Hello there! Now that I’ve played and rated 100 games, it is time. I might be a bit late in getting people to rate these games, but that’s not why I’m writing this post. These aren’t the “best” games I’ve played; at least, not by the traditional category metric. My main purpose here is to point out and analyze games that use interesting methods to tell stories and evoke emotional responses from the players.
I highly recommend you play the games before reading my analyses, as they will spoil the games for you.
Here are the games (the ordering is meaningless):
Sopora
I Contemplated the Sun of Limbo
The Dead Rest Beneath Us
Le Ver
Sunk
Persona
I Remember Alice
Drowning in Problems
Beneath the Surface
A Happy Place
Most of you are probably aware of the ongoing ‘video-games as an art form’ debate. If not, I recommend you go read up on it, particularly Roger Ebert’s arguments. The whole debate revolves around how gaming as a medium compares to traditional media of expression. In my opinion, the question is usually tackled from the wrong angle. We shouldn’t ask- how can we create a game that retells ‘Romeo and Juliet’ and does a good job of it? Instead we should be asking- how can we harness the power of video-games to create unique experiences unparalleled in other media? This power I’m talking about is, of course, interactivity. The medium’s undoing, according to Ebert, but I think otherwise. Jon Blow gave an interesting talk about how we can harness gameplay as a powerful story-telling device. He talks about meaningful gameplay, which is deeply tied to the story. In fact, the gameplay should create the story. The key word here is immersion- movies, books, and music all have their own ways of immersing the person experiencing them, but video games can do so much more! In video games, you can evoke a sense of agency, which in turn will make the player feel responsible for his actions. In video games, you can make the player feel that he is his avatar in a much deeper sense than in other media, or indeed in most modern video games.
In the game ‘Sopora‘, you awaken to find yourself in a coffin. You can escape, panic and suffocate, kill yourself, etc. When you do any of these, you feel like you’ve actually done something meaningful. Moreover, you don’t feel bad for the avatar, as is the case in so many games, because you feel that you are your avatar. You experience the game through his eyes. The game uses powerful audio to create tension, but it only serves to amplify the experience created by the gameplay.
‘Sunk‘ is another excellent example of this. You play as a man in the open sea, struggling to stay afloat. One button only, and yet you feel responsible when you drown. And just like in ‘Sopora’, when you screw up, you panic. You suffocate. And again, the sound effects and graphics are amplifiers, no more.
I loved both ‘I Remember Alice‘ and ‘Le Ver‘ very much, but the reason I’m mentioning them here is that they deviate from the pattern I’m presenting with the other games. Both games feature monotonous gameplay, and both make extensive use of text to deliver the story and the experience. The games lack in agency, but that is what makes the gameplay powerful. They stand out because their gameplay is tied strongly to the story. What I find interesting about them is that the gameplay, at least in my opinion, is an amplifier for the story, not the other way around. The experience is a sum of the various components- text, audio, visual feedback, gameplay. They create a cohesive whole that is very enjoyable and evocative. I’d like to see more games like these, because they explore in a not-so-obvious direction, and that is invaluable to the developing medium of video games.
One of Ebert’s main arguments is that games lack authorial control- if you give the player true agency, how can you walk him through a story-line? I find it very interesting to approach this question in the context of theology, but I digress. Ebert is right. We can’t guide the player through a linear story without limiting his freedom, and if we don’t, it generally ends with disastrous results. Let’s look at music- most songs don’t tell any story, and what about melodies with no lyrics? In my opinion, games can’t possibly tell stories like ‘Romeo and Juliet’ without devolving into lame movie-likes. Games like ‘Sunk’ and ‘Sopora’ are complete, and they are perfect examples of gameplay done right.
Responsibility: In ‘Beneath the Surface‘, you play as a buff American soldier who commits atrocities in the name of democracy. And you control him. This control you have over him forces you to click the ‘kill’ button in order to progress. There is no agency. You don’t feel responsible for your avatar’s actions, and by the end of the game, you despise him. The game is interesting because it attempts to elicit strong moral responses from the players, and it succeeds, to some extent. Most people quit the game because they can’t bear press the ‘kill’ button any more. That’s powerful. And yet, I think the game could benefit from a well thought-out choice mechanism. If players had a real choice, and chose to kill (which would happen a lot, I bet. Especially with the back-story provided in the game), they would really feel responsible for their actions. I can’t help but think of the LD25 game, ‘Cure 48‘. Play it before you read the post-mortem.
Speaking of morality, here’s another game where you are made to feel bad: ‘The Dead Rest Beneath Us‘. Well, OK, it’s not meant to make you feel bad. In this game, you are presented with different scenarios where you must rescue a person in immediate danger. As opposed to ‘Sunk’, here you don’t play the people in danger, which is a substantial difference. The idea behind this game is that you can’t actually save any of them, which is why people end up feeling bad after playing it. I must say, it was very frustrating for me as well. So here we have another case where there is a lack of agency, but does it create a disconnect? Well, I didn’t feel like I was responsible for the deaths of those people, but the game doesn’t mean to make me feel responsible. Instead, is sets out to raise awareness to the transience of life. A lofty mission indeed. This is another example of an idea which can’t possibly be executed in other media.
As we look at another game, ‘Persona‘, it seems that the ultimate lack of agency is a recurrent theme. In this game, you control your avatar through dialogue choices in various social interactions. You are presented with a choice between 3 masks, each one representing a certain behaviour. However, if you use the wrong mask, it breaks and can no longer be used; instead you have the option of speaking your mind without any filters. The premise is interesting, and it definitely makes for an interesting gameplay mechanic, but the ending presumes that you have failed to use your masks at least once, when in fact, it is possible to complete the game without failing. This reminded me of the scene in ‘Groundhog Day‘ where Phil tries to get Rita in bed, so he memorizes her quirks and gets closer to his goal each day. However, he never succeeds. ‘Persona’ could be exactly this in game form, if it would be unbeatable. Notice what I’m doing here- I’m talking in favour of reducing the player’s freedom and guiding him to an inevitable outcome. However, I’m not limiting his immediate choices, only his ultimate agency. This can lead to a very strong experience, albeit a frustrating one, where the player acts as one with his avatar, and feels like he has true agency, when in fact the outcome will always be the same.
Another game where this is the case is ‘Drowning in Problems‘. In this game, you play through a person’s life to the inevitable, bitter end. But it’s beautiful. I found myself in the part right before you can click to die, working and buying stuff indefinitely. The game is linear, and yet I feel like I have a choice. More importantly, the gameplay maps perfectly to what Notch wants us to feel from the titles of the actions. When I was clicking away, buying more and more stuff, avoiding the death button, I didn’t feel like I was clicking in a game with the theme of life. This theme isn’t artificially strapped on the gameplay- it is created by the gameplay.
‘A Happy Place‘ is another game where you play through your avatar’s demise. You play as a block, surviving in a wartime bunker. You walk around, cry some, eat, drink and sleep when you need to, while being constantly barraged with text. This text is the avatar’s thoughts, and it contributes a lot to the experience, but it doesn’t create it. As I said in the comments, I wasn’t sad when I died, because I knew it was inevitable, but the whole experience felt very real. Was it the audio? The visuals? The text? Maybe it was the gameplay? This one remains a mystery to me.
Last but not least, a game that scared the crap out of me- ‘I Contemplated the Sun of Limbo‘. As I said in the comments, my conclusion from this game is that I am fucking scary. What do I mean by that? Well, in this game, you control an avatar from a first person perspective, and you walk around on an island. You dive and resurface on the other side of the island, you sit on a stool, and then you go back to the other side. There you see a person sitting on a stool just like the one you sat on, and you suspect that he is actually some sort of vision of you. You interact with him and he explodes. Again, on the opposite side, you find the stool vacant. You sit on it, contemplating the sun of limbo, and then, while still on the stool, you turn around. You see the same figure standing behind you, exactly where you stood on the other side of the island when you disturbed him, and he pulls a slenderman. It’s scary, and it made me think of how other people might be experiencing my presence. The game shines in its surrealism, which is a sum of the visuals, the audio, and indeed the gameplay. I’m analyzing this game because it is completely different from the other games. When comparing these games to other media, most of them map roughly to movies or books in what they attempt to do. This one is a song. It’s a spiritual experience. Now, a lot of people would classify all of these games as ‘interactive experiences’ and not games. While I disagree with this, I find it interesting how a very diverse array of games can all be classified under one category.
And now for something completely different- my game! You didn’t actually think a post like this wouldn’t be followed by some shameless self-promotion, did you? Well, actually, my game has a lot in common with these games, so I don’t feel bad doing this
It’s called ‘A Day in the Life‘. I urge you to go play it before reading on.
In this game, you control the individual actions in your avatar’s life. You set a certain period in your life where you learn programming, and in the following frames, the option of making a game is available. There are three objectives- ‘Get a job’, ‘Be happy’ and ‘Start a family’. To fulfill the job objective, you need to work (which requires that you learn programming), ‘Be happy’ requires that you learn the piano and make a game, and to start a family, you need to work and date. People figure all of this stuff out in the first couple of minutes of the game, and then they realize that the overall objective is to get all three objectives at the same time. They manage to get a job and be happy, and they manage to get a job and start a family, but they can’t get all three. Most people realize this, and this is what I set out to do. I wanted people to realize that they can’t get everything in life, and that they have to make choices. It doesn’t matter if you quit the game with some objectives activated rather than others, there’s no text or cutscenes to acknowledge your choices. The game ends in effect when the player realizes what the message is. A strong theme that I have noticed in people’s playthroughs is that they get frustrated when they try to figure out the game. They attempt to solve it as if it were a puzzle, but it doesn’t unfold. Now, this game doesn’t tell a story, not does it evoke spiritual emotions. If I had to classify it, I’d use the word that flrn used to describe his game, ‘The Dead Rest Beneath Us’ – vanitas. Both our games aren’t exactly games in that they are more static in nature, and would compare best to paintings.
I want to create a discussion surrounding the ideas that I have presented here, so I’d love to read what you people have to say about this!
If I have offended anyone, please accept my apologies. I only mean to provide honest feedback and encourage discussion.
