Sitting close together on our living room couch with a blanket covering both of our knees, my nine-year-old daughter Adria sits beside me and cradles my iPhone, excited for a chance to gain possession of my phone, to finally open the new game she’s been looking forward to playing, and to spend some uninterrupted time with her mom while her younger siblings nap and hang out with her dad respectively. On my nod, she clicks on the app and the game begins with an opening screen that reveals a small figure seated alone on an angular geometric structure, playing a flute while snow gently falls. The vibrato tones of the flute’s gentle song float out of the iPhone’s speakers as the words “Tap the path to move Ro” appear in white on a background of muted greys. Adria says, “Oh she’s good.” “What is she doing?” I ask. “She’s playing the flute...a little pink flute. And she has a little black bun and she’s wearing like this flowery cape thing. I don’t want to make her stop!”, Adria responds, listening to the ethereal flute song. Listening too, I say, “Oh, I can hear some rain or snow or something.” Adria says, “I think that’s snow... Ready?”. I respond with a “yep”, and she uses her finger to touch the screen, carefully spinning a crank in the structure, rotating the geometry of the shapes to create a consistent path for Ro to travel. She has learned how to do this in the first game of this series, and successfully applies that experience here to turn components of this first puzzle to connect up the gap in the path. Having solved this first architectural challenge, Adria taps the
spot on the touchscreen where she desires Ro to go, causing the little caped figure to tuck away her flute, stand, and walk with echoing footsteps along the path now organized for her, up a set of stairs to a decorative platform at the top of the screen. Adria says, “This is just the introduction,” to which I add, “It’s so pretty though”. “Mmhmm” Adria says absentmindedly as she watches the in-game animation that follows Ro’s arrival on the platform. As Ro’s featureless face tilts up, the camera pans upwards and the music swells and slides with dramatic glissandos, revealing a sun setting behind a mountain range tinged with greens. White lines begin to slowly trace a pattern in the sky at the top of our screen. Adria says excitedly, “Oh, look it’s a 2! Never noticed that till now.” “Oh! Me either!”, I say. Adria continues, “An M and a 2”. “And a V,” I add, “Monument Valley 2”. The music swells again as an eight-pointed star-shaped button appears over Ro’s head, indicating the end of a chapter and the opportunity to start a new one. Adria turns to me and with a smile, says, “Let’s do it!” “Let’s do it.” I respond, returning her smile.
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