Wednesday 26 February 2014

Momiga (The Most Minimal Game Ever)

Created by Rogerio Penchel

2 mins (more if you're not very good at pressing one button) 



See this screenshot above? That's the most un-minimal screen in the game. Most of the time you'll see this:

























Ya, deal with it. The reason why I've included Momiga is because it's actually very fun and eminently re-playable. An immense achievement for a game comprising of one button and one dot. Should I tell you what happens to the dot? Nah, let's keep it minimal :)


Monday 24 February 2014

The Asylum 

(Psychiatric Clinic for Abused Cuddly Toys) 
Created by Parapluesch

About 2+ hours (unless you're a psychiatrist) 





This is a very, very dear game. One of my friends works in psychiatry and I just watched her laughing her head off as she was told that cuddly toys have no defence against the violent tantrums of their owners in a dysfunctional lonely world, and then I watched her methodically try to diagnose the mental health problems of a traumatised stuffed snake. And suddenly there you have it - the most realistic sim I've seen of psychiatric therapy that exists on the net, and it involves sock puppets, crazy toys, cuddly drugs and fluffy dream therapy.  

Once you get past the badly drawn nurse, what becomes immediately apparent in The Asylum is the incredibly high level of depth and personality in our cuddly characters, and the Sherlock Holmes-like diligence needed to solve the mystery of their cutesy wutesy mental illnesses.  
















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In gameplay, tests on our furry friends do not work if applied haphazardly, also it sometimes takes time and repetition for a breakthrough to occur. This quickly brings home a sense of responsibility and commitment to the toy, and I admit I felt brilliant when I actually "helped" a toy overcome it's early 'toyhood' trauma. I now feel adequately qualified to go into an Asylum and give a few treatments here and there with my sock puppet :) 

Meanwhile it's isn't exactly clear what Parapluesch's motive is, why does this game exist? Throughout the game there are opportunities to buy a real toy as portrayed in the game, so I guess the motive could be to get people to buy cuddly toys, but the game is so deep and relatively unknown that I thought it unlikely that it's a for profit. There are crossovers with other toy projects, links to field studies, a link to a forum which had scores of "doctors" posting about treatment of cuddly toys... 


Digging a bit further into the Parapluesch website, there are diagrams on psychoanalysis of cuddly toys, you can find referral letters for each character, and even discussions on animism (the idea that non-human entities, including animals, plants, and often even inanimate objects can have souls). This is clearly much more than just a simple game. In fact I feel a bit like I've discovered some strange spiritual cult. What on earth is going on here? 


I finally googled the name "Martin Kittsteiner", the contact name at the bottom of the Parapluesch page, and found the truth. Martin Kittsteiner is a toymaker from Hamburg that thought it would be a good idea to create and sell toys with psychiatric problems that you could then solve online. There are brief articles and interviews scattered around the net in 2010 and nothing since, but the game remains and is being discovered to this day. Well. I hope Martin is doing well out of it. I'm going to order a Sly snake, or a Dr Wood crow. And never never do anything bad to it ever.


This is a great example of an idea FAR surpassing it's original intentions, I would argue that most players don't even know The Asylum is more than a web game, but many will wonder at how something so deep could ever have been created. Well now you know - Enjoy! - JP


Wednesday 19 February 2014

Treasure Box 

Created by Nanahiro Wada 

About 5 mins (longer if you can't read music).






Ever wanted to PLAY the beginning of a Monty Python's Flying Circus? Well now you can with Treasure Box, created by Nanahiro Wada. It took me a while to track him down, but I really do recommend clicking his name above and catching a glimpse of his world - it's a good world and certainly very wacky. 

Anyway I won't dwell here too much. Treasure box is exactly what it says on the tin, it also has an ageless feel that adds to the inward pleasure of this interactive visual feast. If you can't read music it might take you slightly longer, but only slightly. Enjoy the game :) - JP 

Monday 17 February 2014

400 Years 

Created by Scriptwelder

About 10 - 30 mins





Scriptwelder's rather zen offering takes patience. 400 years of patience to be exact. You are a sort of walking Easter Island head who wakes from his slumber with the vague knowledge that some sort of calamity is approaching. A calamity that you are going to try your damned hardest to prevent... in a very measured fashion of course. And off you trot at a stone's pace to do something to save the world.

Playing 400 Years can be a bit laggy on some browsers (the best link for me was the one I've posted here) and you may find yourself cursing our hero's inability to move faster or jump but these are all tolerable conditions in order to marvel at how the game uses TIME to overcome this. Your superpower is simply to be able to wait and not die, while helping your environment develop to aid you (mini spoilers ahead). 


The first time I watched my power manifest itself, I watched the seasons whizz by so that I could walk across a frozen lake in winter. This was mildly intriguing. When I planted a chestnut and waited decades for it to grow into a tree to climb, I felt that this was rather special. By the time I was helping civilisations out of hunger by introducing crops to them, so that they evolve and build bridges for me; that's when I realised I was playing a great game. 


400 years is a unique gaming concept that hasn't been explored in this way before. The music is great too, a tinkling soundtrack that adds to the feeling of biding one's time and patience. Finally the ending made me feel that I'd experienced a mini fable of timeless and dignified self-sacrifice without expectation. Enjoy! - JP



Wednesday 12 February 2014

ImmorTall 

Created by Evan Miller 

About 5 - 20 mins




I realise that if I'm not careful, I'm going to end up with a blog that is full of thinky games that sort of leave people confused and a little depressed. Actually that thought makes me pretty cheerful. 

"How do you WIN?!?" scream the forums around this particular game. Well you er, don't and that it seems, is the point here.


ImmorTall has been around for a while and unlike the tortured genius and complex existential mechaniss of Infinite Ocean, or vastly researched playability of Oiligarchy. Creator Evan Miller has stumbled upon something profound with a game that only requires the use of your computer's left and right keys.   


You are a wormy alien crashed on earth and discovered by a little girl. Her and her brother feed you and you grow much bigger, you then are taken in by her family. All would be calm and peaceful in the forest if it weren't for the rest of humanity, who aren't friendly at all, callously shooting through the family to get at you. But you are big, strong and tall. Big enough to shield others from mortars and bullets, or big enough to try and outrun attacks without protecting the family which nurtured you, or big enough to turn tail and leave the earth behind completely. 


There's a quiet and grave dignity about ImmorTall that sets it aside from most games, in fact many will question whether it is a game at all. From the atonal soundtrack and sfx to the slick yet emotive silhouetted graphical style, Immortal is a 3 minute experience that will leave you wondering who the real monsters are. Also it will test your character (as an alien) in terms of how far you are willing to go to protect those you care for. Love - an altogether human concept - is portrayed by an alien with a subtle variety of consequences and endings.  


There is a surprising amount of thought in the simple AI personalities ascribed to each of the family, when someone dies certain members will grieve, oblivious in their tears to the danger around them (which is stressful since you may be trying desperately to keep them alive). Other members seem bullheaded and cowardly at the same time, willing to put others in danger but at the first sign of trouble retreating behind other family members.  


Many people have come away from this games feeling a little downtrodden and wistful about the human condition. If this is the case with you then welcome to the club; ImmorTall is an experience where it can be said that rather than you playing the game, the game plays you. Sucker :)

Tuesday 4 February 2014

Oiligarchy

Created by Paolo Perdecini

About 20 - 60 mins 






You know, this blog is EASY. I just write whatever comes into my head and it like, is counted as information by way of it being somewhere online. Sorry, my head is still reeling from the existential wonderland of Infinite Ocean (last post). Anyway as I do these little posts I find I am checking out the creators of the games and looking at their takes, then looking at other bloggers who like these games and seeing their appreciation and critiques. I feel like I have stumbled onto a somewhat undiscovered, intellectual and wonderful part of the gaming community. However I will endeavour not to become too chinstrokey and therefore... buttocks, poo and willies. 

Oiligarchy is little, yellow and different. For a game made in 2008 it's very close to what we now are seeing as the uncaring reality in 2014. Tar sands, arctic drilling, fracking (it's gas I know), are all part of our reality now, and we don't seem to care as a people, let alone attempt to stop it. Apathy is rife.


However it's the little acts that count, and many kids who have mistakenly clicked on Oiligarchy thinking vacantly "Oo! I get to be an rich oil baron!" will have quickly and expertly been guided to the wisdom that oil is war, oil is subjugation and oil is ultimately inhuman. Whilst being very entertained. 


I've played through about 3 times now and each time I'm astounded about how much detail is in there, stats, peak oil forecasts, secret government plots to invade oil rich nations. There is deeper meaning in seeing how politicians are just passive partners that need a little money thrown at them in order to aid the oily agenda, it doesn't matter who wins when they are both being funded by the same interest. But we knew that already didn't we? 


Paolo Perdecini has managed a marvellous act of making the player the perpetrator of atrocity in order to 'win', pitting our morality against our ego in trying to beat the game. I also like how money becomes almost inconsequential next to the robot-like feeling of power you get in expanding and progressing at the cost of EVERYTHING. I've killed off indigenous tribes, massacred marine life, invaded the middle east, but I have yet to create human oil/fuel resources; I haven't yet got that far (I got the "Farewell West Ending"). Ironically the morally best ending for the world is the one where you 'lose' i.e. you lose your grip on politics, oil dependency decreases and there is the beginning of the transition to a more carbon neutral future. 


Here's a detailed postmortem by Paolo that will knock your socks off, play the game first though. I hope you enjoy it - JP