When The Past Was Around is a short adventure puzzle game, where you point-and-click on items to gather clues, unlock doors and unravel an intriguing and emotive narrative. Without any words, it tells the tale of a young woman, Eda, and her love, the mysterious Owl man, in a surreal world consisting of disjointed rooms from memories and times past. The music from Eda's violin accompanies the story.

This whimsical and bittersweet game has themes of joy and pain, love and heartbreak, moving on and letting go, peaceful days and angsty moments. It's about losing your way on the journey to achieving your dreams, and the importance of overcoming your past.

You play by panning around different scenes to interact with doors, cupboards, boxes and so on. Along the way, you find clues and puzzle pieces that need to be solved to progress. As is the way with these games there are often some leaps of inspiration required to arrive at a solution. But throughout, the puzzles are logical and are woven into the narrative of the game.

The result is a short moving story about loss and love. You play an integral part in revisiting Eda's memories of meeting and falling in love with her Owl man. And by doing this you find you have also helped her come to terms with her loss and find a way forward.