It's with amazement that I learn about high schoolers who are using their time to make the type of content that allowed us to unwind back then. HIIS is an example of some Gen Z brilliance and their perceptiveness surrounding the intellectual potential of digital art.
HIIS was officially launched on February 11th, 2021, and was developed and published by Bottled Fantasy Games. As they describe it, “We are a small team of high school students from Estonia. We have always wanted to make a game, but this opportunity was granted to us when our school gave us the chance to make a student company (instead of a boring research paper).”
What we get instead of a research paper is a game that gives you a decent amount of flexibility. As a “sandbox” style game, you inhabit a vast island which remains open to amble your way through. The scenery is not just a backdrop: it's full of plants, seeds, mushrooms, seashells, and other objects that you will use to serve your character's purpose as a mage.
The central objective of the game is to make potions based on the requests of folks from beyond the island. The requests wash up on the island's shore, and it's up to you to come up with solutions to the customers' dilemmas as they become increasingly difficult.
To do this, players have to shrewdly comb through the island to pick plants (or seeds to grow plants in your own garden), collect water from a well, brew ingredients in a big cauldron, test the potions you make, and then send them back to customers.
You may lose count of how many plants are around the island, but you'll gradually find out which ones require more effort to harvest, including those with defence mechanisms like spikes. It can also take a while to get the potions just right. Testing them on your own character can make you woozy. Testing potions on a stool can cause it to grow eyeballs! What you notice about each potion is tactical information for future potion requests, so be sure to write it in your character's notebook for reference.
Thankfully, even with these challenges, when you begin playing HIIS, it starts out with a tutorial, to get you acquainted with the vast island and equip you with all that you must know in your quests.
Apart from fulfilling potion orders, there are quirks to be amused by, like using an exploding potion to launch you to the top of a mountain or to the other end of the island. Amusements like these alleviate the tough lineup of potion making sessions. With game-based currency you earn while playing, you can buy miscellaneous curios like crowns and coffee cups. You can buy a compass that helps you find your way back home; a worthy purchase when the day quickly descends into night and your surroundings become veiled by darkness. You can also make additions to your character's cabin.
The title HIIS, of course, refers to the sacred groves of Estonia. The link between the game's tasks and the meaning behind such places is a little bit tenuous. Nevertheless, I imagine the title was chosen to describe the esotericism of this game's landscape and to connect back to the magic of Estonian traditions.
How will this game fit among others you've enjoyed playing in the past? Well, thinking of other comparable games, HIIS has some of the trial and error and brain-bending puzzles of the Nancy Drew game series by HeR Interactive. Ithas a self-directed approach to gameplay. You won't be fighting bosses, and there aren't lots of clues and prompts along the way like other games, so be patient and be prepared for lateral thinking. Visually, the isolated world (it's just you on the island) reminds me a bit of Portal from 2007, or even a throwback like the 1993 hit game Myst.
For those interested in playing, you can easily download HIIS from Steam. Your computer will need to be running Windows 7 or higher (the game isn't compatible with macOS).
I wouldn't call myself a big gamer by any means, but this game is a stimulus for nostalgia and makes me want to find out how to make something like it of my own.
This article was written by Vincent Teetsov as part of the Local Journalism Initiative.
