Monument Valley

Monument Valley asks you to trust what appears on screen. If two paths look connected after an architectural element rotates, Ida can walk between them, even when that connection is impossible in ordinary space. Perspective becomes a working rule rather than a deception to expose.

You tap a destination and move parts of the structure. Stairs, bridges and towers form small scenes that can be viewed as a whole. The solution often involves changing your understanding of the image: noticing a crossing, turning a wall into a road or seeing an earlier path from another side. Restrained animation helps you follow changes in form.

In its account of the 2014 release, ustwo explained its aim to reach people who rarely played games. The team deliberately avoided making difficulty the central goal and added levels when it had a new idea to offer. This informed the short duration and simple controls. Impossible architecture, inspired partly by Escher, became a way to offer discoveries without requiring complex button combinations.