Gertrude's Secrets

Back in elementary school we used to play a computer game called Gertrude's Secrets. You played a fearless and intrepid rectangle, and your goal was to earn treasures by solving the fiendish logic puzzles constructed by the dastardly Gertrude Goose before she could summon the Great Old Ones, unlocking the Kingdom Hearts and plunging the world into eternal darkness! Or something like that. It's possible I've filled in the bits I no longer remember with some embellishments.

In any case, I recently found a copy of Gertrude's Secrets, and I still find it really interesting. I couldn't find a map of all the rooms, so I made one. You can click it for a larger version.

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The main game involves solving puzzles by placing puzzle pieces in the right spots on the ground, but really every interaction in the game boils down to something very simple: you walk around, you pick things up, and you put them down.

There are no menus or buttons in the game. To start a new puzzle, you pick up Gertrude the goose, carry her to the room with the puzzle you want to play, and put her down. She'll fly away and bring back the pieces you need.

These rules—moving, picking things up, and putting them down—are introduced in the first three tutorial rooms at the bottom of the map. Once a player has gone through the tutorial, they can skip it by a simple demonstration: picking up the flower in the first room and putting it down in the box reveals a hidden door that leads straight to the main game. It's a brilliantly simple system.

Maybe all of this seems unremarkable, what with touch devices making interfaces built around the direct manipulation of objects almost painfully obvious today, but Gertrude's Secrets really stood out to me even when I was seven, and I think I'm only beginning to understand why.