The breeze blows green willows, and the white water reflects the red peaches. On the blue waves of the boat, people swim in the middle of the painting. —— Wang Wei, "Zhouzhuang River"
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" >01 丨A book and a world, a page and a picture</h1>
From landscapes to NPCs, everything in Paperscape is made of origami
I don't know if you ever received that kind of three-dimensional greeting card or pop-up book when you were a child?
Gently turning the page, there is a "whoosh" sound, and a three-dimensional world of ingenious craftsmanship rises from the page to the ground. Those stars, those distant mountains, those lush and tall trees... Appear in front of you one by one.
Through reliefs, wheels, pull pages, pages turning, three-dimensional pages and other paper arts, supplemented by tin foil, plush and other different materials, the invisible and untouchable magical pictures in the book instantly become within reach - this is where the three-dimensional origami book makes people fascinated.
In today's digital era, the art of origami is also on the rise, and it is no longer limited to paper as a carrier. When you tap the electronic screen with your fingertips, the magic between the papers also quietly occurs in the action of "pushing and pulling, rotating, and turning pages".
Tengami, developed by the British independent development group Nyamyam, is one such addictive video game stereoscopic origami book. From NPCs to environments, all the graphics in the game are made up of paper-cut folds. The building is tilted, the pavilion is up, the spring and summer alternate, the sun and the moon change... With just one flip of the page, you can easily change time and space, and let the landscape paintings full of Japanese Zen come to your eyes.
There is a poem cloud: "On the blue waves of the boat, people swim in the middle of the painting", which is used to describe the playing experience of "Paper Realm".
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" >02 丨 Mysterious Story: In Search of the Lost Spring</h1>
By the time he woke up, three seasons had passed
It used to be an early spring full of flowers and trees, but as time passed, clusters of cherry blossoms withered one after another. When the last cherry blossom slowly fell into the samurai's arms, he woke up from his slumber. At this time, the season has turned to the cold deep winter, full of depression and no longer alive. So the samurai walked forward, through the bleak landscape, and began the legendary journey of searching for the lost spring.
Nan Ke dreamed for half a day, and the human world has been thousands of years.
"Paper Realm" can't help but remind me of the story of Wang Qianguan's chess in "Shu Yi Ji": During the Jin Dynasty, a woodcutter named Wang Qian saw a boy playing Go in the mountains, so he put his axe aside and stopped to watch the game. When he picked up the axe on the ground, he realized that the wooden axe handle had decayed and the iron axe had rusted. He hurried home and found that his hometown was completely different from when he left. It turned out that he had strayed into a fairyland in the mountains, and the children and children who played chess were all gods. While he was watching chess, hundreds of years had passed in the human world.
Although the logic of these two stories is contrary to scientific common sense, this kind of non-true narrative makes the story of "Paper Realm" and Guan Qi rotten Ke cloaked in a hazy and mysterious veil, giving the viewer unlimited space for reverie, and therefore, compared with the picture of the special effects to strive for reality, it is "the meaning is greater than the realism" Origami art and the story of "Paper Realm" more compatible.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" >03丨The Beauty of Color: Color has a language</h1>
Even though the shape of the paper cut is quite abstract and simple, you can still feel a force through the back of the paper, which is inseparable from the superb use of color in "Paper Realm"
Flat boats, heavy pavilions, solemn shrines, mountains, streams, clouds... Can you imagine that these vivid and beautiful scenery can be expressed through the art of origami?
Even though the shape of the paper cut is quite abstract and simple, you can still feel a force through the back of the paper.
How did this all come about?
I have to mention the color expression of "PaperLand".
Color has language, and different color environments will give people different psychological hints. For example, to express cold. You might choose blue or white. The same is true of The Paper Realm's use of color, and although the game doesn't mention the seasons, you can identify the seasons at a glance through the color divisions — green spring, blue summer, red autumn, white winter.
The three pictures that have just turned the page at the beginning of the game are a perfect proof: except for the color and subtle differences, the three pictures are almost exactly the same, but I believe that you will be able to easily distinguish the season represented by each picture without text prompts.
3 pictures are almost the same except for the color, but you can easily distinguish the seasons
Through these vivid main colors, we have been able to appreciate the emotional characteristics of different seasons, but this alone is not enough to explain why the picture of "Paperland" is so layered.
This brings us to the second point: the color matching in "Paperland".
There are several beautiful and simple color matching rules in color matching:
Same color: the color within the 15° angle of the hue ring (such as dark red and light red)
Neighbor colors: Colors within 60° of the hue ring (such as red and orange)
Complementary colors: 180° diagonal colors for each color in the hue ring (such as orange and blue)
Similar colors: The colors in the 90° angle on the color wheel are collectively referred to as similar colors (such as cyan-cyan-purple-purple)
Knowing this, let's take a look at the game screen of "PaperLand" -
On this screenshot, the main tone is a similar color of the three cool color intervals of blue-cyan-green, and the transition gradient is harmonious and natural, bringing people a sense of calm coolness, openness and transparency, which complements this majestic but hidden map of the sea and mountains;
The orange-red fire candle corresponds to the complementary color of blue, which is very eye-catching in the picture, and a wisp of jumping warm color can be called the finishing touch, so that the picture is suddenly alive;
The tower located in the center of the picture, in addition to catching people's attention from the composition, also has a greater difference in color from the turquoise background, which highlights its extraordinary. The whole picture is deep and mysterious, and there is a strong atmosphere in the middle.
Color, texture, composition, thickness and thin cuts, flexible paper folding... The flexible use of these points in Paper Realm makes many of the game's graphics beautiful enough to be framed and enjoyed like a work of art.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" >04 丨 Japanese Zen: Tao nature and impermanence</h1>
In "Paper Realm", a work with a strong Zen meaning
You can see countless captures of natural objects
And how these things have been changed by time
"Paper Realm" is a very Japanese Zen work, which is not only reflected in the concise painting style, but also from the soundtrack, the elements in the game, and the design concept of the game, we can also perceive one or two.
The in-game soundtrack is composed by renowned composer David Wise. The 1967-born musician has also produced soundtracks for several games, such as the Donkey Kong Country series and Battletoads. In "Paper Realm", he chose the traditional Japanese stringed string line as the main instrument. Quiet and pure, the simple and melodious melody and full of wind make you involuntarily immerse yourself in the secret realm laid by "PaperLand".
And like samurai, cherry blossoms, shrines, torii gates, family emblems, akane, stone lanterns... These Japanese elements, which can be seen everywhere in "Paperland", are often inextricably linked to religion, family, myths and legends.
Take, for example, stone lanterns. Offering lights in front of the Buddha is one of the important rituals of Buddhism, and the stone lantern is a lamp for the Buddha, indicating the meaning of "vertical light", and it is also a common decoration and lighting device in Japanese gardens. There are many shadows of stone lanterns in "PaperLand": in the dark sky, only the rows of stone lanterns emit faint lights, as if guiding you along the illuminated path, moving forward. This strange and revealing scene of religious atmosphere cannot help but make people fear and respect.
For example, during the samurai's journey to find the cherry blossoms, he had to pass through the torii gate to continue. And torii is a religious building that represents the boundary between gods and humans, stepping into torii gate means that the samurai has entered the world of the gods, so what state is the samurai in at this moment?
In Paperscape, you can find many such details that are closely related to Japanese Zen. You'll find that the production team Nyamyam has put a lot of thought into the layout and graphics, which is one of the features that distinguish it from other puzzle games.
In order to guide the player to these small but meaningful details, rather than quickly closing the game after 2 hours of hasty decryption, Nyamyam's design concept of Paperland is also experience-oriented, designed to immerse players in the game's meditative atmosphere.
In this way, it is not difficult to understand why the samurai move so slowly and why decryption is so easy. Apparently, Nyamyam allows players to calm down to enjoy the scene and feel the music, and to appreciate this ethereal and quiet Zen.
One of the characteristics of Japanese aesthetics is the silence, which derives from the philosophical idea of "Taoist nature" in Taoism and the experience of "impermanence of all actions" in Buddhism. This view also naturally influences the aesthetic orientation of Japanese Zen.
Because of this, in the Zen work of "Paper Realm", you can see, as mentioned above, countless captures of natural objects and how these things have been changed by time. It can even be said that the most basic gameplay of the game, the art of origami turning things between stacks, is itself a manifestation of "impermanence": nothing is eternal, you see I flip it casually, the world changes shape.
<h1 class= "pgc-h-arrow-right" >05 丨 knot: a breathtaking "paper" pop-up book</h1>
For players who are fast-paced and brain-burning puzzles, Paper Realm may be too tedious and boring. But if you're a beauty-conscious player, this Zen puzzle game, built by origami art, may leave you with a lot of memories.
Let me conclude this article with haiku at the end of each chapter in the game —
"Wolves asleep in/ A bright moonlight / Dreams begin to spread"
"Hanging Spring Waterfall Net/ Back to the Layers / Tree a Page Crimson"
"The sea breeze blows softly / It's been a long time since I fell asleep / My heart flutters"
"Cherry Blossom Branches Fall / Embrace The Death of Self / Since the Beginning of a New Life"
Calm down, slow down, follow the moving and melodious music, and step into the fantasy world of "Paperland".