BGotW: A Mother in Festerwood

A Mother in Festerwood, by Austin Breed (whose work has appeared on That Gamer Hub previously), delivers a message that can have a few interpretations but ultimately, it should lead you in the path of mother’s and the “nesting” they go through when their children leave for the first time. This is mentioned in the ’artist’s statement in the game’. In AMiF (great acronym, I know), you are a mother, in Festerwood, as the title states. What it doesn’t tell you, at least directly, is that Festerwood is a dangerous place and while you’ve established a little clearing for yourself the world outside the clearing contains nasties of all sorts.

Your goal is to keep your child safe by keeping them close to the house but as they get older, they become more and more difficult to contain and in the end, do escape and see the world. Whether the creatures outside the realm of the household are supposedly a metaphor or not is up to you but as someone who has left for college, immediately afterward moved to the other end of the country to then only leave the country… I personally feel there’s a similarity. Another similarity you may find, or at least I did (though admittedly not until I started writing this piece) is the familiarity with M. Night Shyamalan’s “The Village”. In the film, there’s a little clearing that a tiny civilization has carved out and the elders of the town devised stories to keep everyone from ever leaving. If you haven’t seen the film, sorry.

All in all, A Mother In Festerwood may not create the most exciting or action packed gameplay that you’ve ever experienced but the subject matter that is presented and how you choose to interpret it is definitely worth checking out and making note of.

You can check out A Mother in Festerwood, hosted over at Newgrounds, by clicking HERE.