Blackwood Crossing was released in 2017 by indie developers at Paper Seven LTD. It isn’t a traditional game, but an experiential game: an interactive experience whose task is not getting fun through challenges and fights, as usually attributed to video games. It aims to emotionally involve the player, to tell a story and convey deep contents.
The story revolves around two protagonists, Scarlett and Finn. The latter is a eight years old child, and Scarlett is his older sister, about 16 years old, both characterized by red hairs and delicate freckles on their faces. Your avatar, in first person view, is Scarlett. The cinematographic vocation is confirmed by the nice quotes of many famous movies through a series of parodistic posters affixed to the walls of the train carriages. I recognized inspirations by one of the episode of Twilight Zone: The Movie (the one with the magician kid), Donnie Darko and Alice in Wonderland. Gaming experience resembles titles such as Virginia, Dear Esther, Everybody’s Gone To The Rapture, Gone Home, etc. but it has original features, e.g., the fairy-tale aesthetics like a colorful Pixar/Disney cartoon with very good animation. I’m going to discuss just contents, for a complete review see here.
My analysis is full of spoilers, you’re adviced!
BC IS ABOUT CHILDHOOD AND ADOLESCENCE, THE DIFFICULTY TO ACCEPT DEATH AND LOSS OF THE LOVED ONES, TO GROW AND BECOME ADULTS BEFORE THE TIME.
Scarlett and Finn are two orphan siblings; Finn was still a baby when their parents were missing, and he doesn’t remember them very well (so they have no face beneath the animal masks). Grandparents took care of them. Unfortunately, another tragedy affected later the poor Scarlett: Finn went dead, drowned in a lake while playing alone on the island with a DIY raft.
This traumatic event generates guilt in Scarlett, forcing her to grow up before their time.
When the game begins, Scarlett is travelling by train. The train travel is a metaphor for a troubled and accelerated growth, a painful and rapid transition from adolescence to adulthood. Scarlett feels lonely, and especially guilty for neglecting her brother. She remember the past and sees herself as an usual trendy teenager always attacked to the phone to gossip with friends, impatient and never willing to play with Finn despite his requests, even insensitive to the true love of her boyfriend, Cam; she has never taken responsibility to watch over the little brother, who instead saw her as an important reference point, leaving him always alone. She feels herself culpable for his death. The train ride is an opportunity to rehash moments of the past, realizing the mistakes and trying to rectify them. During the trip she has to deal with the restless spirit of Finn and his capricious spells and fantasies, trying to mend their relationship and fight remorse.
Scarlett realizes that she overlooked what was really important, her brother’s love, but also that you can not change the past, you can only benefit from the mistakes to act better in the future. It ‘s time to take responsibility and to face up to the dark sides of life at cost of getting your hands dirty (fighting the formless dark matter); no more childish tears or refuging from the world or living of childhood memories and illusions (the tree house). You have to commit yourselves to figth the darkness and to prevent things go degrading (like the island); but if you neglect what is important, the worst happens and then it is an illusion thinking to go back and repair the damage (as in the scene of butterflies).
There are inextricable and invisible connections between people and the world around you, which you must be aware of, avoiding to be trapped by your selfishness and hedonism. Hence the title Blackwood Crossing, with all those crossed ink lines in the logo!
Scarlett has become aware of those invisible bonds through the traumatic death of her little brother; now she is lonely and remorseful but finds the strength to grow and move forward, thanks to the comfort of her parents and her grandparents, whick show themselves as guiding spirits invoked by the Finn’s peaceless soul . During the trip, Scarlett tries to leave the past behind her shoulders, especially the recklessness and irresponsibility of her adolescence, but it is not easy to mature so quickly (she throws her belongings into the fire while crying).
In the last part she comes to terms with the past, admits her mistakes and finds a reason for her painful life experience; Scarlett gets Finn’s forgiveness, so she can finally let the tender and capricious spirit of her little brother find peace and ascend to heaven with his parents. Scarlett has passed the trauma of the loss of her loved ones and now is ready for her adult life.
Growing up also means having courage and strength to plant the seed for a new life (the grandfather’s plant) and in the end Scarlett becomes aware that she will become mother (the mother’s mask with the S for Scarlett) and will grow a family, so she will feel no more lonely ; she finds the strength to move forward and continue to love and fight.
Following BC, adolescence is the age of unconsciousness and irresponsibility; usually teens cannot perceive the complexity of reality, they live in a small world revolving around themselves, easy victims of consumerism, hedonism and silliness; they cannot see the invisible bounds connecting people to each other and the consequences of their actions, they are overwhelmed by instincts. Coming out of adolescence can take a long time depending on personal and social conditions; sometimes difficulties and sorrow can accelerate the inner growth process but transition to adulthood can be traumatic; that’s the case for Scarlett. In the end she learns that life is not only for unconscious fun, easy entertainment, hedonistic consumerism; most of time life is a struggle for personal and social survival. Somehow, that’s the same maturity video games should go for and BC is a proof of such ongoing process.
Conclusions
Our journey through virtual interactive adolescence has come to end. Video games have not definitely escaped their adolescence and have just begun to develop a peculiar narrative and expressive language based on interactivity and processing; as you can see, several pioneering artists are trying to face mature topics with the same depth as other renowned forms of art. I’m very excited to anticipate, propitiate and witness this ongoing process. Let’s do the wonderful ride together, stay tuned and spread the world about Video Games & Art!
L.F.
Featured painting: Adolescenza by Antonio Pirozzi
Video Games Art 
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