Walk, talk and reminisce in Lieve Oma

Lieve Oma is a positive, thoughtful indie narrative game in which you play a young child walking with your grandmother in the woods. Although you’re supposed to be looking for edible mushrooms, the real focus of the game is the emotional bond between the characters. Lieve Oma resembles “walking simulators” like Gone Home or Dear Esther, in which gameplay takes a backseat to narrative, but unlike those games it evokes a positive, if pensive, mood.

Evoking childhood

Lieve Oma uses simple but effective tools to achieve its atmosphere. The graphics are simple and stylized, with a color palette that evokes the turning leaves of autumn, while the gentle piano soundtrack establishes a relaxing mood. Character action is limited to moving, running, and object interaction.

An unfolding story

Although you control your character in Lieve Oma and can move around to look for mushrooms, the gameplay is a pretext for a developing story, just as your oma’s (Dutch for grandma’s) invitation to go mushrooming is a pretext for an important conversation.

Focusing on the little things

Although the conversation between grandmother and child is the center of Lieve Oma’s story, it isn’t as heightened or dramatic as many other narrative games. This is an intimate story about the small moments of interaction that make a difference in a child’s life.

Grandma knows best

Lieve Oma sets out to tell a simple, relatable story about a child and a grandmother talking about life on an autumn morning, and it succeeds in that goal. The graphics, soundtrack, and dialogue all combine to create a relaxed and thoughtful atmosphere.

Not exactly thrilling

Like other similar “walking simulators,” Lieve Oma has only minimal interactivity. It’s a narrative interaction in game form, more like a short story or film than a conventional game.