Enjoy a relaxing watercolor summer in France on Dordogne.
In recent years, the indie gaming scene has been flooded with deeply personal narratives and creative art styles that constantly challenge what a video game is. Small studios have proved time and time again that with a little support and years of hard work and love put into a project; they can turn out to be life-changing experiences if the player is willing to focus on them.
Case in point, Dordogne. Developed by Un Je Ne Sais Quoi, animated by UMANIMATION, and published by Focus Entertainment, this narrative adventure puts you in the role of Mimi, a middle-aged woman having trouble remembering her past, specifically a heartwarming summer vacation she spent with her grandmother that changed her life. Dordogne is a warm rural area in the French countryside where a river and city meet and the game does it justice with its beautifully hand-crafted watercolors.
The opening scene starts with a question to the player and what becomes the purpose of the narrative, “What is your first memory?” This upsets Mimi as she realizes she cannot remember anything from her early childhood, and as her grandmother has just passed away, she decides to revisit her home in Dordogne in the hopes of unlocking her childhood memories.
Shortly after, as Mimi enters her grandmother’s home, known as Nora, from letters she had found earlier, she goes into a daze as she finds an object that instantly reminds her of that fateful summer where she spent countless hours exploring Dordogne. The player then takes control of Mimi as a child, and the wondrous world around her seems brighter than as an adult, portraying the nostalgia-filled memories of her summer with Grandma Nora. After unlocking key situations, she goes back to the present and continues her search. This is basically how each chapter unfolds.
As the days go by and young Mimi sets into Nora’s home and feels less uncomfortable, she finds a binder that serves as her journal and a way of recording everything around her. As you move around the house and the countryside, there are stickers you can grab, words floating that you can pick for making poetry later on, recording sounds, and taking pictures with an old camera. At the end of each chapter, Mimi can preserve each moment with these creative tools at the player’s disposal, and each entry will be quite different for each person playing, depending on their creative output, enticing you to let your artistic side shine.
The gameplay of Dordogne mainly serves as a narrative device to ease the player into the mental state of Mimi, both as a child and an adult. Certain mundane tasks such as pulling out weeds and planting flowers, giving the cat to eat, and getting ready for a new day are among a few of them. Although this is not a point-and-click adventure, as there are light exploration elements, the main focus of Dordogne is certainly the story and its emotional weight, which slowly keeps raising the stakes as the summer memories come to a close.
Mimi’s summer adventure is stirred up by her meeting Renaud, a mischievous young kid that she first sees stealing in the farmer’s market. A heartwarming relationship blossoms as Mimi starts feeling more at home in Nora’s place and goes out on adventures with him. Renaud introduces her to a mythical creature called Coulobre and tells her that he is frantically searching for it. Their quest for the rest of the summer energizes Mimi as she looks forward to spending her days with her new friend.
Before long, the story reveals that the inquisitive and adventurous mind of young Mimi was halted by a traumatic experience that could have been avoided. The fantastical imagination of a child, while it should be cherished and maintained for as long as possible, has to also be in a safe environment. As with all interactions in human nature, conflicts arise, and these key moments contribute to the main character’s heartbreaking loss of innocence.
Trauma is a complex issue to talk about. It can make a person suppress their memories or change their behavior depending on how impactful their negative experience was. Every single situation is different; from what one person might be able to easily get out of for another, it could take decades for them to acknowledge they have been living with this burden for so long. While Dordorgne’s subject matter is not as heavy as one might think, it is very carefully thought out, to the point that if any player had a complicated childhood, this experience would most definitely be emotionally resonant.
The elevating soundtrack of Dordogne, composed by Supernaive, evokes a certain mysticism, nostalgia, and playfulness. Whenever it needs to match the turbulent or pleasant memories of Mimi, it rises to the occasion. Delicate synthesizer sounds as you kayak down a river or climb to the top of a mountain may even make the player remember childhood adventures themselves. Music in any work of art is something that should be done with the utmost care, and thankfully Dordogne‘s sounds deliver, from the joyful moments of encountering a new friend to the riveting climax of the story.
Trophies are, for the most part, easily attainable. Some are as simple as doing certain actions perfectly without making a mistake, and others are somewhat more laborious as they ask you to collect every single item in Dordogne. When a developer puts in the effort to give the player achievements, it shows, as in this case, when completing certain tasks such as painting or taking photographs, will earn you the trophies named Claude Monet or Sarah Moon, French luminaries of their field.
A video game four years in the making, the care put into each and every watercolor landscape and minute aspect of the game is quite notable. Discovering new things and getting out of your comfort zone can be a frightful thing. But Dordogne, by way of its carefully structured narrative, reminds us that it is worth it to live life to the fullest.
