{"id":63150,"date":"2014-03-21T18:23:55","date_gmt":"2014-03-21T16:23:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/onsoftware.en.softonic.com\/?p=63150"},"modified":"2025-07-02T00:48:11","modified_gmt":"2025-07-02T07:48:11","slug":"monument-valley-puzzle-game","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/monument-valley-puzzle-game\/","title":{"rendered":"Monument Valley combines mind-bending puzzles with beautiful art"},"content":{"rendered":"

Monument Valley is one of the rare games that immediately caught my attention at this year’s Game Developers Conference<\/strong>. The game was only one of many at the Unity booth but it managed to draw a crowd.<\/p>\n

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Monument Valley stars Ida, a girl who is trying to right a wrong by returning artifacts to the world’s beautiful temples. The art draws heavily from Islamic architecture<\/strong> and reminds me of the game Journey.<\/p>\n

If [a level] couldn’t be hung on the wall as a piece of art, it wasn’t going in the game.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"MonumentThe gameplay is simple but the puzzles<\/a> are challenging. Each level requires players to move parts of the level to help Ida progress. Need to get to a higher part of the level? Rotate the walkway to change the perspective<\/strong> to link two floors. Each level has a series of buttons Ida must stand on to unlock different areas to make it to the end.<\/p>\n

Music also plays a big part in Monument Valley. Dragging and rotating parts of the level manipulates tones, almost like strumming a guitar. It provides pleasing aural feedback and adds depth to the puzzles and levels. <\/p>\n

The level design is influenced by the mind-bending art<\/strong> of M.C. Escher. If you’ve ever played Echochrome<\/a> on the PSP or PS3, Monument Valley will feel familiar. Each level has been carefully crafted with a different feel and visual style.<\/p>\n

“If [a level] couldn’t be hung on the wall as a piece of art, it wasn’t going in the game,” said executive producer Dan Gray. The visuals of Monument Valley are so beautiful that developer ustwo added a mode where players can pan around the level<\/strong>, take pictures, and share it on social networks<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The game will be short, only taking around 90 minutes to complete<\/strong> if you’re great at puzzle games. Some players may take longer since the puzzles get quite challenging in later levels. Hopefully ustwo will release more puzzles in post-launch updates.<\/p>\n

\"Monument<\/p>\n

Monument Valley will launch April 3rd on iOS for $4<\/strong>. With a game this beautiful, you should really play it on an iPad. An Android version is in the works and it shouldn’t take long since the game was developed in Unity<\/a>, a developer tool that makes it easy to export games to many platforms.<\/p>\n

MORE FROM GDC 2014<\/p>\n