Yoshi's Made World is a symphony of everyday materials

I am not a video game expert, but having been in the creative business for over 30 years, I know and appreciate the great designs. I found a perfect chord with Yoshi& # 39; S Crafted World. The game itself may seem easy, even childish to jaded players, but it gave me a special opportunity to appreciate the beautiful design that is often found in modern Nintendo games.

The craft world of Yoshi contains his premise in his name. As a Yoshi, I walk through a variety of worlds filled with creatures and sets made from paper, cardboard, wood, tape, plastic and other everyday household items such as bottle caps, soda cans, ping pong balls pong and even plastic drinks. straws – no ban of plastic straw in the country Yoshi.

At one stage, the origami flowers are "cut" in corrugated cardboard and finished with painted twine. They walk between painted cardboard bushes. At another stage, Yoshi builds a train using a can of iced coffee and cardboard wheels. A tealight candle burns gently under the can to produce just enough steam to propel the small boat.

A lake of magma comes complete with lava geysers that seem to have been shaped from liquid sweets. A wood twig forest with paper sheets has cardboard decks that rise or drop when Yoshi drops an acorn in one of the two nets hanging underneath. An airplane made from a painted cardboard tube, using what I suppose to be lollipop sticks for a propeller, flies through crushed paper clouds. And it continues, again and again. It's not just the design of every article that's beautiful; the thing, is that you can see how each was "made" with the help of housewares.

All this great creative work means that I play the game slowly, with care and in a state of constant joy. I can not wait to see how Nintendo's designers have recycled these "designed materials" in a new and imaginative way. I sometimes repeat old steps before moving on to the next, just in case I miss something.

The craft world of Yoshi is a game that showcases small creative decisions, addressing audiences that will search for them.

Felt vs foam

We generally think of video game characters and elements as finite elements, and we judge what they look like. But the developers of The craft world of Yoshi We spent so much time modeling the materials that make up each element that it's fun to understand how each element was built and then choose the details. The bright and bright lighting design of the game makes it easy to see all the work done in the "manufacturing".

The cardboard has reliefs and imperfections. Occasional scraps of paper and cardboard have a printed text, which is particularly noticeable when playing on the back of a scene, which gives the impression that the piece has been cut from an old cereal box. The yellow gaffer ribbon has a burst of plastic, the names printed on the metal soda lids look old and faded, the twigs of wood have grain and the aluminum boxes are scratched and dull.

Yoshi and the other characters in the game are "made" of felt. Or at least I thought it's felt. I first thought that the texture was a kind of moss. My colleagues at Polygon were also divided on whether it looked like foam or felt. Some even thought that Yoshi's texture was neither and more like velvet, or even velvet, even microsuede.

The fuzzy felt texture distinguishes Yoshi and the other main characters from the craft world that they inhabit. Nintendo's designers have not mixed their metaphors; Cardboard, paper, brushed metal, fabric and wood are used together, while shiny hard plastic and precious metal are used for the items you collect. It's like a theatrical technique, and it helps me to know what's what at first.

In fact, "theatrical" is a word that I would like to use to describe this game in its entirety. The different universes all look like a puppet theater set built by children for their toys. Or maybe it's a shoebox diorama. I have the impression that the action in The craft world of Yoshi takes place on a kitchen table or on the floor of a child's room.

Focus on Yoshi

But it's not just the constant scale that makes these sets so compelling, they also have a fabulous sense of depth. Yoshi limits itself to moving left, right, up or down in most stages, but the whole thing opens occasionally and allows me to go backstage (to the lorry). background) or down (towards the screen), which allows me to pass through the doors or behind the landscapes to find more coins or smiley flowers.

What makes this movement so impressive is the use of focus tracking, a photographic term that describes the continuous focusing technique of the lens so that the subject remains sharp when the camera is moving or away from it. For example, the focus changes with Yoshi as I move to the background, the background is no longer in the foreground and the focus is on the background. background becomes blurred, where clouds and textures become sharper. The opposite occurs if Yoshi returns to the viewer.

The tracking effect is especially noticeable when you are targeting an egg in a cloud, a mole or a plane filled with Shy Guys. Once you have moved the crosshairs to a target, the target is in focus. If you leave this target, it becomes soft again. The craft world of Yoshi is certainly not the first or only game to use this technique, but its use is very effective in making me feel that everything in this space is an apparently real three-dimensional object, made from paper and cardboard , not in two dimensions flat. virtual world.

I appreciate this game for what it is: a fine example of exemplary creative direction and technical execution that never hinders the simple pleasure of playing a great game. Similarly, and perhaps to be more singular, the game itself never prevents me from enjoying the world. It's easy, of course, but a better descriptor may be "comfortable".

Here is a beautiful world made by hand. Enjoy it.