The 2020 wasn’t the worst year in the human history, but it’s very close to it. Surely it was the worst one after the end of the second world war. And we aren’t only talking about the Covid-19 (which was enough by itself already). The 2020 was the year of the fires in Australia, of one of the most controversial USA elections of the history, and so on. All of it was close in a videogame: 2020 Game.
With it we would like to exorcise the just ended year, but we don’t want to say that phrase that we already heard too much “The 2021 could not be worst than the 2020”. How can it be worst? A zombie apocalypse? An alien invasion? Never say never. Meanwhile we will relive (for the last time) the just ended year, with the hopw to really exorcise everything and to not see it anymore.
The idea of the videogame
2020 Game was born with the meaning to exorcise the just ended year. To realize it it was the developer Max Garkavy. The game is online, for free, on the homonymous website, since the beginning of the 2021, and it had much success all over the world.
2020 Game was born as a joke. But Max created something that in a bunch of minutes covers twelve bitter months. Maybe sometimes it will make us smile, like when we will have to jump the line on the supermarket to grab all the toilet paper to get ready for the quarantine. Or when we will see challenging Donald Trump and Joe Biden during the last american presidential.
However, what we will have printed on the face at the end of the game, it will a bitter smile. We will only want to close the door of the 2020 and don’t see it anymore, or hearing to talk about it. And this is the real meaning of the game. We will relive all the tragedies, all the disasters of the last year and than we will close the door, once for all.
Max Garkavy, creator of 2020 Game
Who knows if the creator knew that it will arise all of these feelings?
“Currently I do a boring job in the office of a big company and each day I wonder if I might do the big step and leave my job to dedicate myself to the creation of games. Do you think I should? 2020 The Game is the attempt to demonstrate to myself that I can pay the bills with my games, so the fact that you would like to support me really means a world to me”.
We find this message in the page dedicated to the donations for the videogame. And the donations that Max Garkavy received for 2020 Game are a lot. Will he decide, so, to completely dedicate himself to the creation of videogames?
2020 Game is a very simple and linear videogame, in 2D, a pixel-art graphic and a very pleasant soundtrack to follow us.
It’s enough to use the diretional buttons of the computer and walk through the levels by avoind the obstacles. Its strong suit isn’t the playablity, but the feelings that it gave, with a lump in the throat.
Let’s discover 2020 Game
Let’s start the videogame. Let’s start the 2020. It’s the first days of January 2020, do you remember them? We thought that everythink would be great, we wrote the good intentions for the new year, we started to plan the summer holidays. But then you have to face the reality.
The first level of 2020 Game brings us in Australia, in a scenario that thrill up our spine. The woods are devasted by the fires, we go on with a few jumps and we grab a small koala. We bring it on safe and we left it on a tree arm which is not on fire, before to start the second level.
Here you have the second level. The Covid-19 is arrived. We dodge the virus while we are in line in front of the supermarket. We literally jump the line to grab the last stocks and we are ready for the quarantine. With the third level we are in the middle of the financial crash. What’s the feeling to see the shutters down even on a videogame?
The names of the biggest colossus felt on us, while the stock exchange of the whole world are collapsing, and here we are closed at home for the quarantine. And then what will happen? Maybe not everything is ruined: “The lockdown save the environment!”. But then here we are back in an endless whirl again: George Floyd, masks, floodings, american elections, second wave of Covid, vaccine. The 2020 has finished, the 2021 will be better. Are we sure? Be careful to celebrate too soon.
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