Quantum Origination

Quantum Origination is a 3D exploration game, inspired by the developers dreams and the classic „LSD Simulator“ playstation game.

Pouring dreams into media isn’t easy to do; dreams follow their own logic, and many of their aspects can’t be transferred by just retelling or recreating them, and creating a continuity needed for the audience to work often collides with the very essence of the dream. I believe that a certain language evolved over the years, drawing influences from myths, religions, fairytales, literature, and drug experiences to bridge this gap – but using those comes with the risk of suffocating the essence in cliches and stereotypes.

Quantum Origination does a good job in evading this pitfall. The atmosphere is unique, otherworldly, and often much more dreamlike than other psychedelic works – and even when the realm of the true dream is probably left, it stays tasteful – reminding me to works of Magritte and David Lynch, being cryptic and a bit enraptured, somewhat distant, but yet in a own, distinct way. The approach can be best compared to Akira Kurosawas movie „Dreams“ (the depiction of the dreams, however, is realized totally different in both works): You walk through various dream-scenes, crossing silent forests, shadowy temples, cold cities, floating palaces… These images and scenes are phenomenal, and the great strength of this game – they are creative, strange, and beautifully realized. All of them are interlinked at various places, and finding your way through them is a difficult task in itself; if you want to chase the alleged goal of finding the orbs hidden in the game, you can assume a playtime of multiple hours.

The game has good art, in general. The models are well made, and already have a appeal to begin with, but this is vastly increased by the dithering effect that is used – the result is a extraordinary pretty game. Music and sound effects are used rather reluctant, but where it is used, the effects are great, and the realization is – again – very taste- and skillful.

The core gameplay usually works good; sometimes, however, you’ll find yourself stuck in the floor or within obstacles – if attempts to free yourself fail, you have to reset your position to the spawn using the „R“ key – not optimal, but overall, the game works pretty good, and it won’t happen often – especially if you move with a little bit of precaution. In any case, this shouldn’t be a deal-breaker.

Quantum Origination is a great game, and one can tell that a lot of time and thought was invested into this. The level of detail, the craftsmanship used in its creation, and the creativity of the shown world make it a unique game in every aspect, and one of the best „psychedelic“ games I can remember playing.

The developer, Scrib-Dev, did various other games – among them two precursors to this one. Additionally, a major update/extension for this game seems to be in the making.

Quantum Origination was realized with Unity and worked fine on OpenSuse Leap.