Gris

Gris is a platform-adventure game by Spanish indie developer Nomada Studio and published by Devolver Digital. The game was released for Nintendo Switch, macOS, and Microsoft Windows in December 2018, for iOS in August 2019, for PlayStation 4 in November 2019, and for Android in April 2020. The game has sold over 1 million copies.

For the painter, see Juan Gris. For other uses, see Gris (disambiguation).
Gris
The cover art of Gris, starring the game's eponymous protagonist.
Developer(s)Nomada Studio
Publisher(s)Devolver Digital
Director(s)Conrad Roset
Producer(s)Roger Mendoza
Designer(s)
  • Óscar Crego
  • Daniel Cuadrado González
Programmer(s)Adrian Cuevas
Artist(s)Conrad Roset
Composer(s)Berlinist
EngineUnity
Platform(s)
Release
  • macOS, Microsoft Windows, Nintendo Switch
  • 13 December 2018
  • iOS
  • 21 August 2019[1]
  • PlayStation 4
  • 26 November 2019[2]
  • Android
  • 1 April 2020
Genre(s)Platform-adventure
Mode(s)Single-player

Synopsis

The game follows a girl named Gris,[3] who wakes up in the palm of a crumbling statue of a woman. She attempts to sing out, but quickly becomes choked up and the statue's hands crumble, dropping her to the colourless earth below. After landing, the girl continues walking forward and discovers a number of strange structures that seem to be powered by mysterious points of light resembling stars. The girl can collect these lights to gain new abilities, such as turning into a block of stone, and creating new pathways made of constellations.

After reaching a central tower, the girl can travel to four new locations to collect lights and restore colour back to her world at statues resembling the broken one from the beginning of the story. These areas include a desert filled with windmills, a lush forest, underwater caverns, and a world with buildings made of light. Along the way she encounters various living beings, some of which help her on her journey, as well as an inky black monster which manifests as large creatures that threaten to consume the girl. The final power the girl obtains is the ability to sing again, which brings life to various plants and mechanical animals.

The girl eventually collects enough stars to form a constellation path to the heavens, but the final pathway is blocked by the creature, who morphs into a monstrous form of herself and swallows the girl whole. She wakes up in an ocean of toxic black sludge and swims to the surface. As she climbs a tower rising out of the ocean, the creature tries to pull her back. However, the girl begins singing and the statue begins to reform itself through the power of her voice. Just before she is completely consumed by the black oil, the statue comes alive and begins singing as well, banishing the creature and the sea of despair. The girl and the statue tearfully embrace and she climbs the final constellation path as the world is shown to be restored in colour and light.

If all mementos are collected, her childhood is revealed in a secret room. It is nighttime. A child Gris is in the meadows with an older woman, who we learn the statue really is. The older woman encloses a firefly between her hands then releases it to fly around child Gris. Then under the bright full moon child Gris and the older woman embrace.

Development
Conrad Roset served as the director for Gris.

Gris was developed by Nomada Studio, a Barcelona based company which was formed after a chance meeting between two Ubisoft employees, Roger Mendoza and Adrián Cuevas and artist Conrad Roset. The two met Roset while attending a going away party held for Cuevas who was temporarily moving to Ubisoft Montreal to work on Rainbow Six Siege. Roset noted to Mendoza and Cuevas that he was interested in working on video games, at the time the two were interested in creating an independent game but lacked the artistic skills, so the three decided to form Nomada Studios.[4]

Intending the game to be "a mix of Journey and Ori and the Blind Forest", the game was designed with accessibility in mind.[4] As such there are no fail states, a decision that proved to be challenging.[5] Mendoza has described their approach as "If there's a puzzle you can probably finish it at the second or third try. When the puzzle is more complicated, we give the player options." Partway through development the team consulted with a psychologist about the game's narrative themes of grief and depression, resulting in gameplay decisions to echo the turmoil of the main character. An example of this is how at the beginning of the game the player is unable to jump which helps reinforce the notion that "something is wrong with this girl".[6][7]

The art style created some unique problems for the developers. Since the game becomes more lively as players progress designing the early areas in an appealing way proved challenging. The team eventually solved this problem by taking inspiration from Iwagumi style aquariums.[8] Another challenging issue was readability, which resulted in several level design and camera angle tweaks during development. Initially the main character's dress was going to change as more colors became unlocked, however this eventually proved impractical due partly to the camera angles.[8] The game's title refers to the name of the protagonist, as well as the Spanish word for the colour grey.[3]

Reception

Gris received "generally favorable" reviews, according to review aggregator Metacritic.[9][10]

EGMNow wrote that "with an arresting art style and admirable commitment to minimalist game design, Gris manages to turn a straightforward, often derivative platformer into something that feels far more special and important."[13]

GameSpot stated "Gris understands intrinsically how magical video games can be and continually pushes your imagination until you're almost bursting with joy. The ways in which it reinvents itself as you gain powers and dive ever deeper into this world is truly special, and just as it knows exactly when to pull back the camera or introduce a new song, it's keenly aware of when it's time to say goodbye. Like a comet streaking across the sky, Gris is full of wonder and beauty and leaves you with a warm glow in your heart."[16]

Apple stated "This spectacularly satisfying puzzle-platformer is a soul-stirring work of digital art — one that explores hope, grief and the triumph of piecing a life back together after tragic loss" and awarded it Mac Game of the Year in 2019.[22]

Sales

As of March 2019, Gris has sold 300,000 copies worldwide.[23] By April 2020, sales exceeded one million units.[24]

Accolades
YearAwardCategoryResultRef
2019 New York Game Awards Off Broadway Award for Best Indie Game Nominated [25]
46th Annie Awards Character Animation in a Video Game Won [26]
D.I.C.E. Awards Outstanding Achievement in Animation Nominated [27]
Outstanding Achievement in Art Direction Nominated
National Academy of Video Game Trade Reviewers Awards Animation, Artistic Nominated [28][29]
Art Direction, Contemporary Won
Original Light Mix Score, New IP Nominated
SXSW Gaming Awards Excellence in Art Nominated [30]
Excellence in Visual Achievement Nominated
Excellence in Musical Score Nominated
Most Promising New Intellectual Property Nominated
Game Developers Choice Awards Best Debut (Nomada Studio) Nominated [31][32]
Best Visual Art Won
15th British Academy Games Awards Artistic Achievement Nominated [33]
Debut Game Nominated
Music Nominated
Italian Video Game Awards Best Art Direction Nominated [34]
Best Indie Game Won
Game Beyond Entertainment Nominated
2019 Webby Awards Best Visual Design Won [35]
Games for Change Awards Best Gameplay Won [36][37]
Golden Joystick Awards Best Visual Design Nominated [38]
Titanium Awards Best Art Won [39][40]
Best Spanish Development Nominated
The Game Awards 2019 Best Art Direction Nominated [41][42]
Games for Impact Won
Fresh Indie Game (Nomada Studio) Nominated

See also

References
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  2. Romano, Sal (22 November 2019). "GRIS coming to PS4 on November 26". Gematsu. Retrieved 25 November 2019.
  3. Caballero, David (4 December 2018). "What does GRIS mean? We talk to Nomada Studio". Gamereactor.
  4. Handrahan, Matthew. "Balancing beauty and meaning in Gris". Ganesindustry.biz. Retrieved 13 December 2020.
  5. Pickard, James. "Here's why Gris is the best-looking narrative adventure game of 2018". Red Bull. Retrieved 13 December 2020.
  6. Sanchez, Antonio. "Recovering Hearts: The Games Challenging Mental Health Stigmas". EGMNOW. Retrieved 13 December 2020.
  7. Pickard, James. "Here's why Gris is the best-looking narrative adventure game of 2018". Red Bull. Retrieved 13 December 2020.
  8. Webster, Andrew. "THE ART BEHIND THE GORGEOUS INDIE GAME GRIS". The Verge. Retrieved 13 December 2020.
  9. "GRIS for PC Reviews". Metacritic. CBS Interactive. Retrieved 13 December 2018.
  10. "GRIS for Switch Reviews". Metacritic. CBS Interactive. Retrieved 13 December 2018.
  11. "GRIS for PlayStation 4 Reviews". Metacritic. CBS Interactive. Retrieved 11 March 2020.
  12. Moyse, Chris (13 December 2018). "Review: GRIS". Destructoid. Enthusiast Gaming. Retrieved 13 December 2018.
  13. Harmon, Josh (13 December 2018). "Gris review". EGMNow. EGM Media, LLC. Retrieved 13 December 2018.
  14. Blake, Vikki (13 December 2018). "Gris review - an evocative, ethereal experience you don't want to miss". Eurogamer. Gamer Network. Retrieved 13 December 2018.
  15. Kato, Matthew (13 December 2018). "Gris Review - Not All Who Wander Are Lost". Game Informer. GameStop. Retrieved 13 December 2018.
  16. Mc Shea, Tom (13 December 2018). "Gris Review - Seeing In Color". GameSpot. CBS Interactive. Retrieved 13 December 2018.
  17. Crowd, Dan (12 December 2018). "Gris Review". IGN. Ziff Davis. Retrieved 13 December 2018.
  18. Kaaraj (31 December 2018). "Test : GRIS : Un superbe univers à la narration minimaliste". jeuxvideo.com (in French). Retrieved 31 January 2019.
  19. Scullion, Chris (13 December 2018). "GRIS Review (Switch eShop)". Nintendo Life. Gamer Network. Retrieved 13 December 2018.
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  21. Ahern, Colm (13 December 2018). "Gris review". VideoGamer.com. Resero Network. Retrieved 13 December 2018.
  22. "Apple celebrates the best apps and games of 2019". Apple Newsroom. Retrieved 15 March 2020.
  23. Sucasas, Ángel Luis (14 March 2019). "Gris, el gran éxito del videojuego español, nominado a tres Bafta". El País (in Spanish). Archived from the original on 1 April 2019.
  24. Macgregor, Jody (19 April 2020). "Beautiful sadcore platformer Gris has sold over a million copies". PC Gamer. Retrieved 20 April 2020.
  25. Keyes, Rob (3 January 2019). "2018 New York Game Awards Nominees Revealed". Screen Rant. Valnet, Inc. Retrieved 7 January 2019.
  26. Pedersen, Erik (2 February 2019). "Annie Awards: 'Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse' Snares Best Animated Feature & Six Others – Winners List". Deadline Hollywood. Penske Media Corporation. Retrieved 3 February 2019.
  27. Makuch, Eddie (10 January 2019). "God Of War, Spider-Man Lead DICE Awards; Here's All The Nominees". GameSpot. CBS Interactive. Retrieved 11 January 2019.
  28. "Nominee List for 2018". National Academy of Video Game Trade Reviewers. 11 February 2019. Archived from the original on 13 February 2019. Retrieved 13 February 2019.
  29. "Winner list for 2018: God of War breaks record". National Academy of Video Game Trade Reviewers. 13 March 2019. Archived from the original on 14 March 2019. Retrieved 13 March 2019.
  30. Trent, Logan (11 February 2019). "Here Are Your 2019 SXSW Gaming Awards Finalists!". South by Southwest. Retrieved 15 February 2019.
  31. Good, Owen S. (4 January 2019). "Red Dead Redemption 2 tops list of Game Developers Choice nominees". Polygon. Vox Media. Retrieved 7 January 2019.
  32. Williams, Mike (20 March 2019). "God of War Wins Another GOTY at 2019 Game Developers Choice Awards". USGamer. Gamer Network. Retrieved 21 March 2019.
  33. Fogel, Stefanie (14 March 2019). "'God of War,' 'Red Dead 2' Lead BAFTA Game Awards Nominations". Variety. Penske Media Corporation. Retrieved 14 March 2019.
  34. "Italian Video Game Awards Nominees and Winners". Italian Video Game Awards. 11 April 2019. Retrieved 24 May 2019.
  35. Liao, Shannon (23 April 2019). "Here are all the winners of the 2019 Webby Awards". The Verge. Vox Media. Retrieved 25 April 2019.
  36. McAloon, Alissa (30 May 2019). "Detroit: Become Human, Nintendo Labo among Games for Change Awards finalists". Gamasutra. UBM plc. Retrieved 30 May 2019.
  37. Kerr, Chris (19 June 2019). "Nintendo and Ubisoft honored at the 2019 Games for Change Awards". Gamasutra. UBM plc. Retrieved 19 June 2019.
  38. Tailby, Stephen (20 September 2019). "Days Gone Rides Off with Three Nominations in This Year's Golden Joystick Awards". Push Square. Gamer Network. Retrieved 21 September 2019.
  39. "Titanium Awards 2019". Fun & Serious Game Festival. Archived from the original on 21 November 2019. Retrieved 22 November 2019.
  40. "Ganadores de los premios Titanium del Fun & Serious 2019". Generación Xbox (in Spanish). 10 December 2019. Retrieved 10 December 2019.
  41. Winslow, Jeremy (19 November 2019). "The Game Awards 2019 Nominees Full List". GameSpot. CBS Interactive. Retrieved 19 November 2019.
  42. Makuch, Eddie (13 December 2019). "The Game Awards 2019 Winners: Sekiro Takes Game Of The Year". GameSpot. CBS Interactive. Retrieved 13 December 2019.
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