Osmathus Falling

Osmathus Falling is a narrative puzzle game set in a county town in central China. You play as a grandmother with hearing loss on her last day in her hometown before her daughter takes her to the provincial capital for medical treatment. Before leaving, she says goodbye to her old friends one by one.

Hearing the world

The game uses blurred text to represent the effects of hearing loss. You observe moving details in each scene to work out what sounds they correspond to, then use a visual recording system to experience those sounds. Through the grandmother’s perspective, the game portrays the everyday life of an older person in contemporary China.

A changing hometown

The town includes an old street that was once prosperous and is now in decline, shops in a central urban village facing demolition, and new residential areas built as the economy developed. Its settings reflect changes in county towns in China over the past two or three decades.

A life of farewells

The grandmother has spent her life parting from people and places. When the factory closed during her youth, she gradually lost touch with her former friends; later, her daughter left home to study. Now, after many years in the county town, she is the one leaving. Conversations with her friends bring back an unfulfilled wish she has kept buried.