When The Past Was Around

When The Past Was Around is a short, wordless point-and-click adventure by Indonesian artist Brigitta Rena, set in a surreal world stitched together from disjointed rooms of memory and time. Eda, a girl in her early twenties, has lost her way in pursuing both her dreams and love — that is, until she meets The Owl, a man who helps her ignite her passion, find the spark in a relationship, and ultimately also teach her about heartbreak.

The story is told through hand-drawn art rather than written text or spoken dialogue. Every screen is a small composition that you interact with point-and-click style — gathering clues, solving small puzzles, unlocking doors — and each newly unlocked space deepens your understanding of the relationship between Eda and Owl. The bittersweet shape of the narrative isn't hidden; the question the game asks is how you arrive at the end, not whether the end is coming.

An atmospheric violin soundtrack carries the emotional weight across the campaign's roughly two-hour runtime, shifting between peaceful and angsty registers as the surreal logic of the dreamscape demands. The puzzles are intriguing without being obstinate, designed to keep you engaged rather than to gatekeep the story. Rena's previous work — A Raven Monologue and She & The Light Bearer — sits in the same emotional register; this game refines what those earlier projects were trying to express.