For this week’s critical play, I played the game Monument Valley by Ustwo Games. The game revolves around a princess named Ida, who embarks on a quest for forgiveness. Each level in Monument Valley features a core puzzle mechanic that the player must solve to help Ida reach her goal. The player’s perspective is fixed, however, the player can utilize the levels’ puzzle mechanic to manipulate the perspective and create optical illusions for Ida to traverse.
Manipulatable objects in Ida’s world are often highlighted by distinctive colors or lined with circles along the object. These visual cues create interaction loops so the player learns that contrasting colors or raised circles indicate objects with which the player can interact. The player learns about the world with Ida through the puzzles’ mechanics of manipulating the environment. Solving the puzzles helps the player learn about what happened to Ida. So, the mechanics of the puzzles create an emergent narrative. 
Furthermore, the mechanics of the puzzles and narrative work in tandem to help create an explorative dynamic resulting in a discovery aesthetic. Thus, the mechanics of the puzzles in Monument Valley influence the experience of the game by creating interaction loops, driving an emergent narrative, and developing a discovery aesthetic.
