The history of the web is full of unsung heroes, many unknown to those who arrived after its mass adoption, driven by the falling price of smartphones. Heroes who, from the very beginning, long ago, contributed to making the web a place full of fun and experimentation. I consider ON to be one of those heroes, with his discreet but absolutely brilliant series of flash games called GROW. If you know it, you know what I'm talking about. If you have no idea what I'm talking about, you're in for a journey!
The GROW series began its journey in 2002, through ON's official site, called EyezMaze, which is still online. Over time, the saga gave us nothing less than twelve complete games and seven minigames, and it is considered revolutionary by many of us who experienced it through its evolution. It was in 2008 that its creator received the first official recognition from the industry, at the "International Game Developers Association", where his work was defined as "an example that defined a new genre in video games".
The GROW games are truly unique, although they follow an extremely formulaic scheme. Depending on the number of variables, they can offer from two hours to half an hour of gameplay each. That said, none of them allow any replayability once you solve them. But that's not a problem when it comes to enjoying them, because it would be like asking for replayability from a crossword puzzle, for example.
How do GROW games work?
Now, what are GROW games about? I would prefer not to explain them, to be honest. Not out of laziness, but because learning how they work is a large part of the challenge. Suffice it to say that you must make all the variables of the game evolve to their maximum level in order to see the "good" ending of each "story". Those variables are represented by objects. Those objects must be placed in order, one per turn, on the game board. Each time you place an item, you'll see a reaction (or not). That reaction will give you some clues to determine the order in which that object should be placed. You win when you "guess" the correct order of each object. It sounds simple, yes, but it isn't. If you consider factorial progression, for example, a game with twelve objects has 479 million possible combinations, of which only one leads to the correct ending.
ON's games have been a cult phenomenon, loved in certain circles, but never too massive. So far, the author had never been able to capitalize on his creations beyond the advertising on his website. And it's that the impossibility of turning his work into something commercial, due to the ENORMOUS work that each game requires, as well as the short duration they offer and the lack of replayability, made developing new iterations complicated and hardly sustainable. Something he could only afford as a hobby.
Fortunately, with the arrival of sites like Patreon or IndieGoGo, artists like ON can finance their works thanks to the love of followers. In a fundraiser last month, titled GROW revival project, intended to revive his series of games, the artist managed to raise $8,149, an amount that exceeded the goal by 891%. ON's astonishment was enormous, since he didn't expect such success. But it's not surprising that it had such a response. For years he gave us his amazing games completely free, and it was time to reap some of the love he had sown.
[GROW revival fair] will be the name of the next game in the series, and it will be available in a few months. For now, if you haven't played any of these games, you have the perfect excuse to do so. Not only will you face true interactive puzzles, unique of their kind, but you will also experience a small piece of the history of the web. Go to his official site, choose a game and prepare to not understand anything at first. My recommendation is to start with something like GROW RPG, which is my favorite, and the one that best summarizes everything the formula has to offer. Enjoy!
