Aquaria

Greetings, fellow denizens of 2010. I bring forth a game today which is all-encompassingly cubular to the Nth degree, as we kids tend to say nowadays. Night Game is a game from Nifflas where you control a nondescript ball through single-screen areas solving various puzzles involving bouncing and momentum while listening to a relaxing soundtrack. No, not that game from Nifflas where you control a nondescript ball through single-screen areas solving various puzzles involving bouncing and momentum while listening to a relaxing soundtrack. This one is new and has silhouette graphics!

Night Game would have seemed much fresher if it came out before Phil Fish's magnum opus, Ball Playground, which sported both the silhouette look and the aromatically enhanced game package. Nifflas has quite a task ahead of him if he hopes to match Fish's powerful, alluring odor. I haven't personally had the chance to sniff it over but my editor assures me it doesn't even come close. Quite the demerit to Night Game.



The Rundown:

* Indie Trendy: Although defying the current trend of making games starring the game developers themselves, digitized a la Mortal Kombat, this does dig up the old trend started by Nifflas himself, before copies of Knytt were declared legal tender.

* Gentle Piano Music: But with FUTURE pianos! This is the future. Gradients.

* Lo-Fi: It's on the Wii, it's lo-fi as fuck.

* Silly Title: You do not own the night, Mr. Nifflas. You cannot make the night's official game.

* Abstract Graphics: What the graphics don't let you see is you're actually controlling Jon Blow's massive monotesticle.

* Physics-Based: This is pretty amazing! You can jump on see-saws and push boxes just like in real life! Why hasn't anyone thought of making a game like this before?!

* Atmosphere as Gameplay: It was a risky move making a game like this after atmosphere was legally banned in 47 states.

* Silhouette/Monochrome: To create silhouettes like this, the game would have to be perpetually set during dusk. Why isn't this game called Dusk Game?

Gravitation

Gravitation isn't a direct sequel to Passage so much as a side-story. It carefully fleshes out the universe that the games take place in, much like Shadow of the Colossus did for Ico. You can see the effects that killing the end boss in Passage has had on the world and things are dire. The sun is dying... It's fading out and leaving the world in a state of dull, lifeless gray.

Our hero in this story takes the obvious course of action: play catch with a girl until your head sets on fire which allows you to fly and collect stars which turn into blocks that can be pushed into a furnace. Unfortunately, Jason Rohrer leans heavily on block pushing puzzles and collectathon mechanics akin to Banjo Kazooie, and I felt that perhaps after Passage he would strike at a more unique genre. As Derek Yu would say, "LET'S GET IT AWN: The bingo that is! I'm Derek Yu. Buy the award-winning action-adventure 'Aquaria' for $19.99!"



The Rundown:

* No Gameplay: Slightly more than Passage and slightly less than Knytt; Gravitation exists in gameplay purgatory along with good-hearted atheist games who did not accept Jon Blow as their lord and savior.

* Silly Title: I spent years thinking this was a sequel to Lunar Lander.

* Indie Trendy: In an innovative move, Rohrer breaks the mold by following his own indy trend.

* Lo-fi: If this game were any more "lo-fi" it would be a low quality speaker, because the term "low fidelity" has nothing to do with games when you think about it.

* Abstract Graphics: It might be a stretch since Passage didn't get a mark here. Everything's so low resolution that the line between abstract and actual art starts to blur.

* No Instructions: Are you an indie enough dude to figure out the abstract goal of an art game? Probably.

* Experimental: The experiment was to replace gameplay with metaphor and see if any of the test subjects noticed.

* Counter-Intuitive: I don't like describing both this one and "no instructions" in the same post, so if, in the future, you indie game developers could include one or the other I would appreciate it.

* 15 Minutes or Less: This one can describe both my attention span for playing this game, or its actual length. The latter is just a guess, obviously.

Blueberry Garden

As a bonus to winning this year's IGF, the makers of Blueberry Garden also received a voucher for one free BINGOing. Erik Svedang's mastery of simplicity is such that to write even a few paragraphs about this game will be challenging. Trying to write about Blueberry Garden at length is like trying to write a soliloquy about a rock. Alas, it is my burden and I must deliver.

You wander around, sometimes gliding like Knuckles from Sonic and Knuckles (A great jab at mainstream gaming from Erik!) until you find large objects that automatically teleport to a column in the middle of the world. Sometimes you eat things and sometimes eating things causes things to happen. Your main character is a bird, and he can pick up other birds, or rocks. There's trees and they grow fruit. There's also some water sometimes. My name's Dustin and this was my report on Blueberry Garden. Thank You.

Bibliography:

* Wikipedia
* My mom who's a marine biologist




The Rundown:

* Silly Title: Blueberries do not grow on trees, goodnight.

* Physics-Based: Physics continue to innovate the industry with "pick up and drop" gameplay.

* Indie Trendy: Indie games continue to try and replicate the experience of being blindfolded, driven to an undisclosed location and released to find your way home.

* Gentle Piano Music: Some of the gentlest, pianoest music out there.

* Abstract Graphics: Explore a rich and varied world of black-and-white outlines.

* Atmosphere as Gameplay: Once again, this seems to go hand in hand with gentle piano music. Whether a successful atmosphere was established or not, it is clear an attempt was made.

* Counter-Intuitive: Leave intuitiveness to the mainstream. Someone has to make games that have no clear goal, and who else but the independent?

* Experimental: The experiment of not telling the player any kind of context or goal was a great success. It really goes to show how obsolete the concepts of clarity and conflict are in gaming.

Knytt

Knytt often gets credit for starting the most popular recent trend in independent game making: stripping out every single gameplay feature to truly let the atmosphere shine. After "playing" Knytt, our fallacy was now clear to us; all this time we had assumed games were strongest as an interactive medium. By rendering once interactive characters and events as mere, untouchable background noise, the player can now be fully immersed.

Story, challenge, reward? 20 years from now your children will be reading about these terms in a history book. They will have learned the most important lesson of all: to reduce is to innovate. Every day will be a new adventure as they accompany Marcus Fenix through the mountain-side trail in Gears of War 4: Post-Victory, or perhaps they take on the role of Luigi as he explores a thriving capitalistic Mushroom Kingdom marketplace in the thrilling epic, Mario Is Missing.



The Rundown:

Not too many hits this time. Disappointing, but let's try something new and analyze the results.

* Experimental: It's subtle, but if you're like me and have been playing games for over 22 years, you start to pick up signs and signals that this game you are experiencing is subverting your world view and destroying preconceptions right from under your nose.

* No Gameplay: The word "game" no longer is sufficient; the paradigm has been shifted. I suggest Inter-Sphere, a contraction of "Interactive Atmosphere." I challenge you to find a better label!

* Lo-Fi: This game isn't lo-fi, it's bottom-fi. It took "fi" all the way down and started rebuilding. Flat, textureless colors are tastefully applied to every surface.

* Atmosphere As Gameplay: This hardly needs explanation, as it practically pioneered the concept for the modern age. If only it had come before Half-Life 2 and convinced Newell not to soil its gorgeous vistas with conflict and violence.

* Gentle Piano Music: Inter-Spheres and gentle piano music are absolutely inseparable. Knytt is no exception.