Gorogoa is a puzzle video game developed and illustrated by Jason Roberts and published by Annapurna Interactive. Through its puzzles that involve manipulating beautifully hand-drawn illustrations in a 2×2 grid of squares, the game tells a story about a young boy who encounters a strange monster. As the player, you must solve these puzzles to guide the boy through his journey in the story.
In the grid of pictures, the player can manipulate each picture by dragging a layer off of it onto another grid space or picture, or by zooming in and out of a certain picture. The purpose of solving each puzzle is to help the boy be able to go from destination to destination in his journey, and the way you determine how to manipulate the images is by identifying patterns across different pictures that might indicate that the pictures are related and can interact together to make way for the boy to progress. These mechanics influence the overall experience of the game by having you as the player engage intimately with the illustrations by inspecting them closely and directly interacting with them, and these illustrations are very unique in its style and are incredibly captivating — it makes you feel like you are in the world as well. From this feeling of being fully immersed in the world that the pictures evoke, the game provides a sense-pleasure and discovery type of fun alongside the challenge type of fun that the puzzles themselves provide. Going through the boy’s journey alongside him by solving these puzzles also contributes to the discovery type of fun as well.
