12/23/25
Cryptic-ness
I think that I like “cryptic-ness” in media. But maybe only very particular kinds of cryptic-ness.
I have loved Outer Wilds, The Witness, Cinco Paus, and Gestalt OS to name some games with varying degrees of “cryptic-ness”.
I have really not enjoyed the movie Annihilation or reading The Book of the New Sun or Void Stranger or Starseed Pilgrim.
I think maybe “cryptic-ness” is a bit of a misnomer. Perhaps I like an aesthetic of “cryptic-ness” and then the rest of the qualities of the thing go on to influence my enjoyment.
Another note, is that every one of those cryptic games I’ve loved I have played alongside someone else. (Though I did also play Void Stranger with a collaborator) I think that may be important for me to push past the initial bad feelings that cryptic-ness create in me.
Cave of Cards vs. Dragonsweeper
Cave of Cards is a recent one that I had a journey with. I’m not sure that you’d call it cryptic exactly. But it is a game that I tried playing a little bit of and couldn’t quickly understand what I needed to do. I stopped playing pretty quickly and wrote it off.
It was re-released as part of CorgiSpace and my friend told me to try sticking with it a little longer. It unraveled a bit more to me and then started becoming fun as I got some traction. I learned what the symbols meant, how to unlock more of them, and how to beat the game. That was a pretty cool experience in the end.
Cave of Cards is particularly interesting, because the author directly talks about how it was inspired by Dragonsweeper. Dragonsweeper has a lot of that same feeling of discovery and learning how to win. However, Dragonsweeper hooked me immediately.
One thing that occurs to me comparing these games is that Dragonsweeper makes it immediately clear what your ultimate goal is, tells you explicitly about leveling up (a core mechanism), and gives you a few other small bullet points of guidance to orient you.
Cave of Cards gives you none of those things. You don’t even know what your symbols do until you observe them for a while. You don’t know what picks up do until you observer them for a while. You have no idea what your goal is. Eventually you find a staircase that I assumed was my goal, but it seems to do nothing. The goal ended up being, clear the whole screen.