Are Post-Modern Games Possible?

Indie/minimalist game designer Jason Rohrer, recently said the games industry isn’t quite ready to start banding around terms like modernism and post-modernism. That’s a pretty bold statement to make about an industry that prides itself on being cutting edge, but perhaps it’s true. Are we jumping the gun in terms of the “stages” of art by thinking that games are already modern/post-modern? Or do the old genealogies not apply when talking about a medium that has matured so rapidly? Continue Reading at Existential Gamer...

EG Radio Ep3: Chocies and Consequences

Did a podcast over at EG. We talked about DLC, indie game bundles, and some specific points of Bioshock 2, Dragon Age, and others. Give it a listen!

EG Analysis: Critter Crunch

Puzzle games haven’t changed much since the release of Tetris, and for the most part they are highly abstract affairs. There is no narrative to Tetris, only gameplay in its purest form. Ditto modern puzzle classics like Bejeweled. Some have themes pasted on, like Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo, while others, like Puzzle Quest, add RPG elements. Yet the mechanics of all puzzle games are essentially the same – abstract color matching with the occasional tweak to powerups or multiplayer styles. Continue Reading at Existential Gamer...

E.G. Impression: Heavy Rain

Pushing an art form forward often means looking past big flaws to the original genius underneath. While I don’t think originality for originality’s sake should be rewarded, when someone takes a risk that pushes against established norms, those who tire of existing paradigms should stand up take notice. With games even if the experience as a whole fails a breakthrough mechanic or risky procedural narratives can make an otherwise mundane or head-scratching title extraordinary. Continue Reading at Existential Gamer...

When Less is More

Book lovers frequently criticize movies and games on the grounds that they lack imagination. The minimalism of text, no matter how well put together, requires readers to constantly flex their imagination in ways not possible when visual images are given to you. But such critics have never waxed nostalgically for an old 8-bit game only to go back to it and realize how much their “imagination” had colored their memories with flashy graphics impossible on the hardware of yesteryear. There’s something about boiling a gaming experience down to its basic elements that allows one to focus only on the relevant mechanics and let your mind fill in the rest. Street Fighter alone offers several examples that attest to this fact. Continue reading at Existential Gamer...