Released almost 10 years ago, Gathering Sky is a somewhat unsung game that I’d file under the “games as art” category of games. Whilst it hasn’t received the acclaim of artistic games like Journey, Abzu, or the more recent Naiad, it shares a similar DNA. This game is about pairing together a flock of birds with a soaring orchestral soundtrack to make you feel alive.
Gathering Sky starts you off as a single bird flying over a watercolour-styled backdrop of the world below. You are free to use the mouse to steer your bird towards your cursor and controlling the bird is as simple as moving your cursor to where you want it to go on the screen. Very quickly you’ll have another bird join you, then another, until you have a flock under your command. As you do this, you’ll find jetstreams of wind to ride and glide along at pace on, and various rocks or structures to steer yourself around or through. The skill level to do this is extremely low and it would be great for young children to pick up and enjoy.
Whilst you steer your flock, a sumptuous and rich orchestral soundtrack dynamically changes to your movements. The San Francisco Conservatory of Music perform a superb soundtrack and their motifs are interwoven with your moves. Decide to go slow, or noodle around in play – the music won’t move towards its next bombastic moments. If you hurtle beak first into multiple jetstreams and blast ahead, triumphant stirring strings will erupt. The way you feel underscored by the game is one of its strongest selling points and adds variety and interest to repeated playthroughs.
As your flock progresses through the game, new areas bring a new backdrop and song to fly to. Some areas have some additional things to do around chasing lights until they run out of steam. Touch them and they’ll chime a nearby bell to allow you to continue forward. Elsewhere a giant crow attacks you in a storm, although it can never truly hurt you, nor can you lose the game. It is more of an on-your-own-rails audio-visual experience. You can’t go wrong, but you can go at your own pace and pause to muck about whenever you like. This won’t be enough interaction for some gamers, but I found the simplicity quite freeing. I made my own fun making the music hang on until I was ready. I’d ride the jetstreams like a boss. It’s a bit like a psychedelic bird playground to just bomb around in and let the music score your moves.
Each playthrough takes about 45 minutes if you don’t rush it, which doesn’t sound like much, but Gathering Sky has a hypnotic effect on me. Much like other artistic expression games, I think I’ll find myself returning to tackle the journey again and again. Some games I play annually or every other year and find it reflects my life or my mood at that time of my life. Gathering Sky is one of those games that lets you become immersed in the simplicity of a migratory flight, whilst also letting you muse about how your own life journey might have beauty in it too. Sometimes simplicity is best and that is the case here.
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