Hand-drawn adventure game comes to Steam after being dropped from Apple Arcade, creator laments the way games 'can just vanish' today

GamesAdventureHand-drawn adventure game comes to Steam after being dropped from Apple Arcade, creator laments the way games ‘can just vanish’ todayWhen you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.

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(Image credit: John William Evelyn)

Image for Hand-drawn adventure game comes to Steam after being dropped from Apple Arcade, creator laments the way games �can just vanish� today

Inkblot Obra-Dinn-like adventure game The Collage Atlas originally released as an iOS exclusive in 2020, but when its Apple Arcade contract expired last year, the striking pen and ink game became unplayable. To keep it alive, its creator releaseda Steam versionlast month.

In an interview withThe Verge, Evelyn discussed how he fell in love with pen and ink art: “I liked all the incidental details and the accidents that come out along the way,” he said, even though “sometimes it goes horribly wrong!” The inkblot visuals impart a rich depth of texture, something tactile and personal. Evelyn’s brutally honest approach to artwork, which embraces the permanence of ink and all the mistakes that come with it, gives it an incredibly unique look.

That approach to permanence hasn’t carried over to the world of games publishing, however. The Collage Atlas began as an iOS exclusive before the end of its run on Apple Arcade—a subscription-based game library—saw it become unavailable to play, even for those who previously could.

It would have been another casualty in the gaming industry’songoing siege on art itself,but while Evelyn was prepared to wash his hands of the whole thing and leave The Collage Atlas in purgatory, he ultimately decided to port the game to PC, telling The Verge that he felt he owed it to his past self, who put so much work into the game.

“This is the sad thing about the way our kind of creative mediums are going: works don’t have any kind of permanence—they can just vanish,” he said.

Take a scroll down the mass casualty list atdelistedgames.comand you’ll probably see one or more games you’ve played, want to play, or even own in some capacity being shuffled off into a black hole. Thankfully, devs like Evelyn are making the effort to keep their games available. You can now find The Collage Atlason Steam.

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