The game Little Inferno really stuck with me after I beat it in preparation for Tuesday's class, but I was never really sure why. We were asked in lecture why Little Inferno was assigned to us during a week about failure. I want to try to and expand that question again here and perhaps use that answer to look at why the game resonated with me.
There is a lot to dissect in this game, the different catalogs, the Weatherman, and the rest of the outside world, all have a place in how we should read this game. But repeated throughout the game is the phrase "You can go as far as you want, but you can never go back." I think that it's this statement which is at the game's core and why this game is ultimately about failure. At first we have a world of possibilities open to us, we can go anywhere we want to go so long as we try. But as we move forward our past is fixed. There is no way for us to go back and change the things we've done. Failures and mistakes may happen along the way, but there isn't anything we can do to change those missteps. We might be able to address or deal with the fallout in some way, but that mistake will forever exist in the past.
The gameplay of Little Inferno reflects this idea. The player has no explicit failure state in Little Inferno. Instead, the player exists in an already failing world. We as players could continue to stay inside the house forever and keep burning everything, but doing so won't drive us forward or change anything about the surrounding world. Instead of remaining stationary, the game asks the player to move forward. However, doing so requires sacrifice. The player has to quite literally burn down their own house, making sure that there is no way for to go back. It's only then that success comes for the player. We win by choosing to leave the past behind and moving on with the Weatherman to explore the rest of the world. The player isn't the only one to make this decision. Miss Nancy and Sugar Plumps make the same choice. They too choose to move forward away from the past. Just like the quote implies, success in the game means moving forward and leaving behind past without some hope of return.
I think that this is the way that Little Inferno exists in conversation with the idea of failure, and it is this message that really stuck with me. The game is saying that what matters is full-heartedly choosing where we go in life. Going where we want and pushing forward is the only way for us to live without regrets. We can't change the past but we can move on and grow from it. I think that this is a very hopeful message.
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