For Fun: Two Games for Your iPhone

Everyone is knitting frantically to get stuff done for Christmas, so you may just want to file this post away til after the holidays. The only reason I'm putting this post out now is because I, too, am knitting for Christmas, so I can't talk about my knitting! 

I got a new iPhone recently -- my Verizon plan renewed and I traded in my lowly iPhone 4 for a new iPhone 6+, and therefore I needed a couple new games to put on it! 

I looked in the app store and found Sailor's Dream, by Swedish Developer Simogo AB. It is a 'game', sort of, but there are no points to win, or  monkeys to jump over or angry birds to squawk at you. You wander around finding clues, memories about something that happened in a cottage by the sea. The thing is, I found myself getting sucked into the world, the sea, the beauty and peace of it, the music... the music is so hauntingly beautiful. This game is as much an interactive album as it is a game. 

This takes at least a week to play; you get a bottle containing a song every day for a week. I found to my chagrin that if you miss a day, you will have to wait for that day to come around again! I have found all the bottles, but I am still trying to figure out how to get to the last part of the game ... but not very hard. I like just wandering around on the sea! 

This game would be good for anyone touched by the sea. If the ocean feels like part of you, you will probably get sucked into it like I did. Sailor's Dream costs $3.99, about the same as a pattern on Ravelry. And it's so worth it.

The second game I bought is Monument Valley by UsTwo. It has a little girl (Ida) running around and squawking birds that are crows, but it is so much more that that! This game is a piece of art as much as a game, an Escheresque-world that you walk through, encountering harmlesss but noisy crows that keep you from getting where you need to go, and giant yellow totem-pole-like friends who give everything for you. This puzzle game is simple, beautiful, mind-bending in the nicest way, and it really makes you think. And, it is fun for all ages to play, from little kids to adults, who can play together, solving puzzles and helping Ida get where she needs to go. It has been a long time since I experienced a game like this! 

The art work has simple lines and colors, which set it up for being like an Escher painting that you just walk into and play in. Fans have made a gallery of Monument Valley art which you can see at Monument Friends. The game costs $3.99 for 10 chapters, with an expansion pack that is $1.99 for an additional 8 new chapters (such a deal!), and I just found out today that Ida's (Red) Dream is available until December 7 for 99¢, the proceeds donated to fight AIDS. I snapped that up right away! I am lingering over the last chapter in the expansion pack, but now I willl have to finish it, I guess :)

OK. Back to knitting!