A Dark Room

Created by Doublespeakgames

2 hours 

Haven't written for a bit, was starting to worry that I wasn't really finding any games worth blogging about until I found this gem from doublespeak games. 

Taking minimalism to new heights - this is the first screen for "A Dark Room":

You start the fire. You try to keep the fire going. You need to get more wood to to keep the fire going. There is no telling where you are or what you have to do apart from just keep stoking the fire. The room gets warmer. Suddenly a stranger hurtles through the doorway and collapses in the corner. It is freezing outside apparently. She does nothing for a while as you find you need to collect more wood, a new option appears for you to visit the forest outside. When you have gathered more wood, the person has thawed and says she can build things, and if you build more things, people will come.

This is the beginning of a seriously EPIC adventure in text form. You have no idea what is coming next but as you figure out the game's rhythms and try to balance your resources, you slowly become obsessed by it, collecting things you don't know the use for (yet) and consumed by a burning desire to build and learn more things.

I'll give you some carrots for perseverance. 1 - there is a map. 2. If you play your cards right you'll see the stars. 

From zero to space hero in the most minimal way possible. This is evolution at it's finest. JP :)

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