Eight Last Signs in the Desert

Eight Last Signs in the Desert is a surreal Twine game set in a desert where the player contemplates monuments of human civilization. The artwork is FANTASTIC.

For now, I intend for this to be last game I review for IFComp 2025. It seems like a good piece to end with now that the comp is over and everything's been announced.

Gameplay
At least, this is how I understand the gameplay.

My guess is that we’re not in a real-life physical desert, but an intangible setting made of ideas and abstract concepts. However, the nature of the game means the logistics of this are irrelevant. We accept the existence of this surreal world as it is. Knowing what’s going on in the game is a different matter. I’ll do my best.

Trace your steps toward...
➼ the monument to the road cone
➼ the monument to the aardvark cucumber
➼ the monument to the ink cartridge

Gameplay involves visiting seven monuments and “unraveling them.”

You have reached the unflowing monument to the ink cartridge. Its mysterious nested walls and tissues hold a great amorphous power. For now, it stands.

Unravel it.

This involves reflecting on its content, its portrayal of said content, and how it relates to yourself. The player’s choices involve clicking on cycling links to select a prompt to add to the monument.

➼ Seal your choice. Leave the monument

The game combines these monuments together to create a fusion of ideas, experience, and materials influenced by the reflections that you made. These combinations are “unveiled.” The game does this by generating poem-like passages. For example, in one playthrough I combined the ink cartridge and wicker monuments.

A revelation is what you do, it's what you are. The truth of the ink cartridge and wicker quivers in your hands, alive, alight with the awe of the distance between words. Shine a light across the chasm. Shout their beauty.

Unveil them

(What followed next was the generated passage).

The mechanic of combining different monuments adds replay value, but I’m not sure if its monuments are dynamic enough in content to make players eager to experiment with different combinations.

Writing & Genre
While I enjoy surreal works, I lack the background knowledge to analyze and comment on the genre itself. Because of this, I end up using the word "surreal" as a blanket term.

It’s safe to say, though, that this is an abstract game, and its writing reflects that. In comparison with other surreal works, this game will have a narrower audience due to its writing's elaborate style and tone.

Its writing feels like a string of thoughts and is written as if they are being spilled from one’s mind. Consider my fusion of the wicker and ink cartridge monuments:

The story of wicker and the ink cartridge. Picture a reproduction of three-dimensional forms. The voids in between. Initiate the next phase of cleaning only if the print quality is poor. Keep the diagonal above and then below. It is the only way. They warn: this mold will erase our history. As he kneels to take it out, he forgets that they said anything. The instructions say to throw the thing away when there’s less than eight signs left, but as always there are workarounds on the internet. And they know that this is true among the atoms and the galaxies...

It's a lot to process.

I think the game does a consistent job at making players feel as if they are flowing down a waterfall of ideas and concepts. Wading through this content reveals some fascinating ideas. I liked how the newsstand monument is described as a "relic from the paleo-information age."

Sometimes, though, the writing runs into a wall and starts to feel lame and contrived:

Semiconductors are the judges of the real, and there is no such thing as hot glue.

What does this even mean? Maybe its nonsensicalness is intentional, but I’m not feeling it. Fortunately, the game always pulls itself back on track. You will find things to appreciate if you commit to the gameplay.

Story
There’s not really a story, only a mix of themes. If I had to pinpoint the main theme, I’d say it orbits around examining past civilization and what that civilization leaves behind. Sand is a recurring element, and the game reminds us that all things are eventually worn down into sand and atoms.

It does have an ending. (Spoiler - click to show)After visiting and combining the monuments the game turns around and regards you as a monument. As you did with the previous monuments, you unravel yourself. In a self-reflective way. Maybe it’s up to interpretation.

Visuals
The artwork is the best part of the game. It’s exquisite and fits the genre perfectly.

It appears as a layered collage of different materials and styles. It depicts a desert landscape with artifacts scattered on the dunes. The layers create a sense of depth and distance, and objects fade in and out as you investigate each monument. I was enthralled.

The authors are talented. It’s the kind of art I expect to see at an art gallery or a glossy hardcover book. It really illustrates the story. There were times when I simply ignored the text and stared at the details in the artwork. The humanoid picture with the mismatched hands and geometric shapes was one of my favorites!

I’ve played many games with gorgeous visuals, but Eight Last Signs in the Desert stands out with its use of textures.

Like the sand dunes.

It almost suggests that you can touch the screen and feel the sandy surface. I can’t say I’ve played a game that depicts textures like this. The closest work I can think of is Fabricationist DeWit Remakes the World which looks like watercolour on thick paper.

I hope more games experiment with textures.

Other visuals
Text is placed in a black box, usually on the left side of screen. In this sense, the game feels like a picture book with text on one side and visuals on the other, though the game occasionally uses additional boxes as well. It has a thin cream-coloured border which contrasts nicely with the dune imagery in the background.

There’s also a tiny grey box by the main text box that provides a random passage of text. I’m wondering if it represents something in the narrative. Or is it simply a text box? Either way, it offers some interesting passages.

The game does use some fade-in-fade-out effects for the text, but this is an example of using them appropriately to enhance the gameplay instead of slowing it down. It gives the gameplay a contemplative vibe.

Final thoughts
Eight Last Signs in the Desert is a unique game with writing I enjoyed and art that blew me away. It is not a game for the impatient. In fact, it can be a bit dense for anyone with the patience to ponder each line and take it one step at a time. I was pleased with it, nonetheless.

I recommend this game if you want something that focuses on ambience instead of a storyline. The themes on human civilization- and its impermanence- are compelling but not overwhelming. And the art? At least play it to sample the art.

In the end, thoughts are free at last from gravity and the strong force of their nuclei.