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rootbeerMinimalism. This game embodies the idea. From impressionistic graphics to a streamlined verbset of move and jump, this game does away with all unnecessary aspects of design and lets its superb ambiance and atmosphere shine through. I want to say La Monte Young would be proud, but the lush orchestral pieces probably wouldn't be to his liking. I dig them though. I dig this game, and you should play it.
Seiklus and other games based on exploration are muddled with their collect-a-thon hang-ups, but smartly the game takes a page from Knytt and makes discovering its landscapes a reward in and of itself. As you meander about the small worlds, the camera pulls back and you bring light to the area; the more you explore the more beautiful your surroundings get. Saying anything else would spoil the experience, so go and play this thing.
Spoiler-y musings follow:
The protagonist complains at the outset that "there is too much noise." He goes through the ordeal of completing the game to ultimately commit suicide, where he is free of the problems of life and can obtain peaceful "silence." The four landscapes all share the motif of flawed beauty; the city area has industrial sludge perpetually running, and in one section you explore the innards of a dead majestic creature. When playing you have multiple dead ends that prevent you from progressing. These dead ends hinder your progress, but allow you to see more of the wonderful landscapes. It seems as if the protagonist wasn't able to appreciate this aspect of life, and focused on the less appealing bits. To me the game tries to argue the opposite. Sure, there is a lot of shit that goes on in the world, but there is a lot of beauty too. If you pull back and can appreciate it, you can make a life worth living --to throw your life away is foolish. Or something. The story is vague enough to allow multiple interpretations. It's an amazing experience regardless.
Well, I think it revealed to
Well, I think it revealed to me that I'd just go along with it, without much great sense of enjoyment for having done so. The exploration was a kind of a gaming musak for me. Like a facilitator.
In terms of that story, which I didn't pick up on at all, I think I can understanding the characters motive for suicide. Whatever your forced to experience, you should start to embrace? Just drift along, loving the rats maze your in and lovingly following every corridor determined for you, with relish? Mind you, world of warcraft is hardly unpopular.
Perhaps if he'd been given a choice on coming to love something. Instead of it being an arranged marriage, so to speak.
I interpreted the pull-back
I interpreted the pull-back mechanic in almost exactly the opposite way. Because nothing can ever scroll offscreen, the process of exploration causes information to accumulate irrevocably, crowding the visual field with progressively more "noise".
Perhaps I'm being too literal or too information-theoretic or something. My first reaction makes less sense on reflection. Aesthetically, the early parts of each level feel more "noisy", random jumbles of pixels. The late stages have a comprehensible pattern, a sense of sensibility; they feel more like signal than noise.
Loved how, as you explore
Loved how, as you explore more, the crude, huge pixel get smaller to form a sharper image. The game was really beautiful.
Also, memorable moment : "Oh is it Santa's base?"
Some exploration later : "No, it's a nuke base..."
Great game
A great game. Simple and beautiful. If you feel the need to ascribe deep meanings to things then you won't be disappointed. Personally I just dug the ambiance and the unapologetic focus on exploration.
/thumbsup