when i was younger i played the free version of Minecraft Pocket Edition. something about it felt so mystical and magical. and until recently i haven’t really been able to nail down what it was. the world was small. it just… ended. right after the event horizon there was nothing.

the fog was heavy and made you feel somehow even smaller than the already small world. somehow, the strict constraints of this free mobile game made my imagination go wild, even more so than it would have in a more fully developed game. for years i’ve chased after replicating this feeling. unfortunately, it doesn’t seem possible as someone who isn’t in elementary school anymore.

as we age, we experience something that’s been called “the loss of play.” as children, we engage in open-ended thought, exploration, experimentation. as our brains develop, we take these experiences and learn lessons from them. this helps us avoid making the same dumb mistakes. but it has an adverse effect too. we start making assumptions and accepting things we don’t really understand.

for an adult, that fog in Minecraft isn’t something mysterious, it’s just part of the game. a technical limitation. as a child though, could there be creatures lurking in there? what could be beyond?