In this day and age, it's expected that I issue a "warning" at the beginning of this piece to inform you that there are tons of spoilers ahead.  However, if you haven't played Limbo yet, you have no one to blame but yourself.

This piece was originally a research paper for an upper-level undergraduate media studies course.  I'm not entirely certain that it's "okay" that I post this on the Internet.  But I'd love to think that some fans of this game, regardless if they agree or disagree with the concepts here, will entertain a different way of looking at one of 2010's best indie games.

Developed by Playdead Studios and published by Microsoft Game Studios, Limbo is a video game that debuted on the Xbox Live Arcade platform on July 21, 2010. Presented entirely in a monochromatic, hazy style, Limbo has players controlling an unnamed, completely unknown boy through dark, puzzling environments. Around every turn, players are likely to witness the gruesome death of the boy, complete with detailed sound effects, before a quick fade in/out returns them to a previous nondescript check-point to attempt a difficult puzzle again.

The Danish studio describes the game's style as “trial and death,” where often the means of understanding how to advance in the puzzle-platforming game is to die multiple times. Death in Limbo is inevitable, but the game's minimalistic approach spares players of any health bars or a counter telling them how many lives they have left. Dying results in the game fading out after a death animation, and fading back in to an invisible checkpoint prior to the death of the boy, without any repercussions for the player. Limbo is a challenge to players that questions the mortality of the boy (in terms of constant death with no consequence) with complex obstacles and a simplified presentation.

Minimalism describes the game best: there is no voice to the boy. This is to be taken literally, as there isn't a single line of dialogue or voice acting in this game. The game comes with no predefined story (unless you count the game's description, “Uncertain of his Sister’s Fate, a Boy enters LIMBO…”), and Playdead has intentionally left the game open to interpretation, its ambiguity resonating amongst the gaming populace. Aside from the term “minimalism” applying well to the presentation, consider it applying perfectly to its interactive design. The flow of Limbo's game-play gibes with two conventions of video games: puzzle-solving and platforming.

Platforming refers to maneuvering your character through the game's demanding environments, from navigating dark caves to leaping from ledge to ledge. Broadly speaking, platforming is the more “physically active” aspect of many games, including Limbo, which tests the player's skills, coordination, and ability to time their moves with precision. Good platforming in video games requires a sound game engine with finely-tuned rules of physics. Being able to create a platforming game where the gravity and fluidity of a character's motion is both relatively believable and can become second nature to the player is an important trait for developers to learn. Playdead achieves this well with Limbo, which creates an engaging environment out of identifiable silhouettes. Deft precision is a prerequisite for players early on, with the pressing need to accurately time jumps over bear traps, and only increases through demands like climbing atop boxes with impeccable timing to leap over a spinning saw blade that slowly approaches the boy.

Limbo also achieves minimalism through its controls. While the standard Xbox 360 controller has over ten buttons, two joysticks and a directional pad, Limbo effectively uses two buttons for the game's primary functions: action and jumping. The “action” button is dynamic and circumstantial; it serves the purpose of grabbing, pushing, and pulling, all acting within the context of the boy's situation. The same button is used to grab a rope and swing on it as it is to flip a switch and push a box.

Playdead's design technique is that of designing with constraints, where the player is limited in how they can act within an environment. The boy can't pick up weapons in the game, but can push a bear trap to snap a large spider's leg. The boy cannot swim, but instead can push a broken branch into the water and walk across it. More noticeably, the game introduces a parasitic worm that attaches itself to the boy's head, and forces him to walk in one direction until the boy finds a way of getting rid of it, or dies trying. These circumstances force players to react within a changing set of rules, adding to the satisfaction of solving the challenge at hand. It is both restrictive and minimalistic.