As a child, I would often spend my pocket money on plasticine modelling kits. The colourful packaging, in addition to the enclosed ideas leaflet, showcased a variety of weird and wonderful creatures to potentially create. I have the impression the two-man development team behind Wurroom had a similar childhood, as it too is filled with vivid handcrafted plasticine creations.
Wurroom is less of a game and more of a relaxation tool, taking you on a psychedelic ten-minute voyage which aims to open the mind. It uses the touch screen only – hence why it’s launching on Switch and PS Vita, as opposed to Xbox One and PS4 – and there’s no means of failure.
Set over a handful of screens, it involves little more than tapping on objects in the correct order to progress to the next scene. There are no puzzles – at least not in a traditional sense – just lots of tapping and experimentation as you slowly memorise patterns and sequences.
Nature is a reoccurring theme, with one scene involving a tree with a human-like face and another featuring an island with calming waves. Peculiar is probably the best way to describe what happens within these locations, as most involve helping or freeing odd parasite-like creatures by moving platforms or crushing blocks. A couple of short Pythonesque stop-motion cut-scenes feature too.
While the events that occurred failed to leave much food for thought – it’s a little too abstract for its own good – I did spend time thinking about the game’s creation. Claymation is a slow and painstaking progress, and so the team has obviously spent considerable time animating and uploading images of every obstacle and object encountered. With this in mind, it’s no wonder that there’s only ten minutes of content. There’s only so much they could have created while keeping to a budget and development timescale. Â
From start to finish it’s very pleasing on the eye, using delightfully muddled colour schemes. The fact that no assets are recycled is likewise admirable. However, Wurroom isn’t quite as memorable as the distinct muddy smell of the plasticine kits I used to buy. It’s a fleeting experience that’s over far too soon, and the lack of alternative paths robs it of replay value.
Approach it as a tool for relaxation and you’ll find it fit for that purpose. It’s a shame it isn’t anything more, especially when you consider the time and effort that went into it.