Strawberry Cubes

• Title — Strawberry Cubes • Developer — Loren Schmidt • Platforms — Windows, MacOS • Genre — Platformer • Released — 4 July 2015 • Modes — Single-player

• Illustration — A screenshot of Strawberry Cubes. Strawberry Cubes is an unorthodox platformer in which the player navigates a surrealistic maze. The game lacks a conventional control scheme, and players are encouraged to "try pressing other keys" on the keyboard, which have effects that include warping the player across the screen or to hidden rooms, or changing the visual presentation of the game. Navigation is assisted by collecting and planting "seeds", which sprout and allow the player to climb vertically. Without a user interface, the player is required to use context clues from the simulated glitches and bugs in the game to progress. There is no end to the game, and it is left to the player to explore the spaces in the game to uncover its features. There are hidden features and secrets in the game that refer to the overarching intent of the creator, including hidden messages and images in the game and its files.

Loren Schmidt is a Pittsburgh based independent developer who pursued art practice following a period of undergraduate study in biology and psychology. Schmidt initially developed Strawberry Cubes as a game for the Ludum Dare. The design of the game was initially inspired by Schmidt's desire to "make a game about my relationship with my grandmother, who suffered from Alzheimer's disease," and further driven by a personal goal to revisit and interrogate memories of her grandmother in terms of the "happy ones and memories of losing her gradually over seven years." In line with this theme, Schmidt stated the game was developed as an open-ended experience "consciously (without) a sense of achievement or mastery," and the game lacks a distinct end state, with Schmidt inviting the player to find meaning and closure to the game upon their own terms. Strawberry Cubes was exhibited in New York City at the independent games festival IndieCade East in April 2016 at the Museum of the Moving Image, and at Fantastic Arcade in Austin, Texas, an event under Fantastic Fest, in September 2015. The game was also exhibited as part of a retrospective of Schmidt's work at the Pittsburgh gallery Like Like in July 2018. The game was also exhibited at independent games festival Fantastic Arcade at Austin in 2015.