I just stumbled across this HN post about this game. At first, I thought, “Yay! Yet another WebGL minigame!” Maybe I’d toy with it for a few seconds, and move on.

But the moment the graphics rendered, and I heard the humble twang of guitar, and the pitter-patter of running feet on sand, and I was gently dropped into a brighter world than the crumbly dorm I’m writing this from, I felt a frisson. Maybe I’ll stay a couple minutes….

Writing this, I realize I’ve stayed for an hour.

There’s a simple joy, difficult to express, captured by this panning camera watching this jolly good fellow, swaying, absorbing the world around him. There’s so much love! So much curiosity! I found my way to the ocean, small flocks of black paper (like my dad’s sketches of birds as v-shaped checks), strewn across a bright blue sky and three puffy clouds reflected in the warbling glass below.

And it seems like there may even be others joining on this little exodus from the trials and tribulations of living life. Others jumping about, taking a moment to observe, before they, too, dissolve to dust.

The quest, as it seems latently visible on the sidebar, is quickly forgotten—whatever alien and spaceship there may exist, I have no interest in searching for them.

I have always wondered what tranquility Odysseus’s men must have found on the island of the lotus-eaters. Now, I know.

For this brief moment, nothing else exists.