Miniatures is a sublime collection of short, interactive stories from Other Tales, a small developer that likes to dabble in the otherworldly eeriness of what lurks at the periphery of the known. The more impressive feat is how the team tackles such serious subject matter and frames it through a child’s perspective.
Having the player unlock a keepsake chest, and handle four curios that plunge them into strange tales is an oh-so-curious premise, and I love how open some of these short stories are to interpretation. I’ve managed to pluck and pull at meanings I’m sure no developer intended, but that’s what art is—inflammation of thought and provoking us to ponder on the things we can’t fully reason with. There are big familial issues at the heart of Miniatures, and they’re, clearly, the source of some pain for those behind it.
A sea shell, a screwdriver, a small stone lizard, and a moth patch each serve as catalysts for small, ten-or-so-minute vignettes about life’s challenges.
The House of the Moon, while being about an absent mother, had me thinking about my inverse childhood that saw me grow up without a father figure and how long I obsessed with what was wrong with me, rather than what was wrong with him. Of course, that’s an extremely personal, specific use case to me, but the fact a brief peering through someone else’s lens can draw that out once again speaks volumes to how accessible, albeit strange, Miniatures is as a collection.
Of the four, I do love Familiar the most. It’s a tale as old as time about a flat-pack cabinet that threatens to tear a family apart, to the point they hide it away once it’s together for fear it’ll collapse, leaving the evil presence within to envelope them. It’s also the best argument for each of Miniatures’ tales having its own bespoke art style, as the creepy undertones are punctuated perfectly through the crude, scratchy illustration, and each scene break’s violin screech.
It’s truly artful and feels like a worthwhile indictment of IKEA, whose only value in my household is cheap hot dogs.
Miniatures is, without doubt, an hour well spent. It’s to the point that I’ve been ruminating on these quirky, little accounts far beyond their runtime and I felt there was a small amount of healing done, as I managed to retrospect parts of my past specifically and, with some relief, put them to bed.
Miniatures is available on PC, Nintendo Switch, and mobile right now.
