A friend suggested I play Birth. I was unsure of what the title meant. I explored apartments, shops, and museums, completing simple puzzles for teeth, bones, or organs. Then I understood the title. The items were not just collectibles. Together, they built a person.
The game’s goal is not to complete puzzles in order to complete the storyline. The puzzle is the storyline.
Birth is a point-and-click puzzle game created by Madison Karrh and released in 2023. I completed it on Steam. Its target audience includes people who favour slow, thoughtful games with hand-drawn graphics, surreal environments, and little spoken dialogue. Each room follows a similar loop: inspect objects, solve a puzzle, and leave with another body part. In MDA terms, these puzzle routines create a dynamic of accumulation and curiosity. An exposed organ may have a horror-like appearance; however, as a result of the slow pace, the body parts can also begin to feel strangely warm.
Fg.1 My Steam Library Page for Birth.
In the stranger’s apartment, I moved stars around different photographs to discover a hidden bug. The bug went to a bird, and then the bird gave me a fish. After four fish were placed in an aquarium, they produced a tooth. It was very bizarre how those simple objects became a part of another human. It seemed inappropriate that I could take something intimate from this stranger and turn it into something tangible for my companion, but it was still a lot of fun.
The Art Studio breaks the repetitive process described above. After I located a code on a payphone, I was presented with a blank piece of paper with no predetermined outcome, thus I could draw whatever I wanted. This part of the game required no decoding, nor did it result in an organ. Ultimately, I made my own mark and was not asked to interpret someone else’s pictures like I had done for most of the game.
The way the game finishes is different from all other parts of the game. Once I collected all of the appropriate body parts, I was presented with a series of photographs suggesting memories and a shared life. After all of the previous experience, it was difficult to view the new companion as a pile of body parts.
Fg.2 A Birth puzzle showing a fragmented creature on the left and separate matching pieces on the right.
Henry Jenkins refers to game designers as narrative architects who create environments with narrative potential. Birthcan also be considered this way. The city is not designed strictly for the purpose of being a setting. All of the apartments, stores, and objects provide a way that the story can unfold without relying on dialogue. As I moved through these environments, I participated in the story of how to connect to others and, ultimately, alleviate loneliness.
Birth differs greatly from Gorogoa, a game that I discussed last week. Both games utilize imagery instead of text to convey their stories. In Gorogoa, you manipulate and change the appearance of panels to examine the connections between them. In Birth, players accumulate items, and their actions can be reinterpreted through a growing understanding of what those items build. In this manner, Gorogoa is focused on connecting images together, while Birthis focused on creating a whole entity.
A contradiction exists within the game. The character is seeking companionship, yet the city contains many living citizens. They are seen as pieces of a puzzle or objects that provide an item. Therefore, the city feels lonely, and the citizens have become tools. The game could add small details that create a feeling of connection. If a resident waved when the player returned or kept an item that the player helped repair, then it would make that connection more real without creating a lot of dialogue.
There is also a limitation created by the same lack of text. While the game has a slow-paced gameplay style and little reading, several puzzles require players to identify very small visual details, understand spatial relationships, and use fine motor skills to drag an object with precision. I could not find a firsthand accessibility review by a disabled player specifically about Birth. The Family Gaming Database has not completed its expert assessment and lists zero documented accessibility features, which does not prove that none exist. Research based on blind players’ recorded gameplay shows that visually driven games can force players to use an outside walkthrough or another person’s help when audible cues are missing. Possible enhancements include object highlighting, increased contrast, audio descriptions, keyboard controls, and layered hints.
Personally, I found enjoyment in Birth because of its lack of dialogue. The title meant nothing until I made the connection through my own actions. At the end, I no longer perceived the bones and organs to be creepy or designed to frighten. Instead, I realized how much time and effort I had invested in bringing my companion to life.
