BIRTH
Developer Madison Karrh Publisher Wings Format PC Release Autumn 2022
Developer Madison Karrh tells us that showing Birth in public feels a bit like putting her insides on display. She means that it’s a deeply personal work, of course, but she could just as easily be talking literally. In this Rusty Lake-inspired point-and-click, every character you meet is missing their skin, and almost every item you collect is of an anatomical bent, all in aid of gathering enough bones and organs to build yourself a pet in an attempt to soothe your loneliness. We can perhaps see why Karrh might feel exposed, then, but in general Birth is characterised by a tantalising opacity, both in terms of its storytelling and puzzles. The latter are better approached via fuzzy intuition rather than attempting to apply solid logic and, unusually for the genre, often make toylike use of realtime physics, using skills honed in Karrh’s previous job making anatomically accurate surgery simulators.