Loom, when music is the message
If I have to remember one game from the 90s that really left a mark on me as a designer and as a person curious about games, inevitably sooner or later I will go like “Oh, YES! And there’s Loom of course!”.
I remember so much of this game, from the interesting, mysterious character, to the soft, slightly melanchonic scenery, to the continuos recalls to Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake (and it’s no mistery, for the people who know me, how much I am obsessed with that ballet). I feel Loom falls into that landscape of games that have been undervalued and almost forgotten, but they still deserve to be played and loved.
The story of Bobbin Threadbare is one of redemption and growing. That sort of thing which happens in your life when you are at a turning point and you feel out of any community and you have to relearn everything to get access to it. It’s coming of age, but in a special way that resonates with people that have felt out of place at least once in their life (so I guess everyone?). The game opens with a 30 minutes audiodrama. This thing alone sets it aside from many games, so anxious to get you into playing and doing and craving more action. Loom goes in the opposite direction. It slowly lulls you in this magical place in a way that then makes every midi arpeggio soothe and calm you, like if someone was reading you a goodnight story. You are completely silent at start (the character just remarks what it’s happening but you never choose what to say). You cannot possibly establish a communication with this world. You just walk around, and listen. Listening is the first verb we encounter in this world.
Listening is understanding. Some things in the world (they can be objects, or things that happen in certain moments of the game) play a short melody. You have to understand it, practice it, remember it. That melody is the verb you then can use to interact elsewhere with the world. See the language in action? The power of this game lies in showing you how a language is built and learned and how, through learning a language, you can make changes on a world. There is a little touch inside Loom that reinforces this message; the drafts (so the game calls the verb based melodies) are randomised at the start of the game, so you cannot just download a guide and go with that, you have to actually put effort in learning them. And even if it’s obviously easy to just take notes across the game, there is a fascination in learning this bits of music that do things and being able to remember them at the right moment.
Loom is a fairly simple game to complete. It’s more of a folk tale than a novel and it takes pride into just having you enjoy it, without really creating too much friction. The theme of travelling and learning, albeit abused in games (but hey, we’re talking about a 1990 graphic adventure) fits perfectly the atmosphere and the unfolding of the game. It’s a departure from older Lucasarts’ games (mainly Zak McKracken and the Alien Mindbenders and Maniac Mansion) with their complex multiple ways to do the same thing and the easy chance of doing something wrong and not being able of finishing the game.
Loom sees language as a tool of freedom (because it lets you act and change the world) as well as a cage that directs our thoughts, with the inflexible elders (named after the greek moirae who control the thread of life) who keep the secret of the draft and act against any form of change.
The main character, Bobbin Threadbare is not a real innovator. They just have a childish disposition to learn and to try things, and this is described by the game mechanics more than by any characterisation (Bobbin is a fairly anonymous one, with their grey robe and the covered face). Obviously this makes it easier for you to identify in them and to discover together a world that is alien for both.
I always thought about Loom as a deeply underrated game. And now that I’m looking more at games and play from the point of view of them being an expressive language, I can see even more value in its primitive but revealing game mechanics. They talk about what games and play are, through the language of music and with a beautiful homage to a dreamy masterpiece.
