Limbo (video game)
Encyclopedia
Limbo is a puzzle-platform
video game and the premiere title of independent Danish
game developer Playdead. The game was released in July 2010 as a platform exclusive title on Xbox Live Arcade
, and was later re-released as part of a retail game pack along with Trials HD
and 'Splosion Man
in April 2011. Ports of the game to the PlayStation Network and Microsoft Windows
via Steam were created by Playdead, released after the year-long Xbox 360 exclusivity period was completed. A Mac OS X
version is scheduled for release in December 2011. Limbo is a 2D
sidescroller, incorporating a physics system
that governs environmental objects and the player character
. The player guides an unnamed boy through dangerous environments and traps as the boy searches for his sister. The developer built the game's puzzles expecting the player to fail before finding the correct solution. Playdead called the style of play "trial and death", and used visually gruesome imagery for the boy's deaths to steer the player from unworkable solutions.
The game is presented primarily in monochromatic
black-and-white tones, using lighting, film grain effects and minimal ambient sounds to create an eerie atmosphere often associated with the horror genre. Journalists praised the dark presentation, describing the work as comparable to film noir
and German Expressionism
. Based on its aesthetics, reviewers classified Limbo as an example of "video game as art
".
Limbo received positive reviews, but its minimal story polarized critics; some critics found the open-ended work to have deeper meaning that tied well with the game's mechanics, while others believed the lack of significant plot and abrupt ending detracted from the game. A common point of criticism from reviewers was that the high cost of the game relative to its short length might deter players from purchasing the title, but some reviews proposed that Limbo had an ideal length. The title was the third-highest selling game on the Xbox Live Arcade service in 2010, generating around $7.5 million in revenue. The title won several awards from industry groups after its release, and was named as one of the top games for 2010 by several publications.
s, the boy can run left or right, jump, climb onto short ledges or up and down ladders and ropes, and push or pull objects. Limbo is presented through dark, greyscale graphics and with minimalist ambient sounds, creating an eerie, haunting environment. The dark visuals also hide numerous environmental and physical hazards, such as deadly bear traps on the forest floor, or lethal monsters hiding in the shadows, such as a giant spider. Among the hazards are glowing worms, which attach themselves to the boy's head and force him to travel in one direction only until removed.
The game's second half features mechanical puzzles and traps using machinery, electromagnets, and gravity. Many of these traps are not apparent until triggered, often with deadly consequences. The player is able to restart at the last encountered checkpoint, with no limits placed on how many times this can occur. Some traps can be avoided and used later in the game; one bear trap is used to clamp onto an animal's carcass, hung from the end of a rope, pulling it taut and allowing the boy to climb onto a ledge otherwise out of reach. As the player will likely encounter numerous deaths before they solve each puzzle and complete the game, the developers therefore call Limbo a "trial and death" game. Some deaths are animated with images of the boy's dismemberment or beheading, although an optional gore filter blacks out the screen instead of showing these deaths. Game achievements (optional in-game goals) include finding hidden insect eggs and completing the game with five or fewer deaths.
, Jensen became dissatisfied with the increasingly corporate nature of the company. He had sketched a "mood image" of a "secret place" to get ideas, and the result, similar to the backgrounds of the final game, inspired Jensen to expand on it. Jensen initially tried on his own to program the game in Visual Basic
around 2004, but found he needed more help and proceeded to create an art style trailer by 2006. He had only intended to use the trailer as a means to recruit a programmer to help him, but the video attracted much interest in the project from across the Internet, eventually leading him to meet with Patti, who was also dissatisfied with his job. Their collaboration led to the founding of Playdead. Although Patti helped in the first few months with programming, he realised that the project was much larger than what the two of them could handle, and Patti developed the business around the game's expanded development.
Initial development was funded personally by Jensen and Patti along with Danish government grants, including funding from the Nordic Game Program, while large investors were sought later in the development cycle. Jensen and Patti did not want to commit to major publishers, preferring to retain full creative control in developing the title. Jensen originally planned to release Limbo as a free Microsoft Windows title, but by this point, Jensen and Patti decided to make the game a retail title.
Playdead chose to ignore outside advice from investors and critics during development, such as the addition of multiplayer play and adjustable difficulty levels, and extending the game's length. According to Patti, Playdead felt these changes would break the integrity of Jensen's original vision. Numerous iterations of the game took place during a two-and-a-half year development cycle, including changes Jensen had demanded to polish the title. Patti stated that they "trashed 70%" of the content they had developed, due to it not fitting in well with the context of the game. The core development team size was about 8 programmers, expanding to 16 at various stages with freelancers. Playdead developed the design tools for Limbo in Visual Studio; Patti commented they would likely seek third-party applications for their next project given the challenges in creating their own technology. Patti later revealed they had opted to use the Unity
engine for their next project, citing the development of their custom engine for Limbo as a "double product, doing both engine and game", and that their Limbo engine is limited to monochromatic visuals.
Limbo was released on 21 July 2010 on the Xbox Live Arcade
service, as the first title in the yearly "Summer of Arcade" promotion. Although the Entertainment Software Rating Board
(ESRB) had listed entries for Limbo for the PlayStation 3
and Microsoft Windows
platforms, Playdead confirmed that this was a mistake on ESRB's part, and that they had no plans for the game on these systems. Patti later clarified that they had planned on Windows and PlayStation 3 versions alongside the Xbox 360 version initially, but after reviewing their options, decided to go with Xbox 360 exclusivity, in part that "Microsoft provided us with an excellent opportunity, which included a lot of support for the title which in the end would mean a better visibility for Limbo". According to producer Mads Wibroe, part of their decision not to release for the Windows platform was to avoid issues with software piracy, something they could control on the Xbox 360. Patti stated that staying exclusive with the Xbox platform was an assurance that they would be able to recoup their investment in the game's development. Patti affirmed that Limbo would not be released for another console, but that their next game, already in development as of October 2010, may see wider release.
However, in June 2011, users found that a trailer for Limbo appeared on the Steam software service, which journalists such as PC Gamer
took as a preliminary sign that a Microsoft Windows version would be released. Similarly, a possible PlayStation 3 version was projected based on the title appearing on the Korea Media Rating Board
in June 2011. On June 30, 2011, Playdead announced that their ports of the game to the PlayStation 3
via the PlayStation Network, and to Microsoft Windows via Steam, later set for July 19 and August 2, 2011, respectively. Patti clarified that their change of mind from their earlier Xbox 360-exclusive approach was because "we want as many people to play our games as possible". The release was set for nearly a year after the original availability of the Xbox 360 version, after the expiration of the Xbox 360 exclusivity rights for the game. Both the PlayStation 3 and Windows version of the game have additional secret content, according to Patti; it is unknown if this content will be added in a patch to the Xbox 360 version. Playdead has since announced a Mac OS X
version of the game to be released sometime before the end of 2011.
In April 2011, an Xbox 360 retail distribution of Limbo alongside other indie games Trials HD
and 'Splosion Man
was released.
Jensen drew inspiration from film genres, including works of film noir
, to set the art style of the game; the team's graphic artist, Morten Bramsen, is credited with digitally recreating that art style. Much of the game's flow was storyboarded very early in development, such as the boy's encounters with spiders and mind-controlling worms, as well as the overall transition from a forest to a city, then to an abstract environment. As development progressed, some of the original ideas became too difficult for the small team to complete; originally, the spider sequences were to be present near the end of the game, but were later moved to the first part. In retrospect, Jensen was aware that the first half of the game contained more scripted events and encounters, while the second half of the game was lonelier and puzzle-heavy; Jensen attributed this to his lack of oversight during the latter stages of development.
The game's audio was created by Martin Stig Andersen, a graduate with specialization in acousmatic music
from the Royal Academy of Music in Aarhus
. Andersen sought to create non-traditional acousmatic music exclusively incorporating the sound effects of the game's environments; one example he pointed to was the use of electricity noises while in the presence of a ruined neon "HOTEL" sign. Many reviews for the game stated that there was no music in Limbo, but Andersen countered that his sound arrangements helped to evoke emotions; the acousmatic music was intended to leave room for interpretation by the player in the same manner as the game's art and story. Due to fan's requests, Playdead released the game's soundtrack on iTunes Store
on July 11, 2011.
, became the lead designer after Playdead found him to be capable at creating puzzles. Carlsen stated that the puzzles within Limbo were designed to "[keep] you guessing all the way through". Jensen also wanted to make the puzzles feel like a natural part of the environment, and to avoid the feeling that the player was simply moving from puzzle to puzzle through the course of the game. Carlsen identified examples of puzzles from other games that he wanted to avoid. He wanted to avoid simple puzzles that gave the player little satisfaction in its solution, such as a puzzle in Uncharted 2: Among Thieves
that involved simply moving a sun-lit mirror to specific points in a room. In contrast, Carlsen wanted to avoid making the puzzle so complex with many separate parts that the player would resort to trial-and-error and eventually come out with the solution without thinking about why the solution worked; Carlsen used an example of a puzzle from the 2008 Prince of Persia game that had seven different mechanics that he never bothered to figure out himself. Carlsen designed Limbos puzzles to fall between these limits, demonstrating one puzzle that only has three elements: a switch panel, an electrified floor, and a chain; the goal—to use the chain to cross the electrified floor—is immediately obvious to the player, and then tasks the player to determine the right combination of moves and timing to complete it safely. The decision to provide little information to the player was an initial challenge in creating the game. Early playtesters would have no idea of how to solve certain puzzles. To improve this, they created scenarios before troublesome spots that highlighted the appropriate actions; for example, when they found players did not think about pulling a boat onto shore to use as a platform to reach a higher ledge, they presented the player with a box-pulling puzzle earlier to demonstrate the pulling mechanics.
The team developed the game's puzzles by first assuming the player was their "worst enemy", and made puzzles as devious as possible, but then scaled back their difficulty or added visual and audible aids as if the player was a friend. One example given by Carlsen is a puzzle involving a spider early in the game; the solution requires pushing a bear trap to snare the spider's legs in it. Early designs of this puzzle had the bear trap on the same screen as the spider, and Playdead found playtesters focused too much on the trap. The developers altered the puzzle to put the trap in a tree in an earlier off-screen section when facing the spider; the spider's actions would eventually cause this trap to drop to the ground and become a weapon against the spider. Carlsen stated that this arrangement created a situation where the player felt helpless when initially presented with the deadly spider, but then assisted the player through an audible cue when the trap had dropped, enabling the player to discover the solution.
Playdead included gruesome death sequences to highlight incorrect solutions and discourage players from repeating their mistakes. While they expected players to run the boy into numerous deaths while trying solutions, Carlsen stated that their goal was to ensure death wasn't a penalty in the game, and made the death animations entertaining to keep the player interested. Carlsen noted several early puzzles were too complex for the game, but they would end up using a portion of these larger puzzles in the final release.
aggregate scores of 90/100 and 88/100, respectively, compared to the 90/100 earned by the Xbox 360 version. Some journalists compared Limbo to previous minimalist platform games such as Another World
, Flashback, Heart of Darkness, Oddworld: Abe's Oddysee
, Ico
, Portal and Braid
. Reviews consistently noted Limbos short length for its higher selling price: three to six hours of gameplay for 15 euro
s or 15 U.S. dollars
. Reviewers asserted this length-to-price ratio was the largest drawback for the game, and would be a deterrent for potential buyers. Some journalists contended that the length of the game was ideal; The Daily Telegraph
s Tom Hoggins considered the short game to have a "perfectly formed running time", while Daemon Hatfield of IGN
commented that "it's better for a game to leave us wanting more than to overstay its welcome". Numerous independent game developers, in an organised "Size Doesn't Matter" effort, commented on the critical response to Limbos length-to-price ratio. The independent developers questioned the need to quantify that ratio, and noted that it only seems to be used as a factor in judging video games and not other forms of entertainment such as films.
Limbo was generally praised for its puzzle design and the simplicity of its controls. Jake Gaskill of G4 TV was impressed by the complexity of the puzzles based on the two simple actions of jumping and grabbing onto objects, similar to LittleBigPlanet
, with a variety of elements to assure "you’re always facing something new and challenging" during the game. Game Informer
s Matt Miller commented that part of the success of Limbo is that "every one of these [puzzles] stands alone"; the game accomplishes this in Miller's opinion by varying the elements throughout the game, and preventing the player from getting too accustomed to similar solutions since "everything changes". Gamespy
's Ryan Scott believed that the game empowered the player to work through solutions themselves, and its puzzle design, "with its elegant simplicity, offers up what feels like a world of meaningful possibilities". The frequency of death was not considered a distraction from the game; not only were the deaths seen as necessary as part of learning and overcoming each obstacle, but reviewers found the checkpoints where the player would restart to be plentiful throughout the game. Will Freeman of The Guardian
praised the game but noted that beyond the "smoke and mirrors" of Limbos artwork, the game is "undermined by the title's lack of innovative gameplay", which he says has been seen in earlier platform games.
filter, focusing techniques and lighting, were compared to both film noir
and dreamlike tableaus of silent film
s, allowing the visual elements of the game to carry much of the story's weight. Cian Hassett of PALGN
likened the effect to watching the game through an old-fashioned film projector that creates "one of the most unsettling and eerily beautiful environments" in video gaming. Garrett Martin of the Boston Herald
compared the art style and game design decisions to German Expressionism
with "dreamlike levels that twist and spin in unexpected angles". The art style itself was praised as minimalistic, and considered reminiscent of the art of Lotte Reiniger
, Edward Gorey
, Fritz Lang
, and Tim Burton
. The use of misdirection in the visuals were also praised, such as by using silhouettes to avoid revealing the true nature of the characters or shadows, or by showing human figures across a chasm who disappear once the player crossed the chasm.
Reviewers found the sound effects within the game critical to the game's impact. Sam Machkovech, writing for The Atlantic, called the sound direction, "far more colorful and organic than the fuzzed-out looks would lead you to believe". Edge
magazine's review noted that the few background noises "[do] little else than contribute towards Limbo’s tone", while the sound effects generated by moving the boy character "are given an eerie clarity without the presence of a conventional soundtrack to cover them".
IGN's Hatfield concluded his review by stating, "Very few games are as original, atmospheric, and consistently brilliant as Limbo". Chad Sapeiha of The Globe and Mail
summarised his opinion of the game's atmosphere as an "intensely scary, oddly beautiful, and immediately arresting aesthetic." Limbo is said to be the first game to attempt a mix of the horror fiction
genre with platform game
s. The game has been considered an art game
through its visual and audio elements.
or purgatory
, as the boy character completes the journey only to end at the same place he started, repeating the same journey when the player starts a new game. Another interpretation suggested the game is the boy's journey through Hell to reach Heaven, or to find closure for his sister's death. Another theory considers that either the boy or his sister or both are dead. Some theories attempted to incorporate details from the game, such as the change in setting as the boy travels through the game suggesting the progression of man from child to adult to elder, or the similarities and differences between the final screen of the game where the boy meets a girl and the main menu where what could be human remains stand in their places.
The absence of direct narrative, such as through cutscenes or in-game text, was a mixed point for reviewers. John Teti of Eurogamer
considered the game's base story to be metaphorical for a "story of a search for companionship", and that the few encounters with human characters served as "emotional touchstones" that drove the story forward; ultimately, Teti stated that these elements make Limbo "a game that has very few humans, but a surplus of humanity". Hatfield praised the simplicity of the game's story, commenting that, "with no text, no dialogue, and no explanation, it manages to communicate circumstance and causality to the player more simply than most games". Both Teti and Hatfield noted that some of the story elements were weaker in the second half of the game, when there are almost no human characters with whom the player comes into contact, but that the game ends with an unexpected revelation. GameSpot
's Tom McShea found no issues with the game posing questions on "death versus life and reality versus dream", but purposely providing no answers for them, allowing the player to contemplate these on their own. McShae also considered that the brief but gruesome death scenes for the boy helped to create an "emotional immediacy that is difficult to forget". The New York Daily News
Stu Horvath noted that Limbo "turns its lack of obvious narrative into one of the most compelling riddles in videogames".
Other reviews disliked the lack of story or its presentation within Limbo. Justin Haywald of 1UP.com
was critical of the lacking narrative, feeling that the game failed to explain the purpose of the constructed traps or rationale for how the game's world worked, and that the final act left him "more confused than when [he] began". Haywald had contrasted Limbo to Braid, a similar platform game with minimalistic elements which communicates its metaphorical story to the player through in-game text. Roger Hargreaves of Metro
stated that the game has "very little evidence that [Playdead] really knew where they were going with the game", citing the second half, when the player is traveling through a factory-type setting and where he felt the game became more like a typical two-dimensional platform game, and led to an anticlimactic ending; Hargreaves contrasted this to more gruesome elements of the first half, such as encountering corpses of children and having to use those as part of the puzzle solving aspects.
during the 2010 Game Developers Conference
. At the 2010 Electronic Entertainment Expo—about a month before its release—Limbo won GameSpot
's "Best Downloadable Game", and was nominated for several other "Best of Show" awards, including "Best Platformer" by IGN
, "Most Original Game" by G4 TV, and "Best Puzzle Game" by GameSpot. The game was nominated as one of 32 finalists at the 2010 IndieCade
festival for independent developers, ultimately winning the "Sound" award.
Following its release, Limbo was named "Game of the Year", "Best Indie Game", and "Best Visual Art" at the 2010 European Milthon Awards during the Paris Game Show in September 2010. Game Informer named Limbo their Game of the Month for August 2010. Limbo was awarded the "Best Indie Game" at the 2010 Spike Video Game Awards. The game received the most nominations for the 11th Annual Game Developers Choice Awards
, earning seven nominations including for the "Best Debut Game", "Innovation", and "Game of the Year" awards, and ultimately won for "Best Visual Art". The title won the "Adventure Game of the Year" and "Outstanding Achievement in Sound Design" Interactive Achievement Awards from the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences
and was nominated for "Outstanding Achievement in Game Direction" and "Outstanding Innovation in Gaming". The Academy also named Limbo as the winner of the 2010 Indie Game Challenge award in the "Professional" category, along with a $100,000 prize. The game was selected as the 2010 Annie Award for Best Animated Video Game
. Limbo was named as one of ten games for the publicly-voted 2011 "Game of the Year" BAFTA Video Game Awards. In addition, the game was nominated for the committee-determined BAFTA awards for "Artistic Achievement", "Use of Audio", "Gameplay" and "Best Game". The inclusion of the independently-developed Limbo among other larger commercially-backed games such as Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood
and Call of Duty: Black Ops
for such "Best Game" awards is considered an indication that the video game industry has started to give more recognition to these smaller titles.
Several publications, including Time
, Wired
and the Toronto Sun
placed Limbo as one of the top ten video games of 2010. IGN
named it the third best Xbox Live Arcade title of all time in two lists, published in 2010 and 2011, in both cases following Shadow Complex
and Pac Man Championship Edition. Limbo was spoofed by the comedy troope Mega64
during the 2011 Games Developer Conference.
Within two weeks of its release on Xbox Live Arcade, Limbo gained more than 244,000 players to the global leaderboards—a rough measure of full sales of the game—which was considered an "incredibly impressive feat" compared to previous Xbox Live Arcade titles, according to GamerBytes' Ryan Langley. Within a month of its release, more than 300,000 copies of the game were sold. By the end of August 2010, the number of players on the global leaderboard grew to 371,000, exceeding the number of players of other Summer of Arcade games released in 2009, and approaching the number of lifetime players of Braid, released two years earlier. Langley, who had expected Limbos sales to fall "due to the lack of repeatable content and being a strictly single player experience", considered that these figures had "beaten everyone’s expectations". Phil Spencer, the Vice-President of Microsoft Game Studios, stated in September 2010 that Limbo was "our number one Summer of Arcade game by a long stretch", and further posed that Limbo represents a shift in the type of game that gamers want out of online on-demand game services; "it's becoming less about iconic [intellectual property] that people know and it's becoming more diverse". Limbo was the third-highest selling Xbox Live Arcade title in 2010, selling 527,000 and generating about $7.5 million in revenue. In March 2011, Microsoft listed Limbo as the 11th highest selling game to date on Xbox Live. Playdead stated that more than two million users on the Xbox 360 service played through the demo within the year of the game's release. Applications for grants from the Nordic Game Program, which had funded Limbos initial development, increased 50% in the second half of 2010, believed to be tied to the game's success. Playdead was able to buy itself back from its investors in August 2011 from the revenue made from sales of Limbo. The developers announced that as of November 2011, they had sold over 1 million copies of the games across the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and Microsoft Windows platforms.
Platform game
A platform game is a video game characterized by requiring the player to jump to and from suspended platforms or over obstacles . It must be possible to control these jumps and to fall from platforms or miss jumps...
video game and the premiere title of independent Danish
Denmark
Denmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. The countries of Denmark and Greenland, as well as the Faroe Islands, constitute the Kingdom of Denmark . It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries, southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark...
game developer Playdead. The game was released in July 2010 as a platform exclusive title on Xbox Live Arcade
Xbox Live Arcade
Xbox Live Arcade is a type of video game download distribution available primarily in a section of the Xbox Live Marketplace, Microsoft's digital distribution network for the Xbox 360, that focuses on smaller downloadable games from both major publishers and independent game developers...
, and was later re-released as part of a retail game pack along with Trials HD
Trials HD
Trials HD is an Xbox Live Arcade game developed by RedLynx and published by Microsoft Game Studios. It was released on August 12, 2009 as part of the second annual Xbox Live Summer of Arcade and was later re-released in a retail pack alongside Limbo and Splosion Man in April 2011. It is a 2.5D...
and 'Splosion Man
'Splosion Man
'Splosion Man is a 2.5D action platform video game developed by Twisted Pixel Games for the Xbox 360's Xbox Live Arcade digital download service. It was released on July 22, 2009 as part of the 2009 Xbox Live Summer of Arcade...
in April 2011. Ports of the game to the PlayStation Network and Microsoft Windows
Microsoft Windows
Microsoft Windows is a series of operating systems produced by Microsoft.Microsoft introduced an operating environment named Windows on November 20, 1985 as an add-on to MS-DOS in response to the growing interest in graphical user interfaces . Microsoft Windows came to dominate the world's personal...
via Steam were created by Playdead, released after the year-long Xbox 360 exclusivity period was completed. A Mac OS X
Mac OS X
Mac OS X is a series of Unix-based operating systems and graphical user interfaces developed, marketed, and sold by Apple Inc. Since 2002, has been included with all new Macintosh computer systems...
version is scheduled for release in December 2011. Limbo is a 2D
2D computer graphics
2D computer graphics is the computer-based generation of digital images—mostly from two-dimensional models and by techniques specific to them...
sidescroller, incorporating a physics system
Physics engine
A physics engine is computer software that provides an approximate simulation of certain physical systems, such as rigid body dynamics , soft body dynamics, and fluid dynamics, of use in the domains of computer graphics, video games and film. Their main uses are in video games , in which case the...
that governs environmental objects and the player character
Player character
A player character or playable character is a character in a video game or role playing game who is controlled or controllable by a player, and is typically a protagonist of the story told in the course of the game. A player character is a persona of the player who controls it. Player characters...
. The player guides an unnamed boy through dangerous environments and traps as the boy searches for his sister. The developer built the game's puzzles expecting the player to fail before finding the correct solution. Playdead called the style of play "trial and death", and used visually gruesome imagery for the boy's deaths to steer the player from unworkable solutions.
The game is presented primarily in monochromatic
Monochrome
Monochrome describes paintings, drawings, design, or photographs in one color or shades of one color. A monochromatic object or image has colors in shades of limited colors or hues. Images using only shades of grey are called grayscale or black-and-white...
black-and-white tones, using lighting, film grain effects and minimal ambient sounds to create an eerie atmosphere often associated with the horror genre. Journalists praised the dark presentation, describing the work as comparable to film noir
Film noir
Film noir is a cinematic term used primarily to describe stylish Hollywood crime dramas, particularly those that emphasize cynical attitudes and sexual motivations. Hollywood's classic film noir period is generally regarded as extending from the early 1940s to the late 1950s...
and German Expressionism
German Expressionism
German Expressionism refers to a number of related creative movements beginning in Germany before the First World War that reached a peak in Berlin, during the 1920s...
. Based on its aesthetics, reviewers classified Limbo as an example of "video game as art
Art game
An art game or arthouse game is a video game that is designed in such a way as to emphasize art or whose structure is intended to produce some kind of reaction in its audience. Art games typically go out of their way to have a unique, unconventional look, often standing out for aesthetic beauty or...
".
Limbo received positive reviews, but its minimal story polarized critics; some critics found the open-ended work to have deeper meaning that tied well with the game's mechanics, while others believed the lack of significant plot and abrupt ending detracted from the game. A common point of criticism from reviewers was that the high cost of the game relative to its short length might deter players from purchasing the title, but some reviews proposed that Limbo had an ideal length. The title was the third-highest selling game on the Xbox Live Arcade service in 2010, generating around $7.5 million in revenue. The title won several awards from industry groups after its release, and was named as one of the top games for 2010 by several publications.
Plot
The primary character in Limbo is a nameless boy who awakens in the middle of a forest on the "edge of hell" (the game's title is taken from the Latin limbus, meaning "edge"). While seeking his missing sister, he encounters only a few human characters, who either attack him, run away, or are dead. At one point during his journey, he encounters a female character, who abruptly vanishes before he can reach her. The forest eventually gives way to a crumbling city environment. On completion of the final puzzle, the boy is thrown through a pane of glass and back into the forest. He walks a short distance until he again encounters a girl, who, upon his approach, stands up, startled. At this point, the game abruptly ends.Gameplay
The player controls the boy throughout the game. As is typical of most two-dimensional platform gamePlatform game
A platform game is a video game characterized by requiring the player to jump to and from suspended platforms or over obstacles . It must be possible to control these jumps and to fall from platforms or miss jumps...
s, the boy can run left or right, jump, climb onto short ledges or up and down ladders and ropes, and push or pull objects. Limbo is presented through dark, greyscale graphics and with minimalist ambient sounds, creating an eerie, haunting environment. The dark visuals also hide numerous environmental and physical hazards, such as deadly bear traps on the forest floor, or lethal monsters hiding in the shadows, such as a giant spider. Among the hazards are glowing worms, which attach themselves to the boy's head and force him to travel in one direction only until removed.
The game's second half features mechanical puzzles and traps using machinery, electromagnets, and gravity. Many of these traps are not apparent until triggered, often with deadly consequences. The player is able to restart at the last encountered checkpoint, with no limits placed on how many times this can occur. Some traps can be avoided and used later in the game; one bear trap is used to clamp onto an animal's carcass, hung from the end of a rope, pulling it taut and allowing the boy to climb onto a ledge otherwise out of reach. As the player will likely encounter numerous deaths before they solve each puzzle and complete the game, the developers therefore call Limbo a "trial and death" game. Some deaths are animated with images of the boy's dismemberment or beheading, although an optional gore filter blacks out the screen instead of showing these deaths. Game achievements (optional in-game goals) include finding hidden insect eggs and completing the game with five or fewer deaths.
Development
According to Playdead partner Dino Patti and lead designer Jeppe Carlsen, Playdead's game director, Arnt Jensen, conceived Limbo around 2004. At that time, as a concept artist at IO InteractiveIO Interactive
IO Interactive is a Danish video game development company currently owned by Square Enix. The company was founded in September 1998 by the Reto-Moto development group. To date their most popular franchise is the critically acclaimed Hitman series...
, Jensen became dissatisfied with the increasingly corporate nature of the company. He had sketched a "mood image" of a "secret place" to get ideas, and the result, similar to the backgrounds of the final game, inspired Jensen to expand on it. Jensen initially tried on his own to program the game in Visual Basic
Visual Basic
Visual Basic is the third-generation event-driven programming language and integrated development environment from Microsoft for its COM programming model...
around 2004, but found he needed more help and proceeded to create an art style trailer by 2006. He had only intended to use the trailer as a means to recruit a programmer to help him, but the video attracted much interest in the project from across the Internet, eventually leading him to meet with Patti, who was also dissatisfied with his job. Their collaboration led to the founding of Playdead. Although Patti helped in the first few months with programming, he realised that the project was much larger than what the two of them could handle, and Patti developed the business around the game's expanded development.
Initial development was funded personally by Jensen and Patti along with Danish government grants, including funding from the Nordic Game Program, while large investors were sought later in the development cycle. Jensen and Patti did not want to commit to major publishers, preferring to retain full creative control in developing the title. Jensen originally planned to release Limbo as a free Microsoft Windows title, but by this point, Jensen and Patti decided to make the game a retail title.
Playdead chose to ignore outside advice from investors and critics during development, such as the addition of multiplayer play and adjustable difficulty levels, and extending the game's length. According to Patti, Playdead felt these changes would break the integrity of Jensen's original vision. Numerous iterations of the game took place during a two-and-a-half year development cycle, including changes Jensen had demanded to polish the title. Patti stated that they "trashed 70%" of the content they had developed, due to it not fitting in well with the context of the game. The core development team size was about 8 programmers, expanding to 16 at various stages with freelancers. Playdead developed the design tools for Limbo in Visual Studio; Patti commented they would likely seek third-party applications for their next project given the challenges in creating their own technology. Patti later revealed they had opted to use the Unity
Unity (game engine)
Unity is an integrated authoring tool for creating 3D video games or other interactive content such as architectural visualizations or real-time 3D animations. Unity's development environment runs on Microsoft Windows and Mac OS X, and the games it produces can be run on Windows, Mac, Xbox 360,...
engine for their next project, citing the development of their custom engine for Limbo as a "double product, doing both engine and game", and that their Limbo engine is limited to monochromatic visuals.
Limbo was released on 21 July 2010 on the Xbox Live Arcade
Xbox Live Arcade
Xbox Live Arcade is a type of video game download distribution available primarily in a section of the Xbox Live Marketplace, Microsoft's digital distribution network for the Xbox 360, that focuses on smaller downloadable games from both major publishers and independent game developers...
service, as the first title in the yearly "Summer of Arcade" promotion. Although the Entertainment Software Rating Board
Entertainment Software Rating Board
The Entertainment Software Rating Board is a self-regulatory organization that assigns age and content ratings, enforces industry-adopted advertising guidelines, and ensures responsible online privacy principles for computer and video games as well as entertainment software in Canada, Mexico and...
(ESRB) had listed entries for Limbo for the PlayStation 3
PlayStation 3
The is the third home video game console produced by Sony Computer Entertainment and the successor to the PlayStation 2 as part of the PlayStation series. The PlayStation 3 competes with Microsoft's Xbox 360 and Nintendo's Wii as part of the seventh generation of video game consoles...
and Microsoft Windows
Microsoft Windows
Microsoft Windows is a series of operating systems produced by Microsoft.Microsoft introduced an operating environment named Windows on November 20, 1985 as an add-on to MS-DOS in response to the growing interest in graphical user interfaces . Microsoft Windows came to dominate the world's personal...
platforms, Playdead confirmed that this was a mistake on ESRB's part, and that they had no plans for the game on these systems. Patti later clarified that they had planned on Windows and PlayStation 3 versions alongside the Xbox 360 version initially, but after reviewing their options, decided to go with Xbox 360 exclusivity, in part that "Microsoft provided us with an excellent opportunity, which included a lot of support for the title which in the end would mean a better visibility for Limbo". According to producer Mads Wibroe, part of their decision not to release for the Windows platform was to avoid issues with software piracy, something they could control on the Xbox 360. Patti stated that staying exclusive with the Xbox platform was an assurance that they would be able to recoup their investment in the game's development. Patti affirmed that Limbo would not be released for another console, but that their next game, already in development as of October 2010, may see wider release.
However, in June 2011, users found that a trailer for Limbo appeared on the Steam software service, which journalists such as PC Gamer
PC Gamer
PC Gamer is a magazine founded in Britain in 1993 devoted to PC gaming and published monthly by Future Publishing. The magazine has several regional editions, with the UK and US editions becoming the best selling PC games magazines in their respective countries...
took as a preliminary sign that a Microsoft Windows version would be released. Similarly, a possible PlayStation 3 version was projected based on the title appearing on the Korea Media Rating Board
Korea Media Rating Board
The Korea Media Rating Board ' is a ratings organization in South Korea. They rate movies, videos, stage performances, and phonogrames. The current chairperson is Kyung-Soon Lee...
in June 2011. On June 30, 2011, Playdead announced that their ports of the game to the PlayStation 3
PlayStation 3
The is the third home video game console produced by Sony Computer Entertainment and the successor to the PlayStation 2 as part of the PlayStation series. The PlayStation 3 competes with Microsoft's Xbox 360 and Nintendo's Wii as part of the seventh generation of video game consoles...
via the PlayStation Network, and to Microsoft Windows via Steam, later set for July 19 and August 2, 2011, respectively. Patti clarified that their change of mind from their earlier Xbox 360-exclusive approach was because "we want as many people to play our games as possible". The release was set for nearly a year after the original availability of the Xbox 360 version, after the expiration of the Xbox 360 exclusivity rights for the game. Both the PlayStation 3 and Windows version of the game have additional secret content, according to Patti; it is unknown if this content will be added in a patch to the Xbox 360 version. Playdead has since announced a Mac OS X
Mac OS X
Mac OS X is a series of Unix-based operating systems and graphical user interfaces developed, marketed, and sold by Apple Inc. Since 2002, has been included with all new Macintosh computer systems...
version of the game to be released sometime before the end of 2011.
In April 2011, an Xbox 360 retail distribution of Limbo alongside other indie games Trials HD
Trials HD
Trials HD is an Xbox Live Arcade game developed by RedLynx and published by Microsoft Game Studios. It was released on August 12, 2009 as part of the second annual Xbox Live Summer of Arcade and was later re-released in a retail pack alongside Limbo and Splosion Man in April 2011. It is a 2.5D...
and 'Splosion Man
'Splosion Man
'Splosion Man is a 2.5D action platform video game developed by Twisted Pixel Games for the Xbox 360's Xbox Live Arcade digital download service. It was released on July 22, 2009 as part of the 2009 Xbox Live Summer of Arcade...
was released.
Story, art and music direction
From the game's inception, Jensen set out three goals for the final Limbo product. The first goal was to create a specific mood and art style. Jensen wanted to create an aesthetic for the game without resorting to highly-detailed three-dimensional models, and instead directed the art towards a minimalistic style to allow the development to focus its attention on the gameplay. Jensen's second goal was to only require two additional controls—jumping and grabbing—outside of the normal left-and-right movement controls, to keep the game easy to play. Finally, the finished game was to present no tutorial text to the player, requiring players to learn the game's mechanics on their own. The game was purposely developed to avoid revealing details of its content; the only tagline the company provided was, "Uncertain of his sister's fate, a boy enters Limbo." This was chosen so that players could interpret the game's meaning for themselves.Jensen drew inspiration from film genres, including works of film noir
Film noir
Film noir is a cinematic term used primarily to describe stylish Hollywood crime dramas, particularly those that emphasize cynical attitudes and sexual motivations. Hollywood's classic film noir period is generally regarded as extending from the early 1940s to the late 1950s...
, to set the art style of the game; the team's graphic artist, Morten Bramsen, is credited with digitally recreating that art style. Much of the game's flow was storyboarded very early in development, such as the boy's encounters with spiders and mind-controlling worms, as well as the overall transition from a forest to a city, then to an abstract environment. As development progressed, some of the original ideas became too difficult for the small team to complete; originally, the spider sequences were to be present near the end of the game, but were later moved to the first part. In retrospect, Jensen was aware that the first half of the game contained more scripted events and encounters, while the second half of the game was lonelier and puzzle-heavy; Jensen attributed this to his lack of oversight during the latter stages of development.
The game's audio was created by Martin Stig Andersen, a graduate with specialization in acousmatic music
Acousmatic music
Acousmatic music is a form of electroacoustic music that deals specifically with acousmatic sound as a compositional resource. The practice has a historical basis in musique concrète. It can be created using non-acoustic technology, exists only in a recorded format , and is composed for reception...
from the Royal Academy of Music in Aarhus
Royal Academy of Music in Aarhus
The Royal Academy of Music in Aarhus, Denmark, is a conservatoire under the auspices of the Danish Ministry of Culture...
. Andersen sought to create non-traditional acousmatic music exclusively incorporating the sound effects of the game's environments; one example he pointed to was the use of electricity noises while in the presence of a ruined neon "HOTEL" sign. Many reviews for the game stated that there was no music in Limbo, but Andersen countered that his sound arrangements helped to evoke emotions; the acousmatic music was intended to leave room for interpretation by the player in the same manner as the game's art and story. Due to fan's requests, Playdead released the game's soundtrack on iTunes Store
ITunes Store
The iTunes Store is a software-based online digital media store operated by Apple. Opening as the iTunes Music Store on April 28, 2003, with over 200,000 items to purchase, it is, as of April 2008, the number-one music vendor in the United States...
on July 11, 2011.
Gameplay direction
Limbo was designed to avoid the pitfalls of major titles, where the same gameplay mechanic is used repeatedly. Carlsen, initially brought aboard as a programmer for the custom game engineGame engine
A game engine is a system designed for the creation and development of video games. There are many game engines that are designed to work on video game consoles and personal computers...
, became the lead designer after Playdead found him to be capable at creating puzzles. Carlsen stated that the puzzles within Limbo were designed to "[keep] you guessing all the way through". Jensen also wanted to make the puzzles feel like a natural part of the environment, and to avoid the feeling that the player was simply moving from puzzle to puzzle through the course of the game. Carlsen identified examples of puzzles from other games that he wanted to avoid. He wanted to avoid simple puzzles that gave the player little satisfaction in its solution, such as a puzzle in Uncharted 2: Among Thieves
Uncharted 2: Among Thieves
Uncharted 2: Among Thieves is an action-adventure platform third-person shooter video game developed by Naughty Dog and published by Sony Computer Entertainment for the PlayStation 3. It is the sequel to the 2007 game Uncharted: Drake's Fortune. It was first shown and announced on December 1, 2008...
that involved simply moving a sun-lit mirror to specific points in a room. In contrast, Carlsen wanted to avoid making the puzzle so complex with many separate parts that the player would resort to trial-and-error and eventually come out with the solution without thinking about why the solution worked; Carlsen used an example of a puzzle from the 2008 Prince of Persia game that had seven different mechanics that he never bothered to figure out himself. Carlsen designed Limbos puzzles to fall between these limits, demonstrating one puzzle that only has three elements: a switch panel, an electrified floor, and a chain; the goal—to use the chain to cross the electrified floor—is immediately obvious to the player, and then tasks the player to determine the right combination of moves and timing to complete it safely. The decision to provide little information to the player was an initial challenge in creating the game. Early playtesters would have no idea of how to solve certain puzzles. To improve this, they created scenarios before troublesome spots that highlighted the appropriate actions; for example, when they found players did not think about pulling a boat onto shore to use as a platform to reach a higher ledge, they presented the player with a box-pulling puzzle earlier to demonstrate the pulling mechanics.
The team developed the game's puzzles by first assuming the player was their "worst enemy", and made puzzles as devious as possible, but then scaled back their difficulty or added visual and audible aids as if the player was a friend. One example given by Carlsen is a puzzle involving a spider early in the game; the solution requires pushing a bear trap to snare the spider's legs in it. Early designs of this puzzle had the bear trap on the same screen as the spider, and Playdead found playtesters focused too much on the trap. The developers altered the puzzle to put the trap in a tree in an earlier off-screen section when facing the spider; the spider's actions would eventually cause this trap to drop to the ground and become a weapon against the spider. Carlsen stated that this arrangement created a situation where the player felt helpless when initially presented with the deadly spider, but then assisted the player through an audible cue when the trap had dropped, enabling the player to discover the solution.
Playdead included gruesome death sequences to highlight incorrect solutions and discourage players from repeating their mistakes. While they expected players to run the boy into numerous deaths while trying solutions, Carlsen stated that their goal was to ensure death wasn't a penalty in the game, and made the death animations entertaining to keep the player interested. Carlsen noted several early puzzles were too complex for the game, but they would end up using a portion of these larger puzzles in the final release.
Reception
Limbos initial release on the Xbox 360 has received universal acclaim from video game critics and journalists; the subsequent release of the game for the PlayStation 3 and Microsoft Windows platforms received similar praise, holding MetacriticMetacritic
Metacritic.com is a website that collates reviews of music albums, games, movies, TV shows and DVDs. For each product, a numerical score from each review is obtained and the total is averaged. An excerpt of each review is provided along with a hyperlink to the source. Three colour codes of Green,...
aggregate scores of 90/100 and 88/100, respectively, compared to the 90/100 earned by the Xbox 360 version. Some journalists compared Limbo to previous minimalist platform games such as Another World
Another World (video game)
Another World, also known as Out of This World in North America and Outer World in Japan, is a 1991 cinematic platformer designed and developed by Eric Chahi...
, Flashback, Heart of Darkness, Oddworld: Abe's Oddysee
Oddworld: Abe's Oddysee
Oddworld: Abe's Oddysee is a multi-award–winning platform video game developed by Oddworld Inhabitants and published by GT Interactive. It was released in 1997 for the PlayStation video game console, DOS and Microsoft Windows in North America, Australia and Europe...
, Ico
Ico
is an action-adventure game published by Sony Computer Entertainment and released for the PlayStation 2 video game console. It was designed and directed by Fumito Ueda, who wanted to create a minimalist game around a "boy meets girl" concept. Originally planned for the PlayStation, Ico took...
, Portal and Braid
Braid (video game)
Braid is a platform and puzzle video game developed by independent software developer Jonathan Blow. The game was released on August 6, 2008 for the Xbox 360's Xbox Live Arcade service. A Microsoft Windows version was released on April 10, 2009. Hothead Games ported and released the game to Mac OS...
. Reviews consistently noted Limbos short length for its higher selling price: three to six hours of gameplay for 15 euro
Euro
The euro is the official currency of the eurozone: 17 of the 27 member states of the European Union. It is also the currency used by the Institutions of the European Union. The eurozone consists of Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg,...
s or 15 U.S. dollars
United States dollar
The United States dollar , also referred to as the American dollar, is the official currency of the United States of America. It is divided into 100 smaller units called cents or pennies....
. Reviewers asserted this length-to-price ratio was the largest drawback for the game, and would be a deterrent for potential buyers. Some journalists contended that the length of the game was ideal; The Daily Telegraph
The Daily Telegraph
The Daily Telegraph is a daily morning broadsheet newspaper distributed throughout the United Kingdom and internationally. The newspaper was founded by Arthur B...
s Tom Hoggins considered the short game to have a "perfectly formed running time", while Daemon Hatfield of IGN
IGN
IGN is an entertainment website that focuses on video games, films, music and other media. IGN's main website comprises several specialty sites or "channels", each occupying a subdomain and covering a specific area of entertainment...
commented that "it's better for a game to leave us wanting more than to overstay its welcome". Numerous independent game developers, in an organised "Size Doesn't Matter" effort, commented on the critical response to Limbos length-to-price ratio. The independent developers questioned the need to quantify that ratio, and noted that it only seems to be used as a factor in judging video games and not other forms of entertainment such as films.
Limbo was generally praised for its puzzle design and the simplicity of its controls. Jake Gaskill of G4 TV was impressed by the complexity of the puzzles based on the two simple actions of jumping and grabbing onto objects, similar to LittleBigPlanet
LittleBigPlanet
LittleBigPlanet, commonly abbreviated LBP, is a puzzle platformer video game, based on user-generated content, for the PlayStation 3 first announced on 7 March 2007, by Phil Harrison at the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco, California...
, with a variety of elements to assure "you’re always facing something new and challenging" during the game. Game Informer
Game Informer
Game Informer is an American-based monthly magazine featuring articles, news, strategy, and reviews of popular video games and associated consoles. It was formed in August 1991, when FuncoLand started publishing a six-page magazine, free in all its retail locations...
s Matt Miller commented that part of the success of Limbo is that "every one of these [puzzles] stands alone"; the game accomplishes this in Miller's opinion by varying the elements throughout the game, and preventing the player from getting too accustomed to similar solutions since "everything changes". Gamespy
GameSpy
GameSpy Industries, Inc., known simply as GameSpy, is a division of IGN Entertainment, which operates a network of game websites and provides online video game-related services and software. GameSpy dates back to the 1996 release of an internet Quake server search program named QSpy. The current...
's Ryan Scott believed that the game empowered the player to work through solutions themselves, and its puzzle design, "with its elegant simplicity, offers up what feels like a world of meaningful possibilities". The frequency of death was not considered a distraction from the game; not only were the deaths seen as necessary as part of learning and overcoming each obstacle, but reviewers found the checkpoints where the player would restart to be plentiful throughout the game. Will Freeman of The Guardian
The Guardian
The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
praised the game but noted that beyond the "smoke and mirrors" of Limbos artwork, the game is "undermined by the title's lack of innovative gameplay", which he says has been seen in earlier platform games.
Presentation
Limbos graphical and audio presentation were considered by reviewers as exceptional and powerful elements of the game. The monochrome approach, coupled with film grainFilm grain
Film grain or granularity is the random optical texture of processed photographic film due to the presence of small particles of a metallic silver, or dye clouds, developed from silver halide that have received enough photons. While film grain is a function of such particles it is not the same...
filter, focusing techniques and lighting, were compared to both film noir
Film noir
Film noir is a cinematic term used primarily to describe stylish Hollywood crime dramas, particularly those that emphasize cynical attitudes and sexual motivations. Hollywood's classic film noir period is generally regarded as extending from the early 1940s to the late 1950s...
and dreamlike tableaus of silent film
Silent film
A silent film is a film with no synchronized recorded sound, especially with no spoken dialogue. In silent films for entertainment the dialogue is transmitted through muted gestures, pantomime and title cards...
s, allowing the visual elements of the game to carry much of the story's weight. Cian Hassett of PALGN
PALGN
The PAL Gaming Network is an Australian based video game news and reviews website that focuses on the videogame industry and culture in PAL territories, particularly Australia and the UK. It was launched in 2003 by a group of PAL forum members on the IGN message boards who were disenfranchised by...
likened the effect to watching the game through an old-fashioned film projector that creates "one of the most unsettling and eerily beautiful environments" in video gaming. Garrett Martin of the Boston Herald
Boston Herald
The Boston Herald is a daily newspaper that serves Boston, Massachusetts, United States, and its surrounding area. It was started in 1846 and is one of the oldest daily newspapers in the United States...
compared the art style and game design decisions to German Expressionism
German Expressionism
German Expressionism refers to a number of related creative movements beginning in Germany before the First World War that reached a peak in Berlin, during the 1920s...
with "dreamlike levels that twist and spin in unexpected angles". The art style itself was praised as minimalistic, and considered reminiscent of the art of Lotte Reiniger
Lotte Reiniger
Charlotte "Lotte" Reiniger was a German silhouette animator and film director.- Early life :Lotte Reiniger was born in Berlin-Charlottenburg, German Empire, on June 2, 1899...
, Edward Gorey
Edward Gorey
Edward St. John Gorey was an American writer and artist noted for his macabre illustrated books.-Early life:...
, Fritz Lang
Fritz Lang
Friedrich Christian Anton "Fritz" Lang was an Austrian-American filmmaker, screenwriter, and occasional film producer and actor. One of the best known émigrés from Germany's school of Expressionism, he was dubbed the "Master of Darkness" by the British Film Institute...
, and Tim Burton
Tim Burton
Timothy William "Tim" Burton is an American film director, film producer, writer and artist. He is famous for dark, quirky-themed movies such as Beetlejuice, Edward Scissorhands, The Nightmare Before Christmas, Ed Wood, Sleepy Hollow, Corpse Bride and Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet...
. The use of misdirection in the visuals were also praised, such as by using silhouettes to avoid revealing the true nature of the characters or shadows, or by showing human figures across a chasm who disappear once the player crossed the chasm.
Reviewers found the sound effects within the game critical to the game's impact. Sam Machkovech, writing for The Atlantic, called the sound direction, "far more colorful and organic than the fuzzed-out looks would lead you to believe". Edge
Edge (magazine)
Edge is a multi-format computer and video game magazine published by Future Publishing in the United Kingdom. It is known for its industry contacts, editorial stance, distinctive anonymous third-person writing style, yearly awards and longevity....
magazine's review noted that the few background noises "[do] little else than contribute towards Limbo’s tone", while the sound effects generated by moving the boy character "are given an eerie clarity without the presence of a conventional soundtrack to cover them".
IGN's Hatfield concluded his review by stating, "Very few games are as original, atmospheric, and consistently brilliant as Limbo". Chad Sapeiha of The Globe and Mail
The Globe and Mail
The Globe and Mail is a nationally distributed Canadian newspaper, based in Toronto and printed in six cities across the country. With a weekly readership of approximately 1 million, it is Canada's largest-circulation national newspaper and second-largest daily newspaper after the Toronto Star...
summarised his opinion of the game's atmosphere as an "intensely scary, oddly beautiful, and immediately arresting aesthetic." Limbo is said to be the first game to attempt a mix of the horror fiction
Horror fiction
Horror fiction also Horror fantasy is a philosophy of literature, which is intended to, or has the capacity to frighten its readers, inducing feelings of horror and terror. It creates an eerie atmosphere. Horror can be either supernatural or non-supernatural...
genre with platform game
Platform game
A platform game is a video game characterized by requiring the player to jump to and from suspended platforms or over obstacles . It must be possible to control these jumps and to fall from platforms or miss jumps...
s. The game has been considered an art game
Art game
An art game or arthouse game is a video game that is designed in such a way as to emphasize art or whose structure is intended to produce some kind of reaction in its audience. Art games typically go out of their way to have a unique, unconventional look, often standing out for aesthetic beauty or...
through its visual and audio elements.
Plot
The game's story and its ending have been open to much interpretation; the ending was purposely left vague and unanswered by Playdead. It was compared to other open-ended books, films and video games, where the viewer is left to interpret what they have read or seen. Some reviews suggested that the game is a representation of the religious nature of LimboLimbo
In the theology of the Catholic Church, Limbo is a speculative idea about the afterlife condition of those who die in original sin without being assigned to the Hell of the damned. Limbo is not an official doctrine of the Roman Catholic Church or any other...
or purgatory
Purgatory
Purgatory is the condition or process of purification or temporary punishment in which, it is believed, the souls of those who die in a state of grace are made ready for Heaven...
, as the boy character completes the journey only to end at the same place he started, repeating the same journey when the player starts a new game. Another interpretation suggested the game is the boy's journey through Hell to reach Heaven, or to find closure for his sister's death. Another theory considers that either the boy or his sister or both are dead. Some theories attempted to incorporate details from the game, such as the change in setting as the boy travels through the game suggesting the progression of man from child to adult to elder, or the similarities and differences between the final screen of the game where the boy meets a girl and the main menu where what could be human remains stand in their places.
The absence of direct narrative, such as through cutscenes or in-game text, was a mixed point for reviewers. John Teti of Eurogamer
Eurogamer
Eurogamer is a Brighton-based website focused on video games news, reviews, previews and interviews. It is operated by Eurogamer Network Ltd., which was formed in 1999 by brothers Rupert and Nick Loman. Eurogamer has grown to become one of the most important European-based websites focused on...
considered the game's base story to be metaphorical for a "story of a search for companionship", and that the few encounters with human characters served as "emotional touchstones" that drove the story forward; ultimately, Teti stated that these elements make Limbo "a game that has very few humans, but a surplus of humanity". Hatfield praised the simplicity of the game's story, commenting that, "with no text, no dialogue, and no explanation, it manages to communicate circumstance and causality to the player more simply than most games". Both Teti and Hatfield noted that some of the story elements were weaker in the second half of the game, when there are almost no human characters with whom the player comes into contact, but that the game ends with an unexpected revelation. GameSpot
GameSpot
GameSpot is a video gaming website that provides news, reviews, previews, downloads, and other information. The site was launched in May 1, 1996 by Pete Deemer, Vince Broady and Jon Epstein. It was purchased by ZDNet, a brand which was later purchased by CNET Networks. CBS Interactive, which...
's Tom McShea found no issues with the game posing questions on "death versus life and reality versus dream", but purposely providing no answers for them, allowing the player to contemplate these on their own. McShae also considered that the brief but gruesome death scenes for the boy helped to create an "emotional immediacy that is difficult to forget". The New York Daily News
New York Daily News
The Daily News of New York City is the fourth most widely circulated daily newspaper in the United States with a daily circulation of 605,677, as of November 1, 2011....
Stu Horvath noted that Limbo "turns its lack of obvious narrative into one of the most compelling riddles in videogames".
Other reviews disliked the lack of story or its presentation within Limbo. Justin Haywald of 1UP.com
1UP.com
1UP.com is a video game website owned by IGN Entertainment, a division of News Corporation. Previously, the site was owned by Ziff Davis before being sold to UGO Entertainment in 2009....
was critical of the lacking narrative, feeling that the game failed to explain the purpose of the constructed traps or rationale for how the game's world worked, and that the final act left him "more confused than when [he] began". Haywald had contrasted Limbo to Braid, a similar platform game with minimalistic elements which communicates its metaphorical story to the player through in-game text. Roger Hargreaves of Metro
Metro (Associated Metro Limited)
Metro is a free daily newspaper in the United Kingdom published by Associated Newspapers Ltd . It is available from Monday to Friday each week on many public transport services across the United Kingdom.-History:The paper was launched in London in 1999, and can now be found in 14 UK urban centres...
stated that the game has "very little evidence that [Playdead] really knew where they were going with the game", citing the second half, when the player is traveling through a factory-type setting and where he felt the game became more like a typical two-dimensional platform game, and led to an anticlimactic ending; Hargreaves contrasted this to more gruesome elements of the first half, such as encountering corpses of children and having to use those as part of the puzzle solving aspects.
Sales and accolades
Before its release, Limbo was awarded both the "Technical Excellence" and "Excellence in Visual Art" titles at the Independent Games FestivalIndependent Games Festival
The Independent Games Festival is an annual festival at the Game Developers Conference, the largest annual gathering of the indie video game industry. It was founded in 1998 to assist and inspire innovation in video game development and to recognize the best independent video game developers...
during the 2010 Game Developers Conference
Game Developers Conference
The Game Developers Conference is the largest annual gathering of professional video game developers, focusing on learning, inspiration, and networking...
. At the 2010 Electronic Entertainment Expo—about a month before its release—Limbo won GameSpot
GameSpot
GameSpot is a video gaming website that provides news, reviews, previews, downloads, and other information. The site was launched in May 1, 1996 by Pete Deemer, Vince Broady and Jon Epstein. It was purchased by ZDNet, a brand which was later purchased by CNET Networks. CBS Interactive, which...
's "Best Downloadable Game", and was nominated for several other "Best of Show" awards, including "Best Platformer" by IGN
IGN
IGN is an entertainment website that focuses on video games, films, music and other media. IGN's main website comprises several specialty sites or "channels", each occupying a subdomain and covering a specific area of entertainment...
, "Most Original Game" by G4 TV, and "Best Puzzle Game" by GameSpot. The game was nominated as one of 32 finalists at the 2010 IndieCade
Indiecade
Indiecade or IndieCade is an international juried festival of independent video games. IndieCade is known as "the video game industry's Sundance". At IndieCade independent video game developers are selected to screen and promote their work at the annual IndieCade festival and showcase events...
festival for independent developers, ultimately winning the "Sound" award.
Following its release, Limbo was named "Game of the Year", "Best Indie Game", and "Best Visual Art" at the 2010 European Milthon Awards during the Paris Game Show in September 2010. Game Informer named Limbo their Game of the Month for August 2010. Limbo was awarded the "Best Indie Game" at the 2010 Spike Video Game Awards. The game received the most nominations for the 11th Annual Game Developers Choice Awards
Game Developers Choice Awards
The Game Developers Choice Awards are annually presented by the Game Developers Conference for outstanding game developers and games.Introduced in 2001, the Game Developers Choice Awards were preceded by the Spotlight Awards, which were presented from 1997 to 1999.The 2009 award presentation was...
, earning seven nominations including for the "Best Debut Game", "Innovation", and "Game of the Year" awards, and ultimately won for "Best Visual Art". The title won the "Adventure Game of the Year" and "Outstanding Achievement in Sound Design" Interactive Achievement Awards from the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences
Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences
The Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences , founded in 1996, is a non-profit organization that promotes computer and video game entertainment with the annual D.I.C.E. Summit event, where its Interactive Achievement Awards ceremony has been held annually since 1998...
and was nominated for "Outstanding Achievement in Game Direction" and "Outstanding Innovation in Gaming". The Academy also named Limbo as the winner of the 2010 Indie Game Challenge award in the "Professional" category, along with a $100,000 prize. The game was selected as the 2010 Annie Award for Best Animated Video Game
Annie Award for Best Animated Video Game
The Annie Award for Best Animated Video Game is awarded annually by ASIFA-Hollywood, a non-profit organization that honors contributions to animation, to the best animated video game of the year. It is one of the Annie Awards, which are given to the best contributions to animation, including...
. Limbo was named as one of ten games for the publicly-voted 2011 "Game of the Year" BAFTA Video Game Awards. In addition, the game was nominated for the committee-determined BAFTA awards for "Artistic Achievement", "Use of Audio", "Gameplay" and "Best Game". The inclusion of the independently-developed Limbo among other larger commercially-backed games such as Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood
Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood
Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood is a historical third person, stealth action-adventure video game developed by Ubisoft for PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Microsoft Windows and Mac OS X. It was released for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 in November 2010, Microsoft Windows in March 2011 and Mac OS X in May 2011...
and Call of Duty: Black Ops
Call of Duty: Black Ops
Call of Duty: Black Ops is a first-person shooter video game developed by Treyarch, published by Activision and released worldwide on November 9, for Microsoft Windows, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Wii consoles, with a separate version for Nintendo DS developed by n-Space. Announced on April 30, 2010,...
for such "Best Game" awards is considered an indication that the video game industry has started to give more recognition to these smaller titles.
Several publications, including Time
Time (magazine)
Time is an American news magazine. A European edition is published from London. Time Europe covers the Middle East, Africa and, since 2003, Latin America. An Asian edition is based in Hong Kong...
, Wired
Wired (magazine)
Wired is a full-color monthly American magazine and on-line periodical, published since January 1993, that reports on how new and developing technology affects culture, the economy, and politics...
and the Toronto Sun
Toronto Sun
The Toronto Sun is an English-language daily tabloid newspaper published in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is known for its daily Sunshine Girl feature and for what it sees as a populist conservative editorial stance.-History:...
placed Limbo as one of the top ten video games of 2010. IGN
IGN
IGN is an entertainment website that focuses on video games, films, music and other media. IGN's main website comprises several specialty sites or "channels", each occupying a subdomain and covering a specific area of entertainment...
named it the third best Xbox Live Arcade title of all time in two lists, published in 2010 and 2011, in both cases following Shadow Complex
Shadow Complex
Shadow Complex is a platform-adventure video game developed by Chair Entertainment in association with Epic Games and published by Microsoft Game Studios for Xbox Live Arcade, and is powered by Unreal Engine 3...
and Pac Man Championship Edition. Limbo was spoofed by the comedy troope Mega64
Mega64
Mega64 is a low-budget series of comedy skits centered on video games.-Premise:In the not too distant future, a sinister scientist named Dr. Poque creates the most powerful video game console ever assembled...
during the 2011 Games Developer Conference.
Within two weeks of its release on Xbox Live Arcade, Limbo gained more than 244,000 players to the global leaderboards—a rough measure of full sales of the game—which was considered an "incredibly impressive feat" compared to previous Xbox Live Arcade titles, according to GamerBytes' Ryan Langley. Within a month of its release, more than 300,000 copies of the game were sold. By the end of August 2010, the number of players on the global leaderboard grew to 371,000, exceeding the number of players of other Summer of Arcade games released in 2009, and approaching the number of lifetime players of Braid, released two years earlier. Langley, who had expected Limbos sales to fall "due to the lack of repeatable content and being a strictly single player experience", considered that these figures had "beaten everyone’s expectations". Phil Spencer, the Vice-President of Microsoft Game Studios, stated in September 2010 that Limbo was "our number one Summer of Arcade game by a long stretch", and further posed that Limbo represents a shift in the type of game that gamers want out of online on-demand game services; "it's becoming less about iconic [intellectual property] that people know and it's becoming more diverse". Limbo was the third-highest selling Xbox Live Arcade title in 2010, selling 527,000 and generating about $7.5 million in revenue. In March 2011, Microsoft listed Limbo as the 11th highest selling game to date on Xbox Live. Playdead stated that more than two million users on the Xbox 360 service played through the demo within the year of the game's release. Applications for grants from the Nordic Game Program, which had funded Limbos initial development, increased 50% in the second half of 2010, believed to be tied to the game's success. Playdead was able to buy itself back from its investors in August 2011 from the revenue made from sales of Limbo. The developers announced that as of November 2011, they had sold over 1 million copies of the games across the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and Microsoft Windows platforms.