Pertinence

Pertinence is a top-down adventure game featuring minimalist 2D graphics and dynamic sound design, centered around exploring a grid-based layout of over 50 rooms. Designed for self-discovery with minimal instruction, the core objective is to collect “alloy” to unlock new areas and abilities. Gameplay involves a wide array of puzzle and action mechanics, such as bending soft walls, utilizing versatile “Nodes” with distortion fields, engaging in stealth sections to avoid monsters, navigating environmental hazards like lasers and black hole-creating enemies, rotating entire rooms, and managing collectible impermanence by reaching checkpoints unharmed.

Pertinence: A Labyrinth of Minimalist Puzzles and Hidden Depths

From the sprawling, epic narratives of AAA blockbusters to the pixelated charm of retro throwbacks, the gaming landscape is vast and varied. Yet, every so often, a title emerges from the indie scene that quietly carves out its own distinct niche, demanding attention not through spectacle, but through ingenuity and an almost stubborn commitment to its design philosophy. Pertinence, released on Windows in late 2015, is precisely such a game. Developed and published by Not Magic, this top-down adventure with minimalist graphics promised a “mind-bending puzzle/action game” focused on self-discovery. While its commercial footprint and critical reception remained modest, Pertinence offers a fascinating case study in niche game design, particularly through its intricate puzzle mechanics and its unexpected narrative connections to a broader multimedia universe. This review will delve into its creation, mechanics, thematic underpinnings, and ultimate place in the annals of independent game development.

Development History & Context

Pertinence was the brainchild of Not Magic, serving as both its developer and publisher, a common practice for indie projects striving for complete creative control. Its journey to release was not without its tribulations; as revealed by the developer on Reddit in October 2015, the game underwent “almost 2 years of development” and endured “2 data loss situations.” This resilience speaks to a clear vision and dedication from its creator, Quintin Steiner, who is credited as a contributor.

The game was submitted to Steam Greenlight, Valve’s community-driven platform for curating indie titles, in October 2015. The developer highlighted the challenge of promoting a game whose “style and layout” precluded a traditional demo, relying instead on videos and screenshots to convey its unique appeal. Pertinence eventually saw its initial release on December 11, 2015, according to MobyGames, though other sources like Steam and Metacritic list March 25, 2016, possibly indicating a broader commercial launch or official Steam debut.

At a time when the indie game market was experiencing a significant boom, Pertinence emerged into a crowded digital storefront. Its minimalist 2D, top-down perspective, and reliance on intricate environmental puzzles positioned it as a stark contrast to many of the visually ambitious or story-driven indie titles gaining traction. The $3.99 price point reflected its humble origins and independent scale, aiming for accessibility within the burgeoning digital marketplace. The developers’ stated goal “to create an environment of self-discovery and curiosity” by instructing “the player as little as possible” immediately set it apart, signaling a design philosophy that valued player agency and emergent understanding over explicit tutorials and hand-holding. This approach, while refreshing for some, would prove to be a double-edged sword in its reception.

Narrative & Thematic Deep Dive

Ostensibly, Pertinence appears to be an abstract puzzle game, devoid of a traditional narrative. Its official descriptions focus purely on mechanics: “freely explore rooms in a grid layout while collecting as many ‘alloy’ as possible. These will unlock new areas and abilities.” However, a deeper dive into its lore, particularly through the CatGhost Wiki, unveils a surprising and profoundly melancholic narrative backbone.

Pertinence is, in fact, the companion game to “CatGhost 11 Confrontation,” a chapter in the surreal and often unsettling CatGhost web series. Within this context, Pertinence chronicles the poignant “journey that Elon took as a young girl, when she ran away from the wagon.” The player controls Elon, navigating 50 screens that represent her arduous trek through a mysterious landscape.

The narrative, communicated implicitly through setting and character transformation, is one of desperate escape and survival. The game begins with Elon standing left of a wagon in a forest; touching the wagon immediately closes the game, underscoring the finality and necessity of her flight. As Elon progresses through random landscapes, weather patterns, and seasons, her outfits visibly deteriorate, changing through “normal,” “very dirty,” “torn and dirty,” “diseased,” and even “bloody” variants, often with “dragging” or “carrying” animations. This visual storytelling powerfully conveys the increasing hardship and trauma of her journey, transforming the abstract puzzle rooms into manifestations of her struggle.

The “50+ rooms to explore” thus become less about arbitrary challenges and more about the mental and physical gauntlet Elon endures. The “horrific monster” encountered in stealth puzzles takes on a more symbolic weight, representing the dangers and fears Elon confronts in her vulnerable state. The ultimate goal, rather than simply collecting alloys, is a reunion: the final screen depicts Elon “crawling towards Malone in a forest,” at which point the player is unable to backtrack, signifying the end of her solitary journey. The game closes immediately upon reaching Malone, a stark and impactful conclusion that avoids explicit exposition, letting the journey itself speak volumes.

The themes woven throughout Pertinence are remarkably potent given its minimalist presentation. At its core, it explores self-discovery and curiosity, as the game’s official description notes, but this is layered with the raw human experience of survival, resilience, and the search for connection amidst profound adversity. Elon’s journey is a meditation on perseverance against overwhelming odds, her changing appearance a testament to the toll exacted by her flight. The very title, ‘Pertinence,’ might allude to what truly matters in such a desperate situation – the alloys might be literal keys to progression, but the true pertinence lies in Elon’s unwavering movement forward, her enduring spirit, and her eventual, albeit somber, destination. The “meta puzzles” could even be interpreted as breaking the fourth wall to acknowledge the player’s role in guiding Elon through her ordeal, highlighting the shared experience of navigation and discovery.

Gameplay Mechanics & Systems

Pertinence is a masterclass in puzzle-action design, characterized by its deep, interconnected systems and a deliberate lack of explicit instruction. The core gameplay loop revolves around navigating a grid-based, freely explorable world comprising over 50 unique rooms. The primary objective is to collect “alloy,” which are essential for unlocking new areas and abilities. However, the game introduces a crucial twist: “collectible impermanence.” Players can only keep an alloy if they successfully transport it to a checkpoint unharmed, adding a layer of risk and strategy to every retrieval. Not all alloys are mandatory for progression, allowing players to tackle easier objectives or return to more challenging ones later.

The game’s innovation shines through its diverse array of mechanics designed to warp both space and player perception:

• Soft Walls & Distortion Fields: A central mechanic involves the ability to “bend and warp ‘soft’ walls.” This, combined with “Nodes,” forms the basis of many environmental puzzles. Nodes are versatile objects that, after gaining new abilities, can be rotated, dragged, and thrown. Crucially, Nodes often have “distortion fields” attached to them, which are described as a “physical substance that can be attached to a node,” implying a direct interaction with the environment to manipulate walls and pathways. Nodes come in three types—normal (fully manipulable), locked (drag and throw only), and static (rotate only)—requiring strategic understanding of their limitations. They can also be used to carry bombs, enabling precise placement of explosive solutions.
• Environmental Manipulation: Beyond soft walls, players can “rotate entire rooms about various pivots,” fundamentally altering the layout and accessibility of areas. Furthermore, “rooms that change when approached from different directions” add a layer of spatial reasoning, requiring players to consider entry points and their impact on the environment.
• Puzzle and Action Elements: The game blends traditional adventure elements like “keys and locked doors” with unique twists, such as “bouncing ball keys” that must be carefully guided into their locks. Action segments involve “stealth-esque puzzles” where players must “avoid being eaten by a horrific monster, or bait it to get it away from you.” Various hazards, including “moving hazards, turrets, killer dance pads, explosions, and lasers,” require precise timing and environmental awareness, with “thick walls” offering protection against some. The game even introduces enemies that “create black holes,” adding dynamic and unpredictable dangers.
• Progression & Navigation: Collecting alloys not only unlocks new areas but also grants new abilities, creating a Metroidvania-like progression system where previously inaccessible puzzles become solvable. A “map/warping system” allows players to view visited and missed rooms, offering “fast travel” to certain locations, mitigating potential frustration from backtracking in its grid-like structure. Each room is named, aiding in navigation and community discussions. An “endgame boss” provides a culminating challenge, putting all acquired skills to the test.

However, the game’s challenging nature and minimalist design were not without their drawbacks, as highlighted by player discussions. Its difficulty was a frequent topic, with players describing it as “very very difficult” and a “frustrating die & retry” experience, often leading to hundreds of deaths. Specific complaints included:

• High Difficulty Spikes: The endgame boss was particularly noted for its extreme difficulty, with players reporting being killed “with one hit” and bullets being “too fast to dodge.”
• Technical Issues: Players reported “framerate drop” in specific rooms (e.g., the “vacuum spider” room), “crashes every 20 minutes,” “infinite loading spinner on startup,” and “corrupt save games.”
• Quality of Life Omissions: The lack of a save system that resumes from the last checkpoint upon reopening the game (instead of restarting from the beginning) was a significant frustration. Issues with controller mapping and proper map usage with a controller were also mentioned, indicating a potentially less polished user experience on alternative input methods.
• Puzzle Design Frustration: Some puzzles were criticized as being “waaaaay too luck based,” particularly in rooms like ‘OK more fronteirs,’ detracting from the sense of calculated problem-solving.

These issues, while not universal, reveal areas where the game’s ambitious design could be undermined by technical instability and a user-unfriendly approach to common conveniences, amplifying the already steep challenge.

World-Building, Art & Sound

Pertinence creates a unique and often stark atmosphere through its carefully crafted world-building, minimalist art style, and dynamic sound design.

• World-Building & Setting: The game’s primary setting is a “grid-shaped, freely explorable world” described as a “mind and space-bending labyrinth.” This abstract, modular structure forms the foundation of its puzzle design. The CatGhost connection adds layers of external lore, transforming these abstract spaces into the environment Elon traverses in her escape. This external context enriches the otherwise purely mechanical setting with thematic weight, suggesting that the labyrinthine rooms are not just puzzles but manifestations of her internal and external struggles. While the core game presents abstract spaces, the CatGhost context explicitly situates this journey through forests, fields, hills, and plains, with “random landscapes, weather, and seasons,” implying a world that is both diverse and indifferent to Elon’s plight.
• Visual Direction: Pertinence champions “polished, minimalist graphics.” This aesthetic choice is deliberate, focusing the player’s attention on the mechanics and environmental interactions rather than intricate visual details. The “top-down” perspective reinforces a strategic, almost board-game like approach to navigation. The art style is clean, with “walls have an anti-aliased outline,” providing clarity and precision essential for puzzle solving. The game adds visual variety through “rooms that change color palettes,” creating subtle shifts in mood and signaling distinct areas or states within the labyrinth. This minimalism avoids clutter, allowing the player to discern critical puzzle elements and hazards with ease, even when the underlying narrative is one of profound distress.
• Sound Design: The game features a “full soundtrack and sound effects” that significantly contribute to its atmosphere. A standout feature is its “dynamic music,” where “different tracks fade in and out depending on what room you are in and what you are doing.” This adaptive audio design can subtly cue players to danger, success, or periods of calm reflection, enhancing immersion and emotional resonance. One player review noted the “music is very relaxing,” which, when paired with the game’s high difficulty, creates an intriguing contrast—a serene auditory backdrop against a backdrop of intense mental challenge and frequent death. This juxtaposition could serve to either soothe frustration or, perhaps, heighten the tension by creating a sense of deceptive calm. The sound effects, while not explicitly detailed, would undoubtedly play a critical role in signaling interactions, hazards, and enemy presence, reinforcing the tactile feedback of its puzzle-action mechanics.

Together, these elements combine to create an experience that is aesthetically clean and deceptively simple, yet rich in atmospheric tension and thematic undertones, particularly for those aware of its connection to the CatGhost universe.

Reception & Legacy

Pertinence, despite its innovative puzzle design and thematic depth, garnered a relatively niche reception upon its release. Its independent nature and minimalist aesthetic likely contributed to its limited visibility in a broader gaming market increasingly dominated by high-budget productions and heavily-marketed indie darlings.

• Critical Reception: Perhaps the most telling indicator of its niche status is the complete absence of formal critical reviews. Metacritic states, “Critic reviews are not available yet,” and MobyGames echoes this, inviting users to “Be the first to add a critic review.” This strongly suggests that Pertinence did not capture the attention of mainstream gaming media, remaining an undiscovered gem—or a forgotten curio—for many critics.
• Commercial Performance: Commercial success was similarly modest. MobyGames reports it has been “Collected By 9 players” as of October 2023. Backloggd, a game tracking site, shows “0 played, 0 playing, 0 backlog, 0 wishlist” entries for its March 2016 release, indicating extremely low initial engagement. Steam Charts data confirms this trend, with a current concurrent player count of 1 and an all-time peak of only 8 active players (achieved on May 11, 2024). These figures firmly place Pertinence in the category of a deeply niche title with minimal commercial impact.
• Player Reception & Evolution of Reputation: Despite the low numbers, player reception where it exists is generally positive, with a “Mostly Positive” rating on Steambase (73/100 from 37 total reviews). Players who engaged with the game consistently highlighted its “very very difficult” nature, often describing it as a “mind-bending puzzle/action game” and a “frustrating die & retry” experience. Reviews commend the game for its challenge, originality, and the satisfaction of overcoming its complex puzzles, but also candidly admit to hundreds of deaths. The “difficult” tag on Steam is well-earned. The average playtime on RAWG is listed as 4 hours, suggesting a concise yet challenging experience for those who delve into it.

The reputation of Pertinence has remained largely consistent: it is known, if at all, for its demanding puzzles, minimalist charm, and the sheer patience it requires. Its technical issues (crashes, framerate drops, save problems) and quality-of-life omissions (no last checkpoint restart) were points of frustration for players, yet often overshadowed by the core puzzle experience for those who persevered.

• Legacy and Influence: Given its obscurity, Pertinence’s direct influence on subsequent games or the industry as a whole is likely negligible. However, its philosophical approach to game design—emphasizing player self-discovery, environmental interaction, and abstract, systems-driven puzzles—aligns with broader trends in indie development. Its unique take on “Nodes,” “soft walls,” and room rotation mechanics demonstrates a creative ingenuity that, in a more visible title, might have spurred imitation.

Perhaps its most significant “legacy” stems from its unexpected connection to the CatGhost web series. For fans of that multimedia universe, Pertinence offers a unique, interactive expansion of its lore, providing a poignant backstory for the character of Elon. This connection transforms an abstract puzzle game into a piece of a larger narrative tapestry, giving it a particular significance within that specific fandom that it lacks within the general gaming discourse.

Conclusion

Pertinence stands as a testament to the ambitious spirit of independent game development, a compact yet remarkably intricate experience forged by a singular vision. While its minimalist facade might suggest simplicity, it conceals a deeply complex web of puzzle mechanics, environmental manipulation, and challenging action sequences. The game’s commitment to player self-discovery, its almost defiant refusal to hold the player’s hand, creates a unique sense of accomplishment for those willing to engage with its formidable difficulty.

Its technical rough edges and quality-of-life oversights certainly detract from the overall polish, leading to moments of frustration that even the most dedicated puzzle enthusiasts might find trying. The almost complete absence of mainstream critical attention and its extremely low player count firmly cement its status as a niche title, appreciated by a dedicated few rather than celebrated by the masses.

Yet, it is the revelation of its connection to the CatGhost universe that truly elevates Pertinence beyond a mere puzzle game. This narrative thread transforms its abstract labyrinth into a poignant, arduous journey of survival and escape, imbuing every bending wall and every collected alloy with deeper thematic resonance. Elon’s perilous trek, communicated through subtle visual cues and a melancholic atmosphere, adds a layer of unexpected emotional depth to the otherwise analytical process of puzzle-solving.

In the grand tapestry of video game history, Pertinence will not be remembered for breaking sales records or sparking widespread industry trends. Instead, its place is perhaps more subtle, more pertinent to a particular philosophy of design. It is a quiet, challenging whisper from the independent frontier, a game that asks players to look beyond the surface, both within its own systems and into the broader narrative it supports. For those who seek profound challenge, minimalist elegance, and a hidden story waiting to be uncovered, Pertinence remains a fascinating, if demanding, journey worth embarking upon. It is a game that, despite its sparse presence, possesses a tenacious spirit and a unique artistic voice, forever a mind-bending detour in the annals of indie gaming.