Walking the line between esoteric art and nonsensical elitism can often be the downfall of a good idea, as the latter prevents large parts of the audience from connecting with your message. In narrative-heavy games, there is always a need for the player to understand what's happening along the way, but being too obvious is boring, while complete abstraction tends to be confusing and pointless. Suffice to say that there's an art to telling a story that pulls in the player, but doesn’t beat them over the head with a bland message.
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platformer
There's always so much to be gained from going into a game blind, with no real idea about what to expect. Then again, we've all be burned by a movie or a game that looked interesting, but turned out to be a stinker. However, when you go in blind and discover an excellent little experience that you were never expecting, the overall level of satisfaction gets raised significantly.
Life has been pretty good in the world of licensed games for the last decade or so, but it wasn't always that way. If you've been around long enough you might remember when the term "licensed" could be synonymous with "rushed" or just "crap". Thankfully though, these days when a licensed game is released, fans of whatever franchise is being given the treatment can look on with interest and expect something worth diving into.
I've never gone back to a game that I've already posted about before, but I also didn't think I'd be going back to Spiritfarer after the technical difficulties I faced last time around. In fact, it should be a testament to the game's success that I even went back at all, because after hitting a game-breaking bug ten hours in, I would usually uninstall with glee and never give it any more of my time.
Are all games art? Or are art games actually games? How much art makes a game art instead of a game? At what point does a game with great art become nothing like a game, leaving only the art? What if the art is split between visuals and music, while the game focuses on generic elements, overshadowed by the art? When does a game become art, or when does art become a game? After all, games are an artform, but they rarely contain beautiful art.
There once was a time where you'd be forgiven for thinking that "indie game" was synonymous with "small gimmick". At least, that's how it seemed for a while, when many successful little indie titles made a name for themselves for whatever unique mechanics they employed. Braid had the rewind-time thing, Super Meat Boy had the tight-controls-but-totally-difficult thing, even Minecraft had its procedurally-generated-blocky thing.
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 a game comes along that defies all expectations, but not in the way that will blow your mind. Instead it's the circumstances surrounding a game's existence that brings hope and potential to an otherwise ordinary experience.
If I had to nominate a big budget series that I always play and enjoy, despite its mainstream shortcomings, it would be Assassin's Creed. The main thing I love about the series is how much detail and effort is put into recreating the cities and time periods of each instalment. There's an epic quality that's only within reach of the big budgets and big development teams, which often makes up for the cookie-cutter gameplay and story.
There's a short list somewhere of super hype crazes that I completely missed out growing up. I never knew what a Pokémon was until recently, I've never played a Metal Gear game, and I've never played either a Metroid, or Castlevania game. It's funny how even though I've been playing games since the 80s, there are some major mainstream holes in my experience.
Having a large backlog of games to get through means that every now and then you come across something that you wish you'd found much earlier. It's the whole reason I'm determined to play every game I have access to, because there's no telling how many gems are hidden away in the pile.
There aren't many genres that invoke a noticeable cringe from me when they're mentioned, but "puzzle platformer" sits among the very top of the list. Even without the puzzles, I'm averse to platforming a lot of the time, despite the occasional exception to the rule.
I'm always up for abstract ambiguity in games and stories in general, so as I danced my way through the beautiful environments of Bound, my mind wandered to theorise on elements in the game. This Playstation 4 indie darling has a lot of good ideas and hints at a bunch of interesting themes, but I'm not sure if it ultimately succeeds.
SteamWorld Dig is not a deep game with a compelling narrative and complex mechanics. It's not an action platformer with knuckle-whitening controls and precision timing. There's absolutely nothing about the game that warrants excessive hyperbole; but make no mistake, this is a very, very good game.
Lately I've been diving into a bunch of games that are available for free on Steam, which has yielded some interesting and unique experiences that otherwise would not have seen the light of day. Releasing a game for free is a great way for a developer to try out an idea without annoying players if it doesn't quite hit the mark, because they didn't pay for it anyway.