Hobart LaRoche presents … 15 experimental video games

 

‘How can computer games be abstract and without points of identification, and yet be interesting? – No matter how variable or even absent the protagonist in computer games, the player is always constant. The reader/ viewer need an emotional motivation for investing energy in the movie or book; we need a human actant to identify with. This is probably also true for the computer game, only this actant is always present – it is the player. The player is motivated to invest energy in the game because the game evaluates the player’s performance. And this is why a game can be much more abstract than a movie or a novel, because games involve the player in a direct way.

‘This discrepancy raises many issues. In a game, the player works to reach a goal. The thing is then that this goal has to mimic the player’s situation. It seems, for example, that a game cannot have the goal that the player should work hard to throw the protagonist under a train. As a player, the goal has to be one that you would conceivably want to work for.

‘Jean-Luc Godard’s Pierrot le fou would serve as an example of a movie where it is hard to construct a coherent story due to numerous temporal skips and distanciations such as the actor’s addressing the camera. This foregrounding of the discourse has a sense of immediacy that would make it ripe for a game adaptation – if only we could figure what the game should be about. And during the creation of Naked Lunch, William Burroughs writes the follow explanation to Allen Ginsberg: “[…] the usual novel has happened. This novel is happening.”

‘It may be obvious that the more open a narrative is to interpretation, the more emphasis will be on the reader/ viewer’s efforts now. The difference between the now in narratives and the now in games is that first now concerns the situation where the reader’s effort in interpreting obscures the story – the text becomes all discourse, and consequently the temporal tensions ease. The now of the game means that story time converge with playing time, without the story/game world disappearing.

‘Games rely on having goals that can be deciphered by the player and something obstructing the player’s possibility of reaching the goals. Narratives are basically interpretative, whereas games are formal. Or, in cybertextual terms, stories have an interpretative dominant, whereas games have a configurative dominant. While readers and viewers are clearly more active than some theories have previously assumed, they are active in a different way.

‘The idea of using experimental narratives to answer the opening question suffers from the problem that the very emphasis on interpretation and ontological instability that would make the narrative more immediate and thus closer to the game, in itself would make a game unplayable.’ — Jesper Juul

 

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Compress Process

‘For most of us, video game glitches are a nuisance–they’re visual hiccups that rattle the rhythm of the game and disrupt our immersion in the experience. But for Rosa Menkman, they’re the best part. The Dutch artist, currently pursuing a PhD in digital artifacts, revels in all things glitch, from overly compressed video files to unforeseen synthesized sounds. Her latest project, Compress Process, reverses the conventional relationship between game and glitch: It’s a surreal videoscape in which the only object is to mess things up as best and as beautifully as you can. The experience has the basic trappings of a video game–you can even “jump” by hitting the spacebar–but players will quickly find that that there’s not really anything to do in this game world, and there’s not really all that much to explore, either. Adding to the confusion, each movement you make smears and stretches the game environment, making it hard to lock down any sort of perspective or sense of space. And that’s basically the gist of it: You tool around aimlessly, taking note of how your movements shape the mesmerizingly weird visuals. Menkman supplies the disembodied head, you provide a little motion, and glitches abound.’ — Fast Co Design

[[Videoscapes :: Xilitla]]

I might, in the end, be no more than a reflection of your imagination

 

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Painstation

‘The concept of Painstation is simple. Two players eyeball each other over a table console. The left-hand is positioned on a sensor field — otherwise know as a PEU, or Pain Execution Unit. When both players have made this electric contact, the game, and the real fun, commences. The game itself is based on the first-generation PC game known as Pong, or bar tennis, and is followed by both players through a graphics display in the center of the table. The player’s right hand controls the bat, and the object of the game is to keep the ball in play as long as possible. In the original PC game, missing the ball resulted in nothing worse than a moment’s frustration and perhaps a well-chosen expletive. In this revamped version, missing the ball is not only annoying, it is also very painful. Randomly arranged along both sides of the playing field are Pain Inflictor Symbols, each representing a different sort of pain. Depending where the ball hits, the player will feel sensations such as heat, punches, lashings by a wire whip, and electroshocks of varying duration delivered through the PEU. The game ends only when one of the players decides that the pain is too much to bear and lifts a hand off the PEU.’ — collaged

painstation

 

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Memory of a Broken Dimension

‘Video games are known to have some in-game glitches, and sometimes they’re even celebrated for them. But while most of the time it’s an error that players stumble upon, a new game called Memory of a Broken Dimension by xra uses glitches as part of the game’s aesthetic. It uses the FPS perspective to drive the narrative as you solve puzzles and explore an experimental environment. From the trailer it looks like it could be quite a baffling experience, as you wander around the monochrome world, struggling through its broken lands. The game is still in the early stages of development and details are scarce.’ — The Creators Project

Memory of a Broken Dimension SOWN2012 Dev video

memory of a broken dimension – walkthrough

 

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SCP-087

‘SCP-087 is a stairwell that doesn’t end. All those who go down these stairs can hear a crying child roughly 200 metres down, which seems to get lower at the same speed as the person descending. As they descend further, a creature, currently known as SCP-087-1, stalks them down, usually coming from in front of the person, but sometimes behind them. SCP-087 features procedural generation of floors and events, so every playthrough is different.’ — collaged

SCP-087

SCP-087: 160 FLOORS COMPLETE WITH ENDING

 

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Self-Destruction 

‘Self Destruction by Frank Force is a game about being trapped in a time travel loop and needing to kill all previous versions of yourself to progress. Each wave you’re actions from all previous waves are layered on top of each other but instead of helping you, they are the enemies that you need to kill. For this prototype I tried to keep it as simple as possible and focus on the fundamentals. It turned out to be a cool little experiment. The gameplay does concern me though, because it is so weird. I tried to add some balance factors like subtracting off a point each second to encourage faster play. I like how being able to destroy other bullets encourages the player to shoot more, which further dooms them.’ — Frank Force

Self Destruction – Rapid Prototype

 

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The Path

‘The Path is a short horror game inspired by older versions of Little Red Ridinghood, set in modern day. Created by innovative game designers Tale of Tales, The Path offers an atmospheric experience of exploration, discovery and introspection through a unique form of gameplay, designed to immerse you deeply into its dark themes. Every interaction in the game expresses an aspect of the narrative. The six protagonists each have their own age and personality and allow the player to live through the tale in different ways. Most of the story, however, relies on your active imagination. Six sisters live in an apartment in the city. One by one their mother sends them on an errand to their grandmother, who is sick and bedridden. The teenagers are instructed to go to grandmother’s house deep in the forest and, by all means, to stay on the path! Wolves are hiding in the woods, just waiting for little girls to stray.’ — collaged

The Path – Gameplay

The Path: Rose Ending (Failure)

 

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Elegy for a Dead World

‘Developed by Dejobaan and Popcannibal, Elegy for a Dead World is a game that asks the player to be a writer. “I don’t think people realize how big of an ask that is,” said Ziba Scott of Popcannibal, going on to discuss the personal constraints we put on ourselves when it comes to writing and the way Elegy for a Dead World aims to encourage fearless creativity. According to Scott, there is no game to be “played” in Elegy of a Dead World. Instead, the player is plunged into three worlds, inspired by British romantics like Shelley, Keats and Byron. During their side-scrolling exploration of these fallen civilizations, players take notes in whatever form or style they wish, which are published onto the Steam Workshop for others to read. They can also read the notes, prose and poetry that other players have drawn from the same worlds. It’s a collaborative, exploratory and poetic writing experiment.’ — collaged

Elegy for a Dead World: Teaser Trailer

 

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Glitchspace

‘Glitchspace is a first person programming game that’s centred around a visual programming mechanic. Set in a cyberspace world, you are trying to find a place known as Glitchspace – a by-product of cyberspace and its various glitches. A world that would allow for infinite possibilities, and access across all systems in cyberspace through exploitation. Through problem solving, it’s up to you how you approach the in-game challenges; find glitches in the cyberspace world, and exploit them in various different ways, allowing for a emergent play experience.’ — collaged

Glitchspace Walkthrough [1080p]

 

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Vapour 2

‘Skobbejakgames is a small game development team from Johannesburg, creating the most scary game ever in history, Vapour. We are a 2 man (Tiaan Gerber and Alexander Ehlers) indie game development team that are set out to raise the bar with each successive project. Just be wary of two things if you’re going to watch the video. The first is that it’s NSFW, as it contains gore, language and partial nudity. Secondly, if you’re willing to proceed, keep in mind that the footage is from a game that is, according to Skobbejak Games, still in its pre-Alpha stage. It looks really good being so early in development.’ — collaged

Vapour 2 Trailer

 

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Luxuria Superbia

Luxuria Superbia is a prototype of a video game in progress by Tale of Tales. A vessel speeds through the veins of a plant and arouses the plant by touching the sensitive zones on the walls. An eventual climax gives us entrance to the multiple locks of the cosmos. Walter Hus in association with Brecht Ameel and Maarten Huysmans developed a musical system wherein a multitude of loops are triggered by the movements and levels of the players and by the zones you’re traversing in the game. According to Tale of Tales co-designer Auriea Harvey, video games are no strangers to depictions of sex, but they often fail at portraying it in a meaningful way, either falling into the uncanny valley with awkwardly rendered physical representations of the act or cheapening the act itself by casting it as a “game,” where there is a “right” and a “wrong” way of doing it. Tale of Tales aimed to capture the essence of the erotic, rather than create a forward, soulless depiction like so many games before it.’ — Indie Statik

The Cosmos and the Cave 001

The Cosmos and the Cave 002

 

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Césure

Developed by indie designer Noctuelles, Césure is described as a “tiny pure exploration game inspired by the more experimental works of Aliceffekt and Increpare [Stephen Lavelle].” As such, there are no objectives, puzzles, or anything one could consider to be a game beyond the ability to wander around exploring a malevolent sculpture-thing. According to the developer’s Twitter, he “makes strange places and calls them games.” You may remember Stephen “Increpare” Lavelle for his seizure inducing abstract rave simulator Slave of God, which Césure bears something in common with. While Césure is more interactive modern art than a game, it’s pretty evocative modern art, so if you’re up for some moody psychedelic zen-like exploration.’ — eurogamer.net

Césure

 

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POP: Methodology Experiment 1

‘POP: Methodology Experiment 1 is a game purposefully built in way that explores a different approach to the typical game development pipelines. In this experiment developer Rob Lach wanted to explore the inspiration music tends to intrinsically instill in us. He accomplished this by creating the music first, and during the music creation process he would determine that the the game that will accompany the music would be the first idea that popped into his head. In some cases it came together nicely, in others not so much. Built Using: Visual Studio 2010, Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Premiere, Ableton Live. Built on top of: Monocle Engine. Teaser Music: Modeselektor – Grillwalker.’ — collaged

POP – Methodology Experiment 1 Teaser

playing POP: Methodology Experiment One

 

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Among the Sleep

‘Among the Sleep, an indie horror game, puts you into the booties of a two year old and presents a never-before-seen survival horror experience. The scary adventures of a defenseless baby wandering around an abandoned house, its dark attic and a surreal, but eerie Alice in Wonderland-like environment is truly unimaginable. Norwegian developers Krillbite Studios did a great job in bringing something innovative to this genre. The game’s scare levels is similar to games like Slender or Amnesia, but it’s more frightening because it presents horror through the eyes of a helpless toddler who’s only way of tackle is either to run away or hide behind an object to avoid getting spotted by a creepy strangers. The game focuses on object-interaction, which will help a toddler escape. You don’t have any access to weapons, so there’s a total survival horror games in our hands.’ — hub pages.com

Among the Sleep – Gameplay Teaser

 

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Polybius

‘The iconic legend of Polybius chronicles the mysterious appearance of a new, unheard of game in the suburbs of Portland, Oregon in 1981. Players claimed to experience amnesia, blackouts, seizures, headaches, nausea, night terrors, and there were even alleged reports of suicide. Some swore they saw a mysterious man in black collecting data from the machines. Some players stopped playing video games, while reportedly one became an antigaming activist. Eventually, the game vanished from arcades, though alleged photos of vintage cabinets appear on the internet from time to time, but no definitive proof of the game ever truly existing has ever surfaced—probably because the evil government covered its tracks. The supposed creator of Polybius is Ed Rotberg, and the company named in the urban legend is Sinneslöschen (German meaning “deletion/erasure of senses”), often named as either a secret government organization or a codename for Atari.’ — collaged

Polybius Gameplay – Cursed Arcade Game

 

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S for Sisyphus

‘In S for Sisyphus, the player is confronted with a cube, and is left with the choice of a single action in the game world: pushing the cube forward in an endless horizon, or else ending the game by taking the character’s life. The player has the choice to experience from four different perspectives: the Player, the Cube, the Other and the Anonymous God, as the action unfolds.’ — Ip Yuk-Yiu

 

 

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p.s. Hey. Today self-styled ‘fervent’ reader of DC’s Hobart LaRoche has gifted us with a post about two of my own personal favorite things: experimentalism and video games. I’m thrilled, I hope you’re lit-up at least. I’ve played a few of them since they arrived in the post, and they were pretty fucking cool. So, enjoy the show and please say hi or thanks or anything else to Hobart if you have the chance. And one more big thanks from me, Hobart. ** Charalampos, Hi. I don’t think watching films chronologically is boring, but I don’t think it’s necessary either. Cemeterie Montparnasse was nice. I couldn’t find the grave I wanted — Eric Rohmer — because their map is so shit. But I saw some dead greats’ concrete coverings. On Marguerite Duras’s grave there’s a big glass jar where people leave writing pens in honor of her. There were dozens and dozens of them. That was cool. Enjoy putting together your book! Vibes of a very positive nature from the almost dead center of Paris. ** Dee Kilroy, Hi. Oh, yeah, I seriously get that ‘Skinamarink’ is a thing you either fall into kind of helplessly or not. Part of my pleasure was seeing it on a giant screen in a big multiplex theater in LA and just being so astonished and inspired by the fact that a film so unconventional and so committed to itself had gotten a wide release. That gave me hope, and it also  just happened to push buttons in me that I like. So I just surrendered. Oh, you have the opposite weather malady. Huge commiserations from a serious heat hater. I hope you’re somewhere where summer actually ends in August in the old fashioned way. We’re supposedly having our last miserable hot day today before the fall eats the sky, but we’ll see. ** Probably, male, Hi. Oh, sure, ‘Informers’ and ‘Jesus Son’ are great. I would mentioned them if my brain was working right. You’re amidst the hot weather too. It’s almost over though, no? Hopeful me. I had a girlfriend for a short time when I was a young teenager, and I had a girlfriend for more than a year in the early 80s when I decided or thought I was bi. She was great, the intimacy was very pleasurable, it’s just that something deeper and compelling was missing for me ultimately. How about you and girls/women? ** Bill, Sorry I missed you guys’ comments. I really have to remember to check back before I open the fresh comments. I had thought they were Japanese too. I would buy you a 3D gummy printer for Xmas if they were real. Well, I guess they probably are, but I’m pretty sure I couldn’t afford one, so … rain check? Serious question: Do you ever see a movie and wish it were longer? I partly ask because I don’t think I’ve ever felt that way. Don’t watch the new ‘Mission: Impossible’ unless it’s on your long plane flight. ** _Black_Acrylic, Hi. For ‘Vitalina Varela’, it’s so dark and lushly beautiful and intricate visually that, yeah, you really need to see it in at least a mostly lightless room. Oh, I wish I could read ‘Gutter’. Dude, yes, let it be the spark that starts your short fiction shaped fire. ** Tosh Berman, It has since been confirmed to me by several knowledgeable folks that that is a pic of Breton. But no one knows if Bataille took it. I doubt it somehow. ** Dominik, Hi!!! The ‘Mission: Impossible’ movie is watchable for free on soap2day here if you want to fast forward to the train part. We really have to submit the film to those festivals, so we’ll just get it as far along before then as we can and hope the unfinished aspects don’t hurt our chances. No, things with the producer are at their absolute all-time worst, but thank you for asking, ha ha. I’ll let you know if I start to notice people being suddenly cured of diseases and things when I light up. Ouch. I bite my nails. Since I was a little kid. My parents failed to stop me. And I guess I’ve gotten pretty good at it since no one ever looks askance at my nails. Not my toenails, mind you. I do snip them. Love explaining to me why in the last six months or so there’s been a massive surge in the number of slaves whose biggest obsession is smelling other guys’ farts, G. ** Nick., Hi, Nick.! Wow, great to see you! I missed ya. That sounds kind of amazing and fascinating: your upheaval and consequent survival+. Share anything. Yeah, I’m still deep in getting the film ready and will be for the next months. But I’m very excited about it. Not a lot of anything else too major. I finished off a jar of cold sesame rice noodle that my pal Zac made for me not 6 days ago, so all is pretty okay on that need. So, yeah, what’s new, what’s going on, etc.? ** Steve Erickson, That’s good to know about kids, not that I have any around or would pop pills in their mouths even if I had the chance. I saw the installation version of the new Costa short at a museum. It was a large room full of screens, each of which showed a woman looking into the camera with a barely changing expression for a long time. I would suspect the film version has something else as well. It was beautiful. The next deadline after Rotterdam is Sundance on September 25. Zac doesn’t get back from being away until Thursday, so we won’t get much accomplished this week. Generally, we have more editing to do, we need a draft of the finished sound score from Puce Mary which isn’t finished yet, we need some special effects work although I’m doubting we’ll have time for that not to mention that our piece of shit producer hasn’t raised a single penny to support the post so we would need a huge favor even if there is time, we need color correction, and we need to fiddle with the sound a little as best we can before the actual sound mix/design, which will have to come later. Thanks for asking. I’ve never read SURVIVOR. Why did she hate it, do you know? ** Cody Goodnight, Hi, Cody. I’m ok. I have seen ‘Dr. Caligari’, ‘Nosferatu’ and ‘Metropoli’, I just spaced out. The cemetery was nice, but their map to the stars’ resting places was a confusing mess. Very nice about that Halloween cemetery makeover. Envy. You’ve never heard ‘ Tago Mago’? What did you think? It’s unpleasantly hot here, but I think I’m going to look about with a visiting friend anyway and see what happens. Happiest Wednesday! ** Minet, Hi! So far the post-production is just me and Zac because we have no money. We want to work with the sound guy who did our first two films because he’s a genius, so we’re trying to figure out how we can find money somewhere to pay him. Nice about the visit from your French emissary friend and his friend. Yes, you should be translated into French, of course! No, shit, sorry, I haven’t read your poem yet. The film work and the big mess all around it has just really ruined my ability to focus on other things. I’ll go re-find and read it ASAP. I’m so sorry to be so slow. If you’re as hard and obsessive a writer as you sound to be, and as I am, it’s possible to do a magazine and write too. I mean, this blog takes a lot of work, and I still do the writing and filmmaking I want to at the same time. You just have to find the rhythm. The magazine project sounds like a great idea. So I highly encourage you if it seems doable. Little Caesar was a giant amount of work because I did it all by myself, but I always loved doing it. And it did help create a kind of scene/ community, which was a huge boon. I’m doing a Mario Bava Day this weekend, speaking of gore, albeit Italian style. I’m not reading a lot right now, too much going on. I want to pronto. Thank you, pal. ** John Newton, Salut John! Oh, gosh, I like tons of French writers. They’ve been my writer gods since I was a kid, so there’d be a long list. My favorite is Maurice Blanchot. I don’t know the Bataille book about rats unless I’m spacing out. Huh. I’ve never been to a sex sauna/steam bath. Wait, once in my 20s. Not my thing. Public sex isn’t very interesting to me. Huh, I don’t believe I consciously put mediocracy/mediocrity as theme in my poems, but I haven’t written poems in such a long time that I honestly might not remember. But I’m going to think about my poems and that theme and see what happens now. Thanks for the insight and question. ** Armando, Hey, Yeah, your comment came in too late. and I never look back to see if comments came in late for no good reason. To start with, we’re submitting the film to Rotterdam, Sundance, and Berlin, and then we’ll see what if anything happens with them. The film was shot in Yucca Valley, and, more specifically, in this section of Yucca Valley called Flamingo Heights, which, I might add, has neither height nor flamingos. I totally get the dry periods. I sure get them. I’ve learned not to sweat them because the writing need/material always comes rushing back once it feels like it. LA always changes. I love that about it in the same way that I love how Paris never changes. Happy day to you, my friend. ** Right. Be with Hobart’s video game suggestions for the duration of your time here today please. Thank you. See you tomorrow.