For creator Erin Robinson, “Gravity Ghost” isn’t just a game, but an evangelism tool for promoting the entire art form.
Every $14.99 purchase of the game—released last week for PC and Mac—comes with an extra digital copy, which she asks to be passed on to non-gamers. “My hope is that it will open the door to this amazing hobby and allow people to share that joy with their loved ones,” Robinson wrote on the game’s website, gravityghost.com.
Giving her game away for free might not make the most business sense, but it’s been clear from the start that “Gravity Ghost” has been more about passion than profit. Robinson has been tinkering with it since 2011, while she was still teaching game design courses at Columbia College. She began working on it full-time after moving from Chicago to Phoenix in 2012, but was limited by a very small, self-funded budget. In an era when many games are made by teams of dozens, if not hundreds, of people, the 28-year-old did all the design, art, scripting—even marketing—herself.
“I didn’t want to bother with a publisher because I wanted it to be my baby,” she said. “It let me make something really weird.”
“Gravity Ghost” is certainly not a typical video game. Robinson’s art looks ripped from the pages children’s book—all colored pencils and pastels. There are no guns to shoot or zombies to avoid, just stars to collect. Its protagonist is not a space marine or a Mario brother, but a troubled 12-year–old girl named Iona. It’s not even possible for players to fail—they float and bounce around the universe without fear of dying and restarting.
“I find games enjoyable, but a lot of them don’t assume you’re a beginner and give you difficult things to do or teach you something once and expect you to remember,” Robinson said. “I deliberately didn’t want a difficult game, but one of joyful discovery.”
As its title implies, “Gravity Ghost” essentially is a ghost story, but not a jump-out-of-your-shoes tale of horror. Iona is a brightly-hued specter who interacts with the cosmos as if they were her personal playground. She blissfully spins around planets and glides through outer space to collect animal spirits and reunite them with their skeletons. Who is Iona and why is she on this strange, intergalactic quest? Instead of spilling its guts right away, the game teases out the mystery of her life by showing small flashbacks from her melancholy childhood every few levels.
The unconventional approach seems to be paying off so far. Robinson says she’s recouped her costs through early sales and seems to be making at least a few converts out of non-gamers.
“Some people find it remarkable and say, ‘Why aren’t there more games like this?’ It’s truly for people who love video games but don’t know it yet.”
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Ryan Smith is a RedEye special contributor.