Sara is a young woman whose time to die has come, so she gets a visit from the lady.
Unwilling to accept her death at such an early age, Sara challenges Death to play a game. As long as Sara plays the game, she is alive. Perhaps, she might find a way out of the demise. For some curious reason, Death accepts the challenge, and so the game begins.
In its essence, Sara and Death combines 2048 and Mean Bean Machine, only with cubes and other geometric shapes placed on a grid. You swipe left, right, up and down to match them. Different colours add more complexity, and at some point irregular shapes appear to make your life harder. In some levels, you need to score a certain number of points. In others, you need to score the points or clear the board in a limited number of moves. Notably, the grids are different in every level, and sometimes present a snake-like labyrinth – you never feel like you’re doing one and the same thing from level to level. The diversity of challenges boosts the replay value, especially since some levels will require you to re-try multiple times.
It is a mind boggling and pleasantly difficult experience, but it would have been bare bone puzzle if it did not come loaded with art, philosophy, plot full of darkness and mysteries.
Story behind the Game:
Sara And Death was inspired by an old movie from Ingmar Bergman – The Seventh Seal – and by Sara herself. Sara does exist, I met her when I was studying philosophy mistaking her for another old friend. By chance. The best way to find a new friend indeed. Here she plays as my alter ego and the game is about love. Yet it is not a love story. It is an existential catch on love.
On a later stage of development I decided to ask Sara to be the illustrator. She shared my same doubts about love and she did a stunning job that inspired changes major design changes.
Marc Dos Santos is the composer. A brilliant professional who liked the and wanted to work on it for free.
One year of work, always assuming it was going to be invisible, then an article on Kill Screen and Apple promotion. Working on Sara And Death was the best thing that happened to me in a year where I release the official Rolling Stones app.
