When we're growing up, we think a lot about the "first times" -- first bike, first kiss, first place to call your own. But what also comes along with getting older is a lot of "last times" -- last time you use your teddy bear at night, last time you play with your friends, last time you can take a walk on your own. And it's the aftermath of that last instance that we face directly in A Walk with Yiayia.

In this (approx ~1 hour) title, you'll take your grandmother who's recently experienced a scary fall out on a walk. On this walk, you'll have the opportunity to encourage her, ask her questions, and learn more about what her life was like growing up.

A Walk with Yiayia is (intentionally) slow-paced, narrative-focused, and not meant to be mechanically complex. It provides players with the time and space to process the conversation and enjoy the walk and it's sights. I enjoyed that space and that reflection time, and for anyone who enjoys experiences that can be played in one sitting as well as bittersweet (and ultimately quite wholesome) stories, I'd recommend it. Like real life relationships, you get back what energy you put into this game. Ultimately, A Walk with Yiayia is clearly heartfelt, and that love and care comes through. <3

A very small note: while using a Xbox gamepad on the PC while playing, I did notice that the controller inputs stayed in Keyboard input form, which left me with a little quick guesswork on what inputs I needed. So, if you're playing with an Xbox gamepad, holding Yiayia's hand (and some of the actions in the mini-game moments) are used with the L and R trigger buttons.

An interactive short film with a beautiful narrative and equally beautiful visuals. Heartfelt and moving. A clear labor of love. This game is well worth your time. Congrats Trent :)

This is such a wholesome game with engaging dialogue and emotional ups and downs. The art style is really endearing and polished. It only takes about an hour to play, and it's an hour well spent.

This is truly one of my favourite cozy games! The graphics and the music are so well done, and the interactive parts of the game and the quests are both emotional and well thought out. I loved learning more about yiayia's backstory, and bits about her life. Being a carer of my own grandma who falls regularly, I related to this game so much. Thanks Trent for making this emotional but comforting game <3

A short and sweet, sincere game that was wonderful to play. Loved the exploration of growing older, the complex family relationships, and the music and visuals. It all felt so personal but relatable. Great work!

If you play this game and you're Greek, you will cry, speaking from experience. 10/10

Playing through the game, I have to first mention my utter shock when I saw both RIT MAGIC and Austin Willougby, my current professor for Data Structures & Algorithms I, in the non-lengthy end credits. It appears to me that this game I've been waiting to play for a good while now was made by another creative affiliated with my school, and I think that's really awesome, especially with how much I absolutely adored it.

The game is in the artistic style of a pixelated RPG, but with some incredibly unique methods of displaying the world around you. The camera is put at a unique 45-degree angle in respect to the surrounding environment, but at the same time holding characters and important objects directly facing the screen, creating a very interesting level of depth on the sprites in a way I've really never seen done before. The environment lightly blurs in all directions away from the player, in a way mimicking what would be immediately visible to the character; this effect is also manipulated throughout the game to completely un-obscure objects intended to be the next point of narrative interest, very naturally pulling the player along for the ride. There is also a constant grayscale lens put on the gameplay, with a filter almost resembling TV fuzz, which adds to the dissociative yet vivid feeling the visuals of this game gives.

There are some real eye-catching visual things going on throughout this game even aside from what's immediately seen by the player, so those need to be highlighted and praised as well. Items that are investigated by the player and provide a dialogue in turn float above the text box and sway from side to side as a 3D model, which looks really clean dynamically. These dialogue boxes, so long as the main character isn't speaking, also show more detailed pixel-sprite portraits of the characters you're speaking with, which nicely contrasts with the retro Pokémon-like visuals of the characters in the real world. The more realistic 3D graphics on the grass outside and the dynamic puddles with their reflections, as well as the shadows of the clouds above and the heightened environmental blur than that of inside Yiayia's house really pulls you into the scene once you reach the main gameplay. In a similar way, the shadows of characters which appear when they move behind objects like trees or houses really help the player keep track of themselves even when they can't necessarily see. The way the camera drops down to an angle lower to the ground at certain, important points to the narrative dialogue also really helps the user emphasize what needs to be emphasized, and once more pulls them along very naturally.

As someone who's incredibly into art and design and has been for a long time, there's a lot there that really stuck out to me which I could really respect, so I may have elaborated more than I should, but there are some other incredible points in this game which stand on their own just by means of gameplay experience. First of all, to realize that you have a walking speed just about double that of Yiayia as you get outside is a relatable experience to really any of those with older grandparents, including myself. After struggling using jitter-steps for a bit, I was informed of the option to, and opted to, hold her hand and walk with her throughout the entirety of the game from that point on, which just made me really happy that I even had the option of; a really thoughtful design choice on the part of Mr. Garlipp, with surprisingly realistic physics in turning from side-to-side as well, I might add. The way some things pop up into dialogue by Yiayia's initiation when you walk close to them, and others by pressing Enter on them with the main character initiating the thought, is really the best way I could ever imagine a conversation such as theirs to be adapted into gameplay, especially in a style like this. I also must highlight Yiayia's "memory" screens, transitioning in by zooming and blurring into a piece of the main game environment and zooming out into a frame of what's usually sketch-like animation; they are just perfect stylistically, communicating the stories at hand super effectively while also depicting the fuzziness of the "sights" to these memories in Yiayia's mind after all of this time.

There are also several interactive scenes which stray from the initial visuals of the game, opting for something more realistic. Throughout the game, you fly as an airplane above the town, play a piano with your mouse, and have to traverse multiple environments as a grasshopper, all in your imagination as you listen to related stories which Yiayia recollects. These are very much varying in likeness from each other, however incredibly intriguing and ensuring the player is truly involved in the story at hand. I should mention that some of the grasshopper gameplay was frustrating to maneuver, in a way that just made it feel like the speed of directional controls and maybe the turn-radius of the grasshopper was kind of unnatural. But, at the same time, I feel as though this could have been the developer's intention in the sight of a challenge, which I could respect. In a similar manner, I might say kicking the neighborhood kid's ball back around to his house was more of a challenge than it felt it needed to be, but if that was in sight of paying close attention to Yiayia in the meantime than I can absolutely see that as well.

All of these things come together to make an incredible piece of art, an experience from the heart of its developer. I will remember this game for a long time, not only because of its absolutely beautiful stylistic visuals, but also where it came from, and what it means to his family and all of those it's made its way to who can relate.

A Walk With Yiayia is a short, but sweet, narrative-driven game about nostalgia and regrets. As you walk through the level, the feeling of time passing by is much like our lives passing us by. The game shows that life is short and we have to cherish every moment of it. Some of the gameplay choices could have been a little more refined, like the airplane and boat sections. However, it's a game that should be experienced. It also works really well on the Steam Deck.

Small but beautiful that makes you appreciate your grandmother more <3

An adorable short story game!
I never got the chance to really get to know any of my grandparents, so this game was a cute way for me to experience the bond with a grandparent.
The developer sent me a steam key, but I decided to purchase it to support them! ❤