The Glean of Glob
A collaboration between game developer, Ricky Haggett, and artist, Daniel Baker, The Glean of Glob was initially created as an interactive art installation. And though this Web edition might be called an experimental point-and-click, the term 'game as art' is definitely at play here.
It is difficult to describe the gameplay of The Glean of Glob. This is a surrealist dream, or perhaps a nightmare. There are no instructions, the player must figure out what to do while interacting with the characters on the screen. Everything can be accomplished by a click of the mouse, but after that, well, perhaps you'd better see for yourself. If you are looking for a linear experience, starting at A and progressing neatly to Z, this is not the place for you. But if you are up to the challenge, and would like to experience thought-provoking artwork, then dive into the world of The Glean of Glob.
Analysis: Add this to the category of games that push the envelope of what a game can be. Waker also comes to mind, a combination of game, education, and surrealistic art that becomes more than the sum of its parts. The Glean of Glob smashes past that, dropping linear structure altogether. Not quite a game, not quite a narrative, there is a story there nonetheless. The artist obviously chose to create something more like an experience. And it is an interesting experience at that.
You might even hesitate to call The Glean of Glob a game. Granted, it has the elements of a game. There is a beginning, a middle, and an end, and there are goals within each scene that must be performed. However, interacting is more like flying through a Magritte painting while listening to The Dark Side of the Moon (while, perhaps, suffering a psychotic break). What, in the end, does it mean? Like all art, it is subjective, and subject to the interpretation of the individual.
So if you are in the mood for something casual, then sit back, fire up the Glean of Glob, and live the experience. Perhaps your mind will wander paths it has never wandered before.
Walkthrough Guide
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The Glean of Glob Walkthrough
Strap yourself in, it's going to get strange.
You will be going back and forth a lot in this game. The little stick figures will hold up arrow signs to indicate when you can move.
There's a little stick figure on the right, waving a sign with an arrow. Click on the arrow to go right.
You are now in a plain littered with boxes and bombs. Notice the box that has a small tear in the lower corner. Click on that box to release the little...things. If you click on the things you will notice that makes them jump. Eventually some of them will sprout red balloons.
Notice (and this is important) that when you click on the balloons they will drop down to the little guys holding them. Eventually when some of the little guys move far enough to the right, the stick figure will raise an arrow allowing you to go that way.
Wait until a large mass of little grey guys are moving to the right, then click the arrow.
There is a slab there. Click on it and it will fall down across the black area.
Some of the little guys will start to move towards the bridge. Also notice one of the heads will open its mouth and bird-like things will fly out.
This bit takes a little patience: you want to get the guys with the red balloons across the bridge. Click back and forth between the bridge and the previous scene (with the boxes) until you get a guy with a red balloon heading to the right. Keep up with him and keep clicking that balloon, keeping it close to the ground. When he moves to the edge of the box scene click on the arrow to move to the bridge scene, and keep clicking that balloon. If the balloon is flying free the birds will cut the string.
Once the little guy with a balloon reaches the right of the screen, the next stick man will hold up an arrow sign. Click on it.
You are now in a scene with six stick men (two holding papers) and a pile of something covered in a sheet. When the little guy with the balloon makes it to this scene the balloon will attach itself to the corner of the sheet.
You need to go back and escort three more little guys with balloons across the bridge (keeping the balloons down so the birds don't get them) and into this scene so that there are four balloons, one on each corner of the sheet. Once all four balloons are in place they will fly away with the sheet.
The sheet will lift up, revealing a pile of hay. Now something that looks like a ball with an eye will go shooting across the screen. Go back to the box scene and the ball will have landed, setting everything on fire.
You can move the ball by clicking on it and dragging. Click and drag it to the right, across the bridge, to the scene with the pile of hay.
Once you are at the hay, drag the ball to the hay to set it on fire. Moving the ball is tricky, but you will get there eventually.
When the hay burns down it will reveal a black hole in the ground. Four things that look like t-shirts will come flying out.
Here's another tricky bit. The four stick men who are not holding signs will jump when you click on them. Click on them when a t-shirt is hovering over them and they will transform into something that looks like a sawhorse (with the t-shirt acting as a head). When all four are converted, they will begin to walk to the left. Follow them. Work quickly, because they will start to break apart if all four aren't done quickly.
The animated saw horses will go back to the box scene, which is still on fire.
The t-shirts will separate from the stick men and pick up one of the bombs. They will then proceed to fly to the right. Follow them.
When you get to the scene where the hay was, they will keep going to the right. Eventually the stick man will raise the arrow, and you can follow them to the last scene.
You are now in a scene with a giant head laying on the ground. The object is to click on the bomb when it is hovering directly over the head's mouth, so that the bomb falls into the mouth. If you miss, the t-shirts will pick it up again and continue to fly around.
Once the bomb falls into the giant head's mouth the head will swallow the bomb, and you can enjoy the end animation.
The end?
Posted by: grinnyp
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October 2, 2009 1:30 AM