On of Eyezmaze is back! The man behind the Grow series, one of the most beloved staples of free play on the Web since the invention of Flash, has just come out with a new game, Grow Island. The game takes the 'pick objects in order and watch the world grow' dynamic of his previous Grow titles and applies it to a university curriculum. Instead of picking a ball, or a treasure, as your selection of items, you pick Civil Engineering, Applied Chemistry, Architecture, and in the process of prioritizing these fields of knowledge endeavor to create a perfect utopia.
This is without a doubt On's greatest work-to-date, and in it he embodies an optimistic philosophy. Following the correct order of things will lead to a society where men and women get along happily, the environment is protected and technology is harnessed to discover the secrets of the universe. In order to get there though, you have to try and fail to find that correct order, witnessing petty tragedies of rejection, deforestation, volcanic disaster and broken beakers. Success means uncovering an increasingly delightful series of animations and evolutions, like peeling back layers from an onion, if the onion had an everlasting gobstopper at its core. There's even a wink to Japan's love of humanoid-robot-samurai action—it's glorious.
