Visuals and Choice in Loved and Problem Attic

Of course the most immediately obvious difference between Loved and Problem Attic is their visual design. Loved starts as a fairly simplistic black-and-white platformer with a small bear-like cartoon avatar. This kind of aesthetic created a sort of nostalgia for me, as it reminded me of the browser-based platformer games like There Is Only One Level that I used to play as a child on sites like Armorgames or Kongregate. Problem Attic, in stark contrast to Loved's initial minimalism, throws the player into a confusing jumble of pixelated graphics with jarrringly contrasted colors. The effect is that Loved begins as something familiar and almost nostalgic—or at least, something easy to learn. Problem Attic begins as something unsettling and visually disorienting even for platformer veterans.

But Loved, as we know, doesn't exactly stick with this simple monochrome style. If the player disobeys, the style becomes more pixelated and colorful, making the game more disorienting and surreal. If the player obeys, the blocks turn into more detailed drawings, creating a more intricate and visually pleasing environment. Despite the pixelation effect in the 'disobey' route, the graphics of Loved are never so distorted as to be outright unpleasant. In Problem Attic there is also a slight increase in the pixelation effect as the game progresses, but this is not nearly as noticeable as compared to Loved. Instead, the graphics start out confusing and disorienting and remain that way—unlike Loved, nothing the player does can really affect the environment.

Even at its most pixelated, Loved manages to retain a consistent color palette.

How does this change in visual style, as well as the effect of choice on aesthetic in Loved, interact with the narratives that the two games attempt to convey?

Problem Attic is a thoroughly unpleasant visual experience, using its distorted pixel graphics, eye-searing colors, and jarring sound effects to create a feeling of helplessness with no reprieve in sight. The environment of the game is deliberately confusing, as some color tiles are merely decorative while others are solid, lending a new sense of uncertainty and frustration to the platforming experience. This represents the position of becoming stuck in an abusive situation, one with no plausible escape, the pits of despair. This is supported by Liz Ryerson's essay "The Other Side of Braid," in which she talks about the personal experiences that led her to critique Braid through Problem Attic. Ryerson, forced to return to an abusive home out of a lack of resources, lacks any sort of agency to improve her situation or escape it. Problem Attic showcases this feeling.

In contrast, Loved establishes the dynamics of abuse early on but gives the player more agency. Despite the disturbing questions that the narrator asks, the player always has a choice as to whether to obey or to disobey. Importantly, this decision is shown to not be a futile one, but an action that influences the environment around the avatar. At the end of the game, if the player has a record of disobeying, they can even choose to leave the narrator behind, escaping the abuse. Despite everything, the player retains some semblance of power. This is the polar opposite of Problem Attic, which repeatedly stresses the discomfort and helplessness of being trapped.

Before class and in discussion, I overheard some people talking about how unpleasant of an experience Problem Attic was. In contrast, I don't think that Loved will evoke the same response. Problem Attic is not exactly designed to be a 'fun' game, as Ryerson admits when she calls it "weird and ugly and hard to parse," and "not palatable in any way." Loved, on the other hand, is never outright ugly or unpalatable. While aspects of the two narratives are certainly similar, I think that Loved ends up being a more accessible version of the narrative for a broader audience. Its decision to keep its visual effects surreal but never unpleasant, as well as its fairly basic controls, means that the player is never so disoriented as to dislike the experience. In contrast, the eye-searing glitch-like aesthetic of Problem Attic, combined with its frustrating controls and strange level design, creates a feeling of discomfort that makes for a less pleasant playthrough. But, as Ryerson would argue, it seems to more accurately depict the feeling of being trapped in an abusive situation with no way out.

Loved's pixelated effect pales in comparison to Problem Attic's glitch art style.

So we have Problem Attic, a game which unpleasantly depicts the unpleasant reality of living with abuse, and Loved, which represents a slightly more viewer-friendly version of a similar dynamic. On one hand, the argument could be made that Loved's aesthetic and more palatable portrayal would reach a larger audience. On the other hand, one could also argue that Problem Attic has a more honest and personalized portrayal that resonates more strongly with people who have lived through a similar experience. In my opinion, neither is better or makes for 'a better game' than the other. The world needs both kinds of art: art with a message that can reach a more general audience, and also art that does not appeal to a broad audience but unflinchingly conveys what it wants to convey. After playing through both games, I understand this better and walked away with a new outlook on Loved and a stronger appreciation of Problem Attic.