On an island of overgrown ruins, you place a luminous seed into the reaching embrace of a plant whose thick black vines strangle the landscape. Cascading piano, over a bed of dreamy strings, accompanies the flush of green that suddenly infuses the giant plant, a cloud of purple blossoms releasing into the air.

The atmospheric 2020 video game Submerged: Hidden Depths, by Canberra-based independent studio Uppercut Games, is set in a world of sparkling water, rusting structures and glistening skyscrapers emerging from the sea. It’s such an exquisitely wrought game that at any moment you might be distracted from your quest to find seeds hidden in the wreckage by an arresting view of golden sunlight reflecting off the water or a magical shimmer emanating from the plants reclaiming a once populous city.

A scene from the video game Submerged: Hidden Depths

A poignant score by Brisbane-based BAFTA Award-winning composer and sound designer Jeff van Dyck – whose credits span the epic Total War series to the 2021 domestic puzzle hit Unpacking – enhances the tone of quiet sadness that permeates this fallen world, in which you play as a...