Digital Home Thoughts: Journey to Wild Divine

It's About the Journey
The pace of the game progresses slowly as you explore the world. At times I found the transitions between scenes almost too slow, although I am probably conditioned by many other games to move fast. One of the key elements of Journey of the Wild Divine is to let go and relax so the pace fits with this message.

Exploring the game world is done by using the mouse. The first person view is a pre-rendered 3D scene with a few elements that you can interact with. The world is quite detailed and nice to look at, although, unlike real-time 3D, the view is limited to a fixed set of scenes. At times I wished that I could look around in different directions and take in the beautiful scenery.

The movement sequences are animated using Quicktime. Sometimes the compression of the Quicktime movies degraded the quality of the scene. Besides this minor complaint, the transition between still shots and action is fairly seamless. The game also uses live actors and animals played as Quicktime movies on top of the rendered scene. This is a bit of an older style compared to the complexity of most 3D games currently on the market, but it works for this world.


Figure 1: A scene from the world of the Wild Divine.

There is an introduction and a few early "energy events" to learn the basics. The lightstone biofeedback device is used for the energy events which are like puzzles scattered throughout the game. The energy events become more difficult as the game unfolds. One of the first energy events involves a pinwheel. When you breathe out the wheel spins in response to your breath.

There are many other unique energy events. Some of them ask you to raise your energy level while others require a deep, relaxed state. Throughout the game you will encounter characters and guides that teach you physical techniques that can be used to solve the energy events. I was able to complete some events quickly, but others took a few attempts and practice before I could proceed. The game took me about 16 hours to finish (scattered over a few days). After the game is over you can play it again straight through or replay a particular event over and over to practice the method. You can work with an event as a meditation technique or a means of relaxation.

The story and puzzles can be appreciated by people of all ages. I attended a workshop recently where we were discussing this game. Many parents said that their children enjoyed playing the game and were able to learn to solve the puzzles.