That is what the Adornians worship: the separation of fun and art. They believe that these things may never come together: that art cannot be fun, and fun cannot be art. And yet in believing so, they deny the entire history of the Lands of Dream. It is ironic, really; they consider themselves opponents of Urizen, and yet they are his loyal servants. They are taking away our only defense against the darkness: a keen sense of analysis combined with the joy of life, and humour.

when i first encountered desert bridge, it wouldn’t play fair with me: the images were all scaled incorrectly, which made clicking on hotspots – it’s that kind of experience, moving the mouse and clicking on things – next to impossible, and desert bridge next to impossible to play. if you have this problem with the game, don’t ask me how to solve it: my solution was to reinstall windows. i did that because of a virus; getting to play desert bridge was a happy side-effect.

i have heard jonas kyratzes’ the strange and somewhat sinister tale of the house at desert bridge described as a fairy tale for adults. verena huber illustrated the house’s many rooms and inhabitants in bright, colorful crayon: the writing is endlessly whimsical and silly, even when the gravity of increasingly serious subjects is rattling at the house’s door. to kyratzes, it is joy and whimsy which keep us from being suffocated by nihilism: in the daily struggle of death versus life, death is humourless. life survives because it can laugh.

i can’t think of a medium better suited to relate this theme than one whose opponents deride it as being mere entertainment, one that’s been accused of being too preoccupied with its audience having fun to be considered real art. nevermind that these generalizations don’t reflect the diversity of intents and experiences in games: kyratzes believes that a sense of beauty, whimsy and humour and a reality of terrible inevitabilities are not incompatible, and desert bridge is his statement.