colorful screenshot above might suggest that it's a kids' storybook app, but it's not. In fact, most of the kids I know would find its story boring. Instead, Desi Leaves Town is an experiment that combines art, literature, and puzzles in a compelling way. Compelling but not perfect. The story, which is based on a French novel, is sometimes hard to follow, with many flowery words. Some puzzles are confounding, too. That could be a result of the game's style, but a few smarter design choices would make them more fun. But even the questionable design choices are bold and interesting. The charming script is well acted, and the game's absurdity (Desi is an aristocratic frog determined to improve his tiresome urban existence) is excellently counter-weighted by the heavy themes being dealt with. There's a lot to experience in Desi Leaves Town, a fascinating title that's more than it seems. I wouldn't recommend it to everyone, but if you favor art and the intellectual, and are willing to forgive a few design errors, spend the $3.99 to give Desi Leaves Town a try.
