Outline for First Essay: Laws of Physics in LIMBO

Hi everyone, here is my outline. I realized that while LIMBO is a fairly stranger game, it's breaking of laws of physics makes a lot of sense. In their own way, they also create new laws that also work. For the times listed below, I used this video as a reference:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9RWGZBZhr1g


I.      Introduction

a.     Indie video game LIMBO (2010)

b.     Thesis: In the puzzle video game, LIMBO, the laws of physics are broken in various ways in order to make the player feel at ill ease and lost in this dark world.

II.    Body

a.     Unrealistic super strength for a small child

                                              i.     The child can push a giant spider that is easily twice his size. (17:07)

                                            ii.     The little boy’s body is too small to support his head size.

                                          iii.     His arms and legs are too small to push himself up on the various ledges in the game. (33:36)

                                            iv.     However, there is various times when the boy dies from a jump that is too high.

b.     Impossible laws of gravity

                                              i.     There are devices that flip the force of gravity in different directions. (1:17:29)

                                            ii.     There are devices that flip the force of gravity, but do not apply to all objects. (1:10:56)

                                          iii.     The background in the game is often depicted upside-down which contradicts the true direction of gravity. (1:17:43)

                                            iv.     While these devices do break the laws of gravity, they also recreate them and make the player obey the new force of gravity.

c.     Unclear light sources

                                              i.     Often there is ambient light that simply illuminates the background, but this constantly changes throughout the game.

                                            ii.     This can be seen in the scene when the first enters the industrial part of the game, the lighting is coming from below. (20:56)

                                          iii.     In the next scene the light is coming from above when he goes back into the forest. (22:47)

                                            iv.     However, a good majority of the game takes place inside where the light sources are from lamps, a clear direct source.

III.   Conclusion

a.     Laws of physics are bent in various ways, while creating new believable laws of physics.

b.     This distortion in reality is meant to make the player feel uncomfortable in this strange world, and this forces the player to adapt to survive this treacherous game.