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.