Mirror Stage

Stephen Lavelle is one of the more occult designers on the scene, a niche among niches, a designer played mostly by other designers and a few thousand others. His most popular title so far, as far as I can tell, have been Rara Racer, a fairly stupid meta-joke that is as funny as it is barely playable. If you check out his site, you´ll find a rich trove of half-baked experiments and bold masterpieces, and Mirror Stage is in this individual´s opinion, the best among that latter category.

The term "Mirror Stage" comes from Jaques Lacan, whose theory of tripartite human psychology bears striking resemblances to the intransitive relationships between game objects (rock, paper, scissors; Goliath, Guardian, Reaver; Triforce of Power, Wisdom, Courage; and so on). The game takes a psychological tenor and works with it in the cascading level designs the way Braid worked with its subject matter. But instead of referencing human consciousness against mechanics exploring physio-temporal causation, Levalle´s opus references causation against mechanics exploring human consciousness.

The levels are build around a fairly simple pair of mechanics: one is a recursive portal and the other is a mirror. You are charged with interpreting a bit of poetical text and applying it to the unfolding mindscapes. So you´ve got the Lacanian trinity laid out, with the text clue being the social symbolic and you and your avatar being the ego and the other. Each level has a distinct approach, you´ve got to bend your mind and sometimes do counter-intuitive thinks to solve the level. This is gameplay on the low burn, The Path-y and also pathy, you just let your mind explore, trip out a bit, absorb the minimal notes of the soundtrack. The overall arc feels like some kind of post-modern novel, but it plays like a dream.