How to Experience Mountain

This guide will discuss the true premise of Mountain and the meaning behind it. Mountain should not be considered a game, it is an interactive piece of art. One that promotes meta-physical and philosophical thought, and one that doubles as a relaxing view of an amazing Mountain. The meaning of Mountain isn’t hard to unearth, it only takes a willingness to dig.

What is Mountain?

An Experience

Abstract

Mountain should not be considered a game, it is an interactive piece of art. One that promotes meta-physical philosophical thought, and one that doubles as a relaxing view of an amazing Mountain. The meaning of this isn’t hard to unearth, it only takes a willingness to dig.

A truly beautiful game.

The Purchase

When I first purchased Mountain it was out of curiosity. There seemed to be something that drew me to purchasing it, it was less than a dollar after all.

David O’Reilly created an aesthetic for this work that challenged the premise of contemporary art and modern video games. As an artist and film-maker, he ventures far and walks the line of virtual reality and our reality. Mountain is not a game, and nor is it a background program (as many reviewers say it is). It is an expression of the mind, it is a work of art. A critique of Mountain cannot be done from the perspective of entertainment or aesthetics, it must be done from the view of the raw human mind.

Opening

Opening Mountain leads directly a blank space framed with a black border. To the top of the blank space, in the frame is written a random word. Mountain then urges a player to “Draw Something”. At face value this seems almost silly, but the randomly generated word isn’t so random. It is something that is a large part of our lives as humans. It begs the question: What does this word mean to us? In my first experience of this, my first word was “Art”. My task then was to create a visual representation of art that fits my definition of what art means to me. After painting in only black and white, the user is prompted to click done. This then repeats for a second and third time. The next drawings I made were of “Fear” and “Confusion”.

With progression into Mountain, it is learned that whatever I drew in the beginning had no effect on the mountain itself. As if to hint that whatever those words meant to us, mean nothing to the rest of life. That our lives mean less in the big picture than what we define our lives with.
After the three drawings a mountain is generated. With a holy choir note in the background, the user is spoken to. “You are mountain.” says the game “You are God.”

“Please Enjoy Your Time Here.”

Then I was left with a mountain.


Mountain

In what seems like an endless endeavor, Mountain rotates in an empty space.

With time, day and night will pass, Fall will turn to Winter, and Spring will dry into Summer. Rain will wash down the slopes of Mountain and winds will ruffle the trees growing on the sides.

Every once in a while Mountain will think. With a pleasant note, a thought appears on the top of the screen. But this thought is seems empty. It is almost, meaningless in the grand scheme of things. The thoughts of Mountain are small compared to what the situation is.

These thoughts are a connection to the daily life of Man. How our small opinions have no real impact on the world around us. When Mountain speaks the thoughts are comments on its current position in the universe.

However I would be wrong if I said that all of Mountain’s thoughts are transparent.

Some comments paint the grim reality of many people.

“Why am I alone?”

“I don’t really know what I am”

“What Am I? Are you part of me too?”

These thoughts appear in between the comments on the warm Spring sun and on the bright blue sky.

After observing these more meta-physical questions, the normal thoughts are shown in a new light. It leads to one thinking that these thoughts are all that there is in life, that in an empty and endless world our voice is the only existential connection to our being.

But this is idea is quickly brushed away. Maybe there is something else to remind us of our being.
Maybe materialistic entities can be our connection to ourselves.

So every once in a while, about as often as Mountain thinks, an item falls onto Mountain.

The item has no meaning. It just lands onto Mountain, and sits alongside it for the rest of eternity. Some of these items are references to previous works by O’Reilly.

Early in my experience I was pleased to learn that pressing different keys caused a different musical note to play. If played in specific orders, those resembling main melodies to famous pieces of music, an effect will happen. The connection of the action done and the song is up for interpretation, and can be seen differently by different people. The combinations so far act as entertainment, but to each person his own analysis of the music.

Besides musical tones played at the users command, there are ambient sounds to accompany the experience. Crickets at night and the sound of wind create a mood of relaxation and peace. This harmony is the true experience of peace for most of our lives, or to many, the external façade of peace, a mask of stress and pain. The calmness is almost surreal in this context.
After a random amount of time, Mountain will end.

The player can force it with the musical tone aforementioned, and a randomly generated object will collide with Mountain, ending it (It is said however, that with spamming musical notes, this can be avoided, almost as if we can postpone death with meaningless, or to some, meaningful, noise).

Or Mountain will reach a more natural ending. And a message will appear describing the death of Mountain.
The message can be natural, that Mountain was ruined by a passing sun.

Other deaths are less natural, that I, Mountain, died to Rupert, The Bringer of Ice.

In essence, Mountain is an experience, not a game.

An Experience that is unique, special, and a reflection of who we are.

Musical Notation in Mountain

Actions with Music

The keyboard keys "Z" to "," and "A" to "K" represent notes in a Concert F♯ Lydian Mode Scale.
Starting on an F♯ in the first row, the notes are placed as if they are part of an C♯ Major Scale, however since the Major 3rd is sharp, it can be seen that the scale is in fact the C♯ Major Scale or F♯ Lydian(The C♭ is natural in Mountain, proving that the scale is F♯/G♭), but all the notes are about 10 cents sharp.
Starting on a G♯/A♭ in the second row, the notes are also deceptively placed, however this time to mimic a Concert A♭ Major Scale, this is quickly noticed since the Major 7th is flat, turning the scale, once again, into a Concert C♯ Major Scale. The notes here, are also, about 10 cents sharo.
When a special tune is played, a thrid row is unlocked, in the same muscial key of Concert C♯ Major, but a litle different. Since the starting note is A♯/B♭, or the Major 6th of the C♯ Major Scale, the scale actually becomes Concert C♯ Major's relative Minor, Concert A♯ Minor. In this row though, the notes are about 6 cents.

First Row
Z = F♯/G♭
X = G♯/A♭ Dominant/Perfect 5th
C = A♯/B♭
V = C
B = C♯/D♭ Tonic/Root
N = D♯/E♭
M = F Major 3rd
, = F♯/G♭

Second Row
A = G♯/A♭ Dominant/Perfect 5th
S = A♯/B♭
D = C
F = C♯/D♭ Tonic/Root
G = D♯/E♭
H = F Major 3rd
J = F♯/G♭
K = G♯/A♭ Dominant/Perfect 5th

Third Row
Q = A♯/B♭
W = C
E = C♯/D♭ Tonic/Root
R = D♯/E♭
T = F Major 3rd
Y = F♯/G♭
U = G♯/A♭ Dominant/Perfect 5th
I = A♯/B♭

With this, any song in a written in a perfect Major or Minor scale can be transposed into C♯ Major or A♯ Minor, and played.

Muscial "Cheat Codes"

For the Third Row of Notes

Play the tune to the Sound of Music
(A S A , m N B V C V V)

Rain

For Snow Play Winter Wonderland
(B B B B B C B)

For Raining Blood Play Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata
(M M M M M M , M N A B)

For Raining Fish Play Mary Had A Little Lamb
(C X Z X C C C X X X C B B)

For Raining Frogs Play Twinkle Twinkle Little Star
(B B A A S S A , , M M N N B)

For Raining Hearts Play Brahms' Lullaby
(S S F S S F S F J H G G F)

For a Meteor Shower Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake
(C V B N M B M)

For Raining Coins Play Jingle Bells
(C C C C C C C C B Z X C)

More Raining Artifacts Play Ride of the Valkyries
(V M V M A M A M A D A D A D G N A N A D)

Othrr

Force a Thought
(.) or (M , K J)

To Remove All Artifacts Play Beethoven's Fifth Symphony
(S S S , A A A M)

To Open a Stats Menu Play Debussy's La Fille aux Cheveau
(F S , N , S F S , N , S ,)

To Die Play Close Encounters of The Third Kind
(A S , Z B)

Encounterable Artifacts

Unfinished, come back for more soon

[ursa888]

I've found that if you play the to die music over and over again till you get hit, you actually survive. Very neat movie knowledge trick

[JGarm]

This is the best guide I've seen so far.

[GeeTee]

An excellent and interesting guide, thankyou! (It could do with a proofread though!)

[Rank Zero]

I agree that mountain is meant to convey the nature of the human mind, but not necessarily that is an item of, or commentary on, art.

What you draw in the opening in response to various concepts actually determines the seed under which the mountain is generated, so depending on what word or image the concept provoked, you'll get a superficially different mountain. On the one hand, this shows that we are diverse and unique expressions of the universe: even if concept provoked exactly the same thought in your mind as another person, you're means of conveying that idea back the mountain will be different, if only because you didn't make the same hand movements during input.
However, from an absolute perspective, any mountain that is generated is still a mountain and it has no effect on "gameplay."

[Sploingert]

Hmmmm, I see your point but isn't the first row a F double flat sharp major miner diminished mixolydian scale off the B major sharp augmented 3rd sharp fret major 12th scale circle of 5ths?

[BIG ASS TRUCK]

5/5 Stars brilliant

[november]

The key is f# lydian isn't it?

[Xannis V]

Awesome. Thank you for this guide.

[ServoBilly]

Here's all the artifacts I've found (and a couple notes I made about them):
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ujYyipAN7E1W5g-k2dX1zpJ3q9rYIm069smieQEbN_c/edit?usp=sharing

[othrr]

That's brilliant, and a new perspective, thank you for the addition.