 Manifold Garden gets you to rethink the shape of space. Within the first few rooms, you are shown how to shift gravity towards any one of six sides of a cube with a different color designating which direction you are oriented towards. It explores this idea in fascinating ways. The first real puzzle requiring you to use a colored block that heels towards one side as a shelf to prop up another. Right afterwards, after having exited to a perplexing world of infinite contraptions, you are tasked with taking a cube across a gap. Except the gap is a little too far to cross. You could try falling towards it. I mean, we just learned how to shift gravity. However, you can also step off the edge to your destination. Manifold Garden features an infinitely looping world with the same construction repeats in every direction indefinitely. It is effectively a cube where every side warps you to the opposite one. The shape of space is contorted into what is called a three-torus to give you a finite world that is unbounded. The closest analogy is Pac-Man which connects the two opposite sides of a rectangle to create a playing space that is actually shaped like a donut. Manifold Garden's world is the 3D version of this, perceived from within it, which provides some fascinating possibilities for puzzle design. Any sense of up or down, left or right, horizontal or vertical is destroyed, allowing you to fall towards a spot that is both in front of you and below you. In their essay The Spectacular Space, Rene Bauer and Heloko Kato argue that games can explore new possibilities of the shape of space because they are effectively new universes conceived off with different regimes of physics. This is what they call a spectacular space, which can be either hyper-real or irrational. Hyper-real spaces are spaces that feel otherworldly and transcendent, whereas irrational spaces are those that feature physics that are not present in our own. A game like Nissan's can be classified as hyper-real with an austere and intimidating aesthetic that feels alienating and morose, and Fez can be seen as irrational in that it features exotic geometry not present in ours. Manifold Garden is fascinating in that it is both. It is hyper-real and irrational simultaneously. The reason for this convergence might be the background of its main creator, William Cheer. Originally educated in theoretical physics, Cheer shifted his profession to contemporary art where he created novel installations for art exhibits. Manifold Garden is the product of seven years of passionate labor, uniting both his expertise at art and science to craft something genuinely creative. The origin of space in game started in space itself, with the black background of early screens making a space aesthetic self-evident. Space was grounded soon after that, but it remained in two dimensions. We started on single screens like Donkey Kong, then transitioned to scrolling screens in Mario, warping screens in Pac-Man, and then of course we jumped to 3D. 3D opened up new types of gameplay and new genres, as well as new complications when it came to design. The first demarcation in our understanding of space is the divide between continuous and discontinuous space. Discontinuous space is any game that is discreet or binary instances of space, like the grid structure of chess, whereas continuous space is where relatively free movement is permissible. Each creates unique instances of emergent gameplay, with the grid structure in Steven Saussage role unique opportunities for logic puzzles and the freedom of motion and verticality of Rocket League allowing for unique instances of dynamic gameplay. What's interesting about games is that the camera angle that frames a game creates a new reality. 2D space can be portrayed from the side, top-down, isometrically or a mix of them, creating new ways of perceiving a flat plane. In 3D, first person and third person games create different resolutions of immersion and a controllable camera can make the player the cinematographer versus a fixed camera that gives designers the ability to frame things more deliberately. When in three dimensions, we have mostly stuck to Euclidean geometry on flat ground, but there have been some preliminary fours into exotic shapes. Ratchet & Clank 2 was the first game to introduce spherical worlds as far as I can tell, but it was Super Mario Galaxy that actually explored what it means to create new gameplay with this. It also introduced interesting platforming challenges that involve gauging how gravity shifts between small pieces of geometry, asking the player to think about space differently. So we are back to space proper with Mario Galaxy, but it also explores the meaning of space. Space almost always provides a backdrop for stories about isolation, exploration, or existential reverie, because of the experience it encodes for those who traverse through it. Mario's whimsical charm and psychedelic madness is married with the beautiful isolation of space, creating what we can also deem a spectacular space, both in theme and in physics. Games based in space, whether No Man's Sky is procedurally generated cosmos or EVE Online's intergalactic space conflicts, leverage the space of space to enable player directed storytelling. This is something worth exploring further. The nature of space itself communicates something meaningful. The overview effect, an instance where astronomers who see the world from afar are driven to a renewed spirituality, is a glimpse into what the phenomenology of space might be. This has even inspired games like Journey, confirming that it isn't just the shape of space that is important, but our experience often. In Geoffrey Week's book, The Shape of Space, he illustrates the physical properties of exotic space in fascinating detail, guiding us from Euclidean to non-Euclidean regimes of reality. Euclidean geometry is the geometry we are most familiar with, the geometry of flat space, where parallel lines never meet and triangles add up to 180 degrees. Non-Euclidean geometry, on the other hand, is anything else. He also highlights how we can use methods to figure out the shape of our universe itself. The book is a relatively technical treatment on the nature and shape of space, but what's interesting is that he starts his book with the fictional story of Flatland. Flatland tells the story of a square, a two-dimensional being stuck on a plane. One day, the square dreams about a visit to a one-dimensional world inhabited by points and attempts to convince the realm's monarch of a second dimension. Following this vision, he is himself visited by a three-dimensional sphere. Similar to the points in Lineland, the square is unable to see the sphere as anything other than a circle. He can only see a cross-section of it. The book has much to say about social hierarchy and scientific inquiry, but the real meaning is one of enlightenment. Flatland inspired Fez, a game about being a 2D creature named Gomez who attains a magical Fez that allows him to shift perspectives in three dimensions. This rotation mechanic reveals new paths through the level by connecting otherwise inaccessible platforms and is the basis of Fez's puzzles. Your job is to restore order to the universe by collecting cube fragments, your call to adventure. The rhetoric here is very clear. There may be more to reality than we can see, and it requires a shift in perspective to bring it to our understanding. The irrationality of space is intrinsically hyperreal. The shape of space is transcendent. Fez understood this intrinsic connection and built a puzzle game to marry these two ideas together. Jeffrey Week's book was an inspiration for William Cheer as well, who took these ideas about space to craft a game out of. However, Manifold Garden was also inspired by many artists and architects to create the unique aesthetic of the game. The work of Tado Ando and Brutalist Architecture inspired the level layout of Manifold Garden and this was coupled with the design of Frank Lloyd Wright to lend space a sense of character. The manga Blame was also a huge inspiration for the game, which has giant monolithic megastructures in a sense of foreboding scale. There is also a religious undercurrent to the architecture to give the game a transcendent sensibility. The general aesthetic of the game was inspired by M.C. Escher's work, Relativity in particular, which also inspired the many perspective puzzles in the game. To create a sense of the spectacular, Cheer not only drew from exotic geometry but also architecture, interior design and the phenomenology of space to create an emotional resonance that fit the game's reconstitution of reality. In his book Video Game Spaces, Michael Nietzsche's argument is that game spaces evoke narratives because the player is making sense of them in order to engage with it. There is a meaning to the interaction with space itself. To properly understand how we can rethink the meaning of space, we need to defer to art forms versed in that very subject. In her GDC talk, Architecture and Level Design, Claire Hosking illustrates how architecture can inform game design. She outlines how the layout and topology of a city influence our perception of it, giving us a template for how we can design cities and games. Famously, Will Wright's games, Sim City and The Sims were inspired by books like J. Forrester's Urban Dynamics and Christopher Alexander's pattern language showing the utility of these ideas for game design. She further claims that architecture creates meaning through atmosphere, not just symbology. She shows how works like Peter Sumther's Brutal Chapel inspired games like Journey with its monolithic structures, sense of isolation and dark interior. The meaning of space can also be manipulated by the materials that are used. Bioshock's Art Deco Underwater dystopia uses heavy elements and claustrophobic interiors to create a sense of weight, oppression and dread, whereas Mirror's Edge has a lightness that accompanies the traversal mechanics owing to its level layout and materials with a reflective sheen. This brings us to a complimentary GDC talk on the utility of interior design in shaping the meaning of space. The speaker argues we can manipulate contrast, repetition, enrichment and expression to alter how people experience levels. For example, the interior of Gone Home creates a sense of nostalgia and homeliness by using a warm color palette and stereotypical design. However, by creating just enough that is anomalous, this nostalgia also elicits a sense of dread as you scramble to figure out what is going on. Now compare that to the room in Silent Hill 4, which has dim lighting, damaged walls and a greasy aesthetic. And of course, you are trapped within it to turn home into something foreign. However, it is the only place where you are actually safe from enemies creating a dissonance in your mind. The shape of space can also be enriched to change the tension in a game. An example he gives being an Uncharted 4 sequence that goes from narrow caves to open spaces. Early on in Manifold Garden, when you make your first entrance into an interior space, this moment is accompanied by a swelling musical piece to highlight the meaning of infinite space. The example of Uncharted 4 brings us to another aspect of the meaning of space. Mother Nature. There are examples of design, like falling water, that try to blend the natural with the artificial. But in games, we are constructing the natural artificially. Nature might be the original proving ground where our perception of meaning and beauty derive from. So how do games blend these forms to craft a phenomenological landscape? Take Journey. It maps an emotional arc reminiscent of the hero's journey by playing with the verticality of space, the color palette and your maneuverability through it. The sense of isolation you feel at the endless desert in front of you only makes your sporadic encounters with other humans that much more meaningful. Monolithic structures hint at remnants of a lost civilization, and the gradual but triumphant descent up a mountain is iconography that is as old as our species. Zelda Breath of the Wild is something very similar as well, using its wide open expanses to create a sense of adventure and exploration. It may take a long time to traverse this sparse world, but the areas you can traverse give Zelda its unique sense of freedom. The shrines you periodically encounter have a decidedly religious sense about them, which function as sanctuaries to punctuate your travels. Another series of games that use the meaning of space in spectacular ways are Fumita Wada's games. Eco takes place mainly inside a castle and creates a sense of foreboding and vulnerability by using intimidating architecture, ethereal lighting and rustic materials. The Last Guardian plays with space in similar ways, inspiring awe at the scale of its environments, and Shadow of the Colossus uses otherworldly natural environments to make you feel like an adventure on a colossal quest. Hideo Kojima's Death Stranding also has a fascinating take on space. It wants to instill us with a sense of exploration like Zelda, but also in rapture and mystify like Shadow of the Colossus. The sheer amount of time you spend traversing the wilderness forces a melancholy contemplation at the state of yourself. A desolate and beautiful landscape now devoid of life. The asynchronous multiplayer elements are there to remind us of the joy of human connection, much like journey does, but ultimately, you are alone. The emotions that play here are complex like observing the earth from afar as a pale blue dot, and they needed space to breathe. Spectacular spaces are those that challenge our perception of reality, whether through devising new domains of physics or through the ideas, themes and emotions they communicate. Manifold Garden wasn't the first to try this and there are a number of games that share in its lineage. Echo Chrome is a puzzle game that was also inspired by MC Esher's drawings, and asks you to manipulate space to get your avatar from start to finish. The game uses an environment coordinate system, an engine that determines what is occurring based on the camera's perspective. What's interesting about this is that the game encodes the idea that reality itself is subjective. It's our perception of an image that determines what's real. Anti-Chamber is another puzzle game that plays with space to communicate fascinating ideas. The game starts by declaring that every journey starts with a choice and then you are presented with one, go left or right. Regardless of which direction you take though, you end up back where you started. This seems strange until you read a sign telling you that choices don't matter unless there are consequences. It explores the futility of meaningless choice by trapping you in an infinite loop and the solution requires some counterintuitive thinking. The game subverts the idea that there needs to be any coherence when it comes to continuity and space. Teleportation first burst into gaming with Portal, a game about reframing our relationship with space and the meaning that that encodes. You play as a woman trapped in a research facility that asks you to pass a series of tests using a portal gun, a device that allows you to create two wormholes in space that teleports you from one to the other. Later in the game, when you break free of the implied path to thwart the control of the maniacal AI gladdos, shifting our perception of space becomes a deeper metaphor for resisting authorial control and the mandates of governing institutions. We were never meant to survive just as we were never meant to explore the regimes of reality that are imperceptible to our naked eye. Portal's quirky aesthetic conceals a more sinister truth that we are trapped by the shape of space around us. Breaking our conventional understanding of space not only emancipates us, it allows us to forge our own reality unencumbered by these fetters. Manifold Garden uses the symbolism of a garden to communicate its central idea. Gardens are the union between humanity and nature, the real and the artificial. When Adam and Eve plucked the apple from the tree of knowledge, they were condemned to our mortal plane, but when we use cubes powdered by trees to bring back into the infinite void, the world around us is enchanted with color. Tending to our garden of knowledge is a pursuit that not just enlightens us, but suffuses the world with beauty. We change the world by changing our perception of it. Much like how William Cheer united his love for physics and contemporary art over seven years of development, the game unites our understanding of truth and beauty into one encompassing pursuit. The shape of space is both exotic and meaningful, hyperreal and irrational. One might even say that it is manifold.