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THE MALADY OF THE MELODIES
If movie company executives weren't motivated by profit over quality, Loom should be the video game to adapt for the big screen. They could hardly fail, since the groundwork is all but laid out: A superbly written story, a world fully visualised, a few profound central themes, a musical score, and a lore to build upon for sequels and spin-offs to come. I want to see this happen.
No, scrap that. I want to see this world expanded upon in a bona fide, RPG masterpiece, an open world revolving around an intricate spellweaving system of tones and music. The melodies would make up and alter the fabric of the entire world with its magic. For the first(?) time we would have a well-motivated fast travel system. I need to see this happen in my lifetime.
Such is the inspirational quality of Lucasfilm's Loom, a magical point-and-click game I played in my youth and that's never really left my mind since. It's got such potential. It is the seed of a masterpiece waiting to sprout, only stuck in the constraints of its genre and the technical limitations of its time. And yet, in its current form, it's an outstanding game and a work of art. But with the progress we've since made in video game narration and technology, an RPG set in this universe could truly become the game of a lifetime.
Who would have the guts, talent and endurance to pull it off?
They are the most secretive of the bunch, isolating themselves on Loom island, where the inhabitants are forbidden to wed outside of the guild. They are all completely shrouded by their woolen coats, with only their eyes visible through the darkness inside their hoods. Among the other guilds, there exists a rumor that it means certain death to peek down the hood of a Weaver.
The player assumes the role of young Bobbin Threadbare of the Weaver's Guild, on "the dawn of his seventeenth year", as dramatic events are about to unfold. If you play Loom totally unprepared, what transpires can seem a little mysterious. That is because Loom originally was shipped with a 30 minute audio drama on cassette, detailing the lore and strange circumstances regarding Bobbin's birth.
Bobbin is an orphan, who was raised by the midwife Hetchel as if he was her own. He never learned the truth about his mother, save the fact her name was Cygna. He's been inexplicably shunned all his life, picked on by the other kids and reviled by the elders, all the while maintaining his kindhearted demeanor. The elders call him Loom-child, and expect nothing good will come of him. Ever since his birth, they have witnessed chaos spread across the pattern of the loom they live by.
On his seventeenth birthday, Bobbin accidentally eavesdrops on a heated argument between Hetchel and the guild council. It ends in disarray, as a swan crashes in through the window and casts a spell that transforms the entire guild into swans. They fly away into the night sky, and literally cross through the fabric of existence into the afterlife. Bobbin is left behind, alone, with only a Weaver's distaff, a single spell of opening and a final instruction from Hetchel to "leave this island".
That he does, as he desperately looks everywhere for signs of his flock. On his adventures he stumbles across the other guilds, as well as signs of events pointing towards the unraveling of existence itself. It's all tied to the loom, and the pattern that creates the world.
Loom is the earliest game I can think of that uses gameplay less as a challenge, and more as a method of involving the player in the story. Brian Moriarty, game author and project leader, explained that he wanted to bring the player closer to the action by actually making us weave the spells alongside Bobbin. We could have gotten his known spells downright listed in the interface, but instead we must memorize and play the right four-note combination ourselves to cast them.
This means sound and music play a vital part in the Loom experience. Moriarty was heavily influenced by the score for Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake. In 1990, the sound hardware was not advanced enough to use for pure ambience, so they had to rely on melodies for mood. The Swan Lake score is not only thematically sound, but brings a certain drama, maturity and sophistication to the game that puts it way ahead of its time.
Too bad the game never sold well enough to warrant a sequel, leaving the story on a somewhat unfinished note. The great irony is that Loom might be the sacrificial lamb that was needed to pave the way for the serious story-driven games we enjoy today. It certainly was released before the industry was ready, because we saw no attempt to tell a similarly multifaceted story for decades.
However, Moriarty explained during his GDC Post-Mortem for Loom that people kept writing him over the years, professing the profound influence his game had on them. As these fans later emerged to take on game design themselves, that influence finally started to show through their works.
No, scrap that. I want to see this world expanded upon in a bona fide, RPG masterpiece, an open world revolving around an intricate spellweaving system of tones and music. The melodies would make up and alter the fabric of the entire world with its magic. For the first(?) time we would have a well-motivated fast travel system. I need to see this happen in my lifetime.
Such is the inspirational quality of Lucasfilm's Loom, a magical point-and-click game I played in my youth and that's never really left my mind since. It's got such potential. It is the seed of a masterpiece waiting to sprout, only stuck in the constraints of its genre and the technical limitations of its time. And yet, in its current form, it's an outstanding game and a work of art. But with the progress we've since made in video game narration and technology, an RPG set in this universe could truly become the game of a lifetime.
Who would have the guts, talent and endurance to pull it off?
STORY AND SETTING
Loom takes place in a beautiful fantasy setting, where people live in isolated guilds, separated by vast expanses of wilderness and oceans. They live their lives according to the traditions of that guild, with the secrets of their particular craftsmanship being handed down from generation to generation. In the story of Loom, we get acquainted with the Glassmakers, Shepherds, Blacksmiths, Clerics and, of course, the Weavers, who are the focal point of the story.They are the most secretive of the bunch, isolating themselves on Loom island, where the inhabitants are forbidden to wed outside of the guild. They are all completely shrouded by their woolen coats, with only their eyes visible through the darkness inside their hoods. Among the other guilds, there exists a rumor that it means certain death to peek down the hood of a Weaver.
The player assumes the role of young Bobbin Threadbare of the Weaver's Guild, on "the dawn of his seventeenth year", as dramatic events are about to unfold. If you play Loom totally unprepared, what transpires can seem a little mysterious. That is because Loom originally was shipped with a 30 minute audio drama on cassette, detailing the lore and strange circumstances regarding Bobbin's birth.
Bobbin is an orphan, who was raised by the midwife Hetchel as if he was her own. He never learned the truth about his mother, save the fact her name was Cygna. He's been inexplicably shunned all his life, picked on by the other kids and reviled by the elders, all the while maintaining his kindhearted demeanor. The elders call him Loom-child, and expect nothing good will come of him. Ever since his birth, they have witnessed chaos spread across the pattern of the loom they live by.
On his seventeenth birthday, Bobbin accidentally eavesdrops on a heated argument between Hetchel and the guild council. It ends in disarray, as a swan crashes in through the window and casts a spell that transforms the entire guild into swans. They fly away into the night sky, and literally cross through the fabric of existence into the afterlife. Bobbin is left behind, alone, with only a Weaver's distaff, a single spell of opening and a final instruction from Hetchel to "leave this island".
That he does, as he desperately looks everywhere for signs of his flock. On his adventures he stumbles across the other guilds, as well as signs of events pointing towards the unraveling of existence itself. It's all tied to the loom, and the pattern that creates the world.
GAMEPLAY OF A DIFFERENT CLOTH
What follows is a classic adventure with a point-and-click interface of a unique kind. Instead of the familiar LucasArts verb/inventory-interface, we're simply provided with Bobbin's distaff on the bottom of the screen to interact with the environment. Spellweaving replaces traditional verb commands, and the inventory is gone. This makes the puzzle solutions fairly obvious. Need to sneak past someone? Well, how about weaving the "Invisibility"-spell? Just play the four notes required to make it happen. We can also reverse the effect of a spell by playing the notes in reverse order. For instance, "Open" played backwards becomes a "Close" spell. At the beginning, Bobbin only knows three notes, but will learn more through experience, allowing him to weave more advanced spells.Loom is the earliest game I can think of that uses gameplay less as a challenge, and more as a method of involving the player in the story. Brian Moriarty, game author and project leader, explained that he wanted to bring the player closer to the action by actually making us weave the spells alongside Bobbin. We could have gotten his known spells downright listed in the interface, but instead we must memorize and play the right four-note combination ourselves to cast them.
This means sound and music play a vital part in the Loom experience. Moriarty was heavily influenced by the score for Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake. In 1990, the sound hardware was not advanced enough to use for pure ambience, so they had to rely on melodies for mood. The Swan Lake score is not only thematically sound, but brings a certain drama, maturity and sophistication to the game that puts it way ahead of its time.
RECEPTION AND LEGACY
Fortunately, the gaming press of the time caught on. Loom was generally praised by critics for its writing, beauty and atmosphere, although some criticized it for being too short and easy. And that's true - from a gameplay standpoint it's not at all challenging. But it was designed that way. As the manual explains: "Loom isn't meant to be played, it is meant to be completed." If you don't sign off on that, play another game.Too bad the game never sold well enough to warrant a sequel, leaving the story on a somewhat unfinished note. The great irony is that Loom might be the sacrificial lamb that was needed to pave the way for the serious story-driven games we enjoy today. It certainly was released before the industry was ready, because we saw no attempt to tell a similarly multifaceted story for decades.
However, Moriarty explained during his GDC Post-Mortem for Loom that people kept writing him over the years, professing the profound influence his game had on them. As these fans later emerged to take on game design themselves, that influence finally started to show through their works.
A SOURCE OF INSPIRATION
Loom was sophisticated long before graphical games were supposed to be sophisticated, a completely story-driven experience of adult-minded sensibilities. In its world consisting of isolated guilds of very specialized people it touches upon existential themes like loneliness and abandonment, flock mentality and fear of the outside world. But it never becomes heavy-handed, nor overwrought with words and explanation. It always puts the storytelling first. Even gameplay and longevity becomes secondary to the prospect of getting the story across.
All the subtext comes organically through the drama, and through audio and graphical design. Although an updated CD-ROM version exists, with 256 color VGA graphics, we need to acknowledge the amazing work that graphical designers Mark Ferrari and Gary Winnick put into the original EGA version. Limited to 16 colors, they tricked the eye into believing they used a whole lot more through a technique called dithering. This painstaking work means applying two colors in a checkerboard pattern to simulate a new one. Later on, it would become automated, but Loom's graphics department had to do it manually.
Out of that they created some of the most memorable locations in all of gaming. The Glassmakers' Emerald City by the sea, with buildings of translucent green, stands out as one of the visual feats of the genre. The design of the Blacksmiths' guild also calls for attention, as does the remarkable 3D death animation of a certain character late in the game. Above all, the attention to detail makes the world around Bobbin come alive in a sense they didn't in previous genre forays. Whenever I play Loom, I keep wondering about those horizons. I keep hoping to stumble upon new hidden pathways leading there but alas, I do not think they exist.
What's most astonishing is that Loom was created 30 years ago, and still I remember every beat of it, although having played it only a few times through the years. Not only that - it continues to evolve in my mind. As I perceive it through a modern lens, I fail to see how it has aged, I only see added possibilites to tell new stories within the same universe. By today's technical standards the graphics look crude and the music sounds primitive, but the idea of them seems to live a life of its own. The characters and backdrops are thoughtfully stylized, and the melodies carefully selected, making Loom impervious to the reapings of time.
Starting to write this text, I was unsure of what rating Loom deserved. Maybe Loom is a four star game, or maybe it's only a four star story trapped inside a one-and-a-half star game? Who cares. Over the course of the day, I have decided to make it my first Hall of Fame-inductee. It does not belong to the quantifiable universe anyway, but to the dreams and boundless aspirations of the human mind, where it might inspire us to weave our own magic.
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