Almost all video games involve exploring a virtual world, with the obstacles you encounter along the way defining how you develop as a player and character. It is very rare for a game to offer an opportunity to pause and reflect on the process you are going through. Plum Road Tea Dream does precisely that, by creating virtual sanctuaries and inviting you to walk through them slowly and deliberately.
Gradually, the game environment fills with peculiar sculptures as a story unfolds about the creator’s childhood, their search for new rituals and a sense of security. With the game, artist Samuel Baidoo reflects on their experience as a queer person of colour in Belgium through the avatar ‘S.’. By creating virtual spaces that mirror their own introspective journey, they transform their pain, joy and grief into game lore. Their memories become sanctuaries, inviting visitors to slow down and explore. Levels, graphics and tones shift as one wanders further into this world, deeper into S.’s psyche.
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