Freeware Love: Treasure Adventure Game

They say nothing in life is free. Nothing, that is, except freeware! Over the years I've downloaded my fair share of free games with often little to no expectation for satisfying or memorable game play. Once in a while though you find a game which, whilst developed with a nonexistent budget and released for free, is in fact as good as any retail game. Games such as Spelunky and Digital: A Love Story proved that freeware games can be deep, immersive experiences in which production values have no rightful place and where personal creativity is king. I recently came across a freeware game called Treasure Adventure Game which proved to be just such a game.

The Tiny Bang Story

I downloaded this quaint puzzler thanks to it being very cheap on Steam the other day and found it to be enjoyable if a bit too subdued. First of all the game looks very pretty and its calm, peaceful hand-drawn backdrops perfectly encapsulate the atmosphere which pervades this very short adventure. This atmosphere is perhaps best described as a serene daydream. The game's music equally keeps this sleepy mood up. Plucked guitars, tinkling bells and soft synths make sure that whilst you solve the game's relatively meagre puzzles you never  feel pressured to stay awake. Even the narrative, which involves you rebuilding a tiny planet after the eponymous Bang shatters it, is utterly devoid of the usual immediacy which games trash their players with. In fact its quietly refreshing to be able to play a game at your own pace. There is no urgency to the puzzles and rebuilding the shattered planet seems to hardly matter to the planet's lethargic population. This means that when playing the game I was never stressed about puzzle solving and was able to enjoy experimentation in a relaxed mood.