Monument Valley 3 is coming to Netflix with an iconoclastic edge

Set in a leafy area of ​​south London, the historic cricket stadium peeking out above the neighboring houses, the 30 or so engineers at Ustwo Games have been struggling to solve one of the defining creative dilemmas of modern entertainment: how to balance the familiarity of the beloved. franchise with freshness? The problem is exaggerated Monument Valleythe acclaimed puzzle series that started in 2014. The architectural puzzles of the first entry already feel crystalline; the minimalist aesthetic was perfected. Can such a refined formula be revised?

Monument Valley 3arriving on mobile devices via Netflix on December 10, confidently answers that question: yes, and then some.

Looking back, in 2017 Monument Valley 2an undeniably good iteration of the era-defining original, it just didn’t push the envelope far enough. In the third entry, game director Jennifer Estaris says, “we knew we wanted to make a big change. We wanted to make a splash. ” Estaris’s use of the word “splash” is instructive: at various points in between Monument Valley 3the water began to rise, submerging the staircase locks and the Moorish towers that defined the series. Elsewhere, players explore long stretches of open water on a boat, riding the beautiful, sparkling waves. Both give clues about the three’s most irreverent personality – the desire to break away from the past.

Nature and – most importantly – unruly, rugged vegetation, stand out Monument Valley 3. A game about nature. A real danger causes the inhabitants of the game to scatter. In a sense, they became refugees. The picture of the climate crisis presents itself. But it is not entirely true to think about it Monument Valley 3 like growing directly outside The Lost ForestDLC add-on for Monument Valley 2or that the expansion was a proof of the idea of ​​this taking of the wilderness.

At first, a small group tried to give up. “We had a first-person version,” Estaris said. “We had a multiplayer version. We had one where you could build your own building. People can create their own standards.”

Slowly, themes began to emerge. The idea of ​​a found family became an anchor for the developers of the game, many of whom have immigrant parents or, like Estaris, new to the UK (he came from Denmark). Lead designer Emily Brown, who grew up in the Middle East, recalls the team wanting to create a “personal, people-centered” experience – the opposite of the franchise’s sometimes cold, monolithic design. He recalls one incident that summed up the new approach: “a little hill with little buildings on it, and a puzzle happening on a very small scale.” It was clear to Brown that Ustwo was not acting “alone”. Monument Valley the game. “It’s about bringing people together,” he says.

First of all Monument Valley defined the era of premium mobile titles. It was a killer app for the iPad and iPhone, a game whose design ethos perfectly matched the form, function, and aesthetics of those devices. In the Ustwo studio, a cozy, warehouse-like space with walls covered in colorful paintings, there is a shelf where the BAFTA award Monument Valley he is sitting. A doll-sized model of Monument Valley placed on a table a few feet away, a literal ode to a franchise that has reached over 150 million players. This series seems to be big in the mind of the studio and takes a significant place in the finances.

“First of all Monument Valley a period piece of graphic design for 2013/2014,” said lead artist Lili Ibrahim, referring to the clean lines of its well-designed, impossible structures and brain-massaging, soft pale color combinations. Ibrahim wondered, “What is happening Monument Valley 3 inspired to create a time capsule of graphic design today?” He focused on magazines, websites, and art exhibitions. Of particular interest were the “harmful” and “harmful” fashion articles with glossy paint over them and images of cutouts. Ibrahim attended a retrospective of UK artist Cornelia Parker and saw the famous 1991 installation Cold Dark Matter: An Exploded View – actually the frozen frame of a garden shed at the time of its demise. He says: “Seeing this set me free. “I thought about the buildings inside Monument Valley to do this.”

This is exactly what happened in some of the Memorial Valley 3’s Impressive puzzles. One origami-inspired stage, stitched to evoke Japanese washi paper, sees the buildings unfold and unfold like an unstructured 3D net. One sees you literally explode the structures in slow motion to resemble a blooming cubic flowerhead.

There is decoration Monument Valley 3 which violates the prohibition of the previous entry. Natural curves threaten to overrun the clean lines of man-made structures; the colors are deep, rich, and sometimes shocking. Monument Valley 3 it’s a better-looking game, busier than what came before. The level selection screen sees the main character, Noor, standing in a lighthouse and moving around intricately colored glass panels. Spread the light that flows through each radiant image. The result is incredibly opulent.

An even bigger surprise is what’s going on Monument Valley 3 after release. Ustwo is turning to a live service model, albeit in a way that avoids the “grinding” and “addictive, compulsive loops” of other free-to-play titles, Estaris said. Additional content will be released at least a year after launch in the form of seasonal puzzles and story chapters, a move that fits well with Netflix’s subscription model. Obviously it also makes solid business sense.

Estaris, who worked on the endless runner behemoth Subway Surfers before joining Ustwo in 2020, he compares the basic performance to a piece of “classical music” for an orchestra. More content, on the other hand, is closer to “jazz” — freer, more relaxed, and more experimental both functionally and visually. Estaris hopes players will develop a “healthy habit” through it Monument Valley 3like completing a “Sunday crossword puzzle.”

Monument Valley 3 it arrives just over a decade after the original, and much has changed beyond the drop in mobile premiums and the rise of subscriptions. In 2014, users are in their honeymoon period with smartphones and tablets. Now, the relationship is worse for many, who are re-examining their relationship with these machines. Short-form video has exploded thanks to TikTok, and there are concerns about the connection between excessive screen time, social media use, and what some research groups call the “loneliness epidemic.” A common criticism is that the extractive, capitalist logic of tech and digital media has intensified, finding new vampiric ways to capture the attention of users.

Danny Gray, Ustwo’s chief creative officer, once called the former Monument Valley “a sanctuary in your pocket.” He emphasized that you can take out your smartphone anywhere – the bus, the toilet, the airport – and enter a Zen-like state of calm. You hear this sound playing even more Monument Valley 3. For all the various ways that move with the times – the live service pivot, the new visuals embellished, and the freeform game – its meditative core remains the same. This is not a trivial task in an age when most digital media, and, cruelly, the act of interacting with them, feels defined by a certain kind of anxiety and restlessness.

“I’m not saying Monument Valley 3 it’s the perfect fix for all that,” said executive producer John Lau. “But it’s made in the spirit of something that can’t be thrown away – something you can cherish and take with you as a memory.”