Viewing entries tagged
emotional
Generally speaking, art has the ability to teach us so much about the world and the diversity of human experience, and games are no different. In fact, games offer that special kind of interactivity that allows us to experience the foreign, or the unknown, while putting a little more of ourselves into the subject itself.
I think one of the most interesting things about discussing art in any form, is that one hundred different people will give you one hundred different interpretations. Of course there are often common threads to each understanding, but every one of us brings our own past experience and context to every piece of art we encounter. At least, this is what I tell myself when I fail to connect as deeply and meaningfully as everyone else around me does.
As much as I love a short little game that tells a personal story from the developer's own experience, I'm often left wondering if it can actually work in a meaningful way. Sometimes it seems that unless I've had the exact same experience, I'll find it hard to connect and understand the story I'm being told, which only ends up confusing me a little. Is it simply the case of niche experiences not relating to many people, or does it indicate a lack of story-telling skill, when your audience is unable to connect?
Occasionally a game comes along that manages to subvert our expectations of what we think a game can be. I, of course, love this kind of creative diversion from the norm, even though it doesn't always pay off. Then again, it's only when a developer makes a strong artistic choice, that they enter the realm of opportunity that may provide room for creativity to truly grow until it becomes something special.
If you've ever read any of my posts before, you've probably heard me talk about "narrative" games and how much I like them. Although, there really isn't any definition of what makes something a "narrative" game per se, and I feel like I often use it as a short-hand to say "this has a good story, but maybe not much gameplay". In fact, I prefer the term over the more divisive "walking simulator", so perhaps I'm trying to be nice when I refer to narratives over simplistic gameplay.
Welcome back to the land of beautifully realised, small-scale, narrative gaming excellence. I'll never ceased to be amazed at how a great little game can stick with you far beyond an average big game. Then again, we all know that sometimes good things really do come in small packages.
Remember the good old days when the dream of kickstarting a niche game meant that you'd be supporting independent developers working on their passion projects? I do. It was years ago, before the big budget meltdowns and financial mis-management that lead to Kickstarter being a synonym for scam. Although, before I burned out on crowd funding big ideas from small game makers, I backed a local Australian family working on a game about delivering pizza, and bullying.
Sometimes I wish I didn't love narrative heavy games as much as I do, because they're super difficult to talk about without spoiling anything. Even though I try, there's always that feeling that you're not doing it justice, because you couldn't reveal something amazing. Although, I really feel like this genre is one of the most interesting and innovated genres in gaming right now, so let's have a little think about why.
In the last few years, I've come to the understanding that a bit of narrative surrealism might well be up there as one of my favourite genres in gaming. When I was younger, all I needed was some fun first person shooting action from id Software or Epic Games to keep me amused. These days however, I really appreciate how deep a good narrative game can take you.
