Ophelia Payne

From the Looking Up Steam page: Looking Up captures an emotional story between Emilia and her dad. Explore and experience her discovery of flight by solving puzzles which include butterflies, mythical creatures, and birds! Grow up with Emilia and reach the skies!

GENRE: Casual, Indie

DEVELOPER: BlueRoof Games

PUBLISHER: BlueRoof Games

RELEASE DATE: Coming soon

I always go into Steam Next Fest with an open mind for what I’ll get from the short demos I play, and this time I went in also determined to play as many games as possible. At the time of writing this, I’m hovering around 70 games played and this one, Looking Up, has been stuck in my head for DAYS. I have been quite selective with how many games get a full review for me, and this one has hit me in such a way that it would be a disservice not give it a little more care and attention.

Looking Up is a cozy puzzle game where you play as Emilia. She’s 7 and obsessed with learning about flight and how to fly. This game takes place in a family home and has a lot of interactions (via a scrapbook) between Emilia and her father show is clearly a big part of her life and encourages her passion.

Often when I play games like this, the story is in the background, especially in a demo. For Looking Up, it was hard to ignore. I lost my father 5 years ago, and with his birthday recently, it didn’t take much to have my mind wander about things my father encouraged me to learn about and explore as I grew up. Nothing was silly to him. I still live by the idea that every day you learn something new is a good day.

Each chapter in her scrapbook represents a point in her life, when she is very young, the puzzles you complete are much easier than those as she gets a bit older. She learns about the hardships of flight, and puzzles show us this by increasing in difficulty and style. Each age provides you with an area of her room, you determine what puzzles need to be solved in each, and then as you solve each of the puzzles, you complete the room/page of the book and move to the next. In one instance, a bookcase has multiple puzzles. Click on the books, for example, and solve the mythical creature’s puzzle. Emilia learns about the hardships of flight, and puzzles show us this by increasing in difficulty and style.

I found the variety of puzzles to be satisfactory, and the puzzle’s concepts were easy to understand, but difficult at times to finish (I’m looking at you, stained glass bird). It was also nice to know there are some accessibility features as well, including a keyboard only option and the ability to play without quick time events.

This is Blueroof’s first game; its simplistic, storybook animation is perfect for this style of storytelling, and the music they chose also helped round out the cozy atmosphere. This is a charming and memorable title, especially for a first-time outing for the studio. It’s a nice balance of simplicity and engaging gameplay, and it has captured my heart. Can’t wait to play the whole game when it launches.

Until next time…be good to yourself and be good to each other.