Miniatures

Miniatures is a short narrative experience but manages to navigate both awe and dread during its approximately one-hour play time. Each tale imbued us with a sense of mystery and left us ruminating on all that was left unsaid long after we finished playing.

An eclectic mix of 4 mildly interactive but wildly different vignettes that is short but thoroughly unique

Miniatures is a game I’m going to ruminate over for a long time. It’s beautiful, melancholy, and purposefully weird, and I really appreciate that. In an industry that so often plays it safe, it’s invigorating to play something so creative and so intent on doing its own thing. Miniatures is beyond comparison, a game to be experienced for yourself above all else.

Miniatures is an extremely short collection of four… I hesitate to say games. Emotions? Memories? It relies more on mystery and melancholy to connect with the player. It can therefore be very intriguing, but at the risk of leaving some to wonder what was the point.

Miniatures is a beautiful, but way too short experience. On an emotional level, it is difficult to identify with the memories, because the script does not reveal the background story at all, and the player only gets to experience four different fairy-tale situations. The audiovisual implementation is impressive, especially the different drawing and animation styles deserve nothing but praise. But when the lid of the digital memory box closes, Miniatures is also quickly forgotten.

It becomes harder and harder as we get older to be astonished by the simple things in life. The way that Miniatures asks the player to slow down and explore four different memories, each so beautifully drawn, made me feel that sense of curiosity and awe in the worlds the game has created, a feeling that doesn't occur as naturally as it once did. Though the narrative missed an opportunity to discuss deeper themes and make each tale offer some deeper meaning to the audience, there is still a lot for players to get from this short, yet sweet, point-and-click narrative experience.