There’s a famous saying that’s always stuck with me. George Bernard Shaw, an Irish playwright, once said “We don’t stop playing because we grow old; we grow old because we stop playing.” As a kid who loved being in bands and learning instruments, I had a lot of fun just playing around on my guitar or keyboard, seeing what happened and enjoying the process of learning.
Somewhere along the way, it stopped being about having fun, and became about being good, about success, and a lack of those elements took the joy away. Sometimes I wouldn’t play my guitar for months, because in my head it wasn’t getting me anywhere. Then I’d come home after a couple of beers, pick it up without thinking about it, and remind myself that simply strumming a few chords fills my heart with joy.
Chicory is a video game about that balance. It’s about the adult drive to make everything perfect, and how that deprives us of the joy of simple experimentation. On the road to perfection, there are a lot of steps along the way. Sometimes good, sometimes bad, but it doesn’t mean they can’t all be enjoyed. Because perfection doesn’t exist, and if you try to settle only for perfection, you’ll never be happy.
