Rock, Paper, Shotgun

It’s A Small World. Let’s Keep It That Way.

By Kieron Gillen on October 23rd, 2009 at 8:53 pm.

It kind of reminds me of Jet Set Willy in some ways - but a dream of Jet Set Willy, as elegant as it was in my pre-teen imagination.

Just a quickie before I disappear for the weekend. Soren “Civ 4″ Johnson has just tweeted about Small Worlds, saying “What a beautiful game. This is the next-gen Prince of Persia game I always wanted to play…”. I agree, and think you should play it without any further elaboration. It’s a magically-presented exploration game. Magical. That’s the world. Go lose yourself.

__________________

« | »

, , , .

136 Comments »

  1. 23/10/2009 at 21:12 Helm says:

    Hm this doesn’t load for me. Just the Casual Gameplay portal graphics and a black window in the middle.

    • 23/10/2009 at 21:17 Wisq says:

      Needs JavaScript, cookies, and disabling any HTTP referrer spoofing.
       
      I very rarely see things that need all three of those. Sheesh. :)
       
      If you're still having trouble, try grabbing it direct at http://cgdc6.fizzlebot.com/game9.swf … may or may not work depending on how your browser handles raw Flash.

  3. 23/10/2009 at 21:20 sana says:

    This is quite pretty.

  4. 23/10/2009 at 21:21 Jonas says:

    Huh, came across this earlier today from another site, and it really worked for me. I love the subtle narrative touches and the quiet, peaceful sense of encroaching doom. I played it without music first, and that was obviously a big mistake, so I had to play it again when I had audio.

    I also really love the way he applied a texture to the pixel art. It makes the game look spectacular.

  5. 23/10/2009 at 21:27 Feet says:

    Brief but very enjoyable. Pure exploration gameplay.

  6. 23/10/2009 at 21:28 Helm says:

    Ran it in chrome which I keep exactly for these situations and I had forgotten.

    It’s very beautiful. It reminds me of this idea I had about making an open-world RPG like rings of power

    http://www.locustleaves.com/merged_map_modpalette2.png

    where the main way to be rewarded with XP and therefore to level up would not be to kill monsters or solve quests, but to just explore the overworld/underworld and make in-game maps and charts of it. Chartographer’s quest, as it were.

    I’m sure a lot of us when we play this game make blind jumps we know will not get us to the gem of the level, just to fill up our map, just so there’s no blackness left in the screen. This game is a great exploration (no pun intended) of this reflex. I can only imagine it with more fleshed out mechanics (not necessarily more gamey).

    • 23/10/2009 at 23:30 Vitamin Powered says:

      >I’m sure a lot of us when we play this game make blind jumps we know will not get us to the gem of the level, just to fill up our map, just so there’s no blackness left in the screen. This game is a great exploration (no pun intended) of this reflex. I can only imagine it with more fleshed out mechanics (not necessarily more gamey).

      You’re definitely not wrong there. When I quickly found the green gem my response was “Nooo…. still more beauty to be found!”

  7. 23/10/2009 at 21:29 Dave says:

    Clever and artsy. But I still find platformers kind of frustrating. Little pixelated bastard keeps falling off of things, etc.

  8. 23/10/2009 at 21:32 Casimir's Blake says:

    Bringing back memories of the days of ZZT and Megazeux. I wish there were a little more to it though, i.e. a use button? So that it feels more interactive…

  9. 23/10/2009 at 21:32 duel says:

    that was pretty compulsive, the way it revealed its self was beautiful. I played non stop til the end.

  10. 23/10/2009 at 21:35 Wisq says:

    I liked the white world. Definitely tells the story. Though I expected a lot worse from the red world and saved it for last.

  11. 23/10/2009 at 21:43 Inanimotioon says:

    Enjoyed that very much.

  12. 23/10/2009 at 21:43 lumpi says:

    Beautiful. Reminds me of “Secret of Evermore”, one of my favorite action adventures for the SNES (which most people hate because of the intentionally cheesy characters and overall American style for a Squaresoft game that kinda sounds like it had anything to do with “Secret of Mana”). Mostly because of the similarity to Jeremy Soule’s excellent soundtrack.

  13. 23/10/2009 at 21:47 Daniel Klein says:

    Wow, this is so beautiful. This game humbled me: I always used to think of myself as a purely competitive gamer, fiero all the way. I used to be a very different type of gamer, of course, and this just brought something up in me again that I haven’t felt in a long time. The sense of wonder and awe at this very simple graphics, the way the music ties it all together, and that simple desire to go and explore… I’d forgotten how amazingly fun that can be.

    Thank you for this!

  14. 23/10/2009 at 21:49 Lewis says:

    That is an exceptionally clever indie game.

  15. 23/10/2009 at 21:56 Pemptus says:

    I might be a crybaby and a big girl, but this really moved me.

  16. 23/10/2009 at 21:57 Theory says:

    Erm, it was okay.

    COMBO BREAKER!

  17. 23/10/2009 at 21:59 Railick says:

    I loved Secret of Evermore

  18. 23/10/2009 at 22:04 Evan Travers says:

    That was fantastic. One of my fav flash games ever. Right up there next to canabalt.

  19. 23/10/2009 at 22:12 TCM says:

    That was an amazing, confusing, subtle, sublime, charming, beautiful 10 minutes.

  20. 23/10/2009 at 22:13 Tei says:

    I hate platformer… I used to hate platformers.. Now seems I love exploring,but I hate dyiing for no reason because stop exploration. This game is art :-)

  21. 23/10/2009 at 22:15 Railick says:

    I love Tei. Sometimes I read a comment without looking at who posted it first if I'm in a long stream of comments and I can always tell when I'm reading Tei's comment before I ever see his name :)

  22. 23/10/2009 at 22:35 Davee says:

    Beautiful. Such simple gameplay, held up by its low-fi-yet-beautiful graphics and music. Exellent atmosphere. Short and sweet :)

  23. 23/10/2009 at 22:37 Heliocentric says:

    This game is extremely pretty. The ending of the game bugged me though, like they pissed away all the splendour with a reflective ending.

  25. 23/10/2009 at 22:42 Arathain says:

    I think, given what we’d seen, that it was reasonable for the ending to be as it was.

  26. 23/10/2009 at 22:42 bhlaab says:

    It’s pretty and clever but I’m not sure I found any traces of narrative whatsoever unlike what other commentators have said

    • 23/10/2009 at 23:00 Jonas says:

      It depends what you understand by narrative, I suppose. It’s a pretty good example of embedded narrative, in that it’s there if you look for it, but it requires some interpretation and reflection to get anything meaningful out of it.

      Every world you went to seemed to have been destroyed in a different way, including the “hub” world. Especially the ice world had a lot of meaningful details- the underground bunker with the world map and the missile silos where most of the missiles were fired. The obvious reading to me is that it was a nuclear winter. Then there was the blue one that seemed to be a completely destroyed planet, the green one that I read as basically drowning in toxic waste, and the red one that took place inside a large dead creature.

      There’s room for interpretation, but to me, it all points pretty clear towards the end of the world.

      But maybe I’ve already thought about it too much.

    • 23/10/2009 at 23:01 Jonas says:

      Or maybe I just need to proof read my goddamn posts.

  27. 23/10/2009 at 22:50 Geo says:

    Jump jump jump fall fall fall.

    Wow, what a game.

    *falls asleep*

  28. 23/10/2009 at 22:52 Lugribossk says:

    Very evocative. No text or other characters and just low resolution pixels for visuals, and yet you get a clear feeling for a larger story and purpose. I wish more games would adopt this “less is more” approach!

  29. 23/10/2009 at 23:01 Nimic says:

    Too short, but very pretty all the same.

  30. 23/10/2009 at 23:14 Bret says:

    Never though atomic holocaust would be so beautiful.

  31. 23/10/2009 at 23:17 Taillefer says:

    It feels much more like Exile or Seiklus than Prince of Persia. It’s pretty and clever, pretty clever. I really expected the big picture at the end, though, to expand on the theme of the levels. The music is lovely.

  32. 23/10/2009 at 23:25 Alex777 says:

    I don’t get it. Is this supposed to be some sort of game? Where’s the strategy? Where’s the action? Where’s the competition? If there’s no possibility of defeat, why am I playing?

    Honestly, what’s so great about this “game”? I want my 10 minutes back.

  33. 23/10/2009 at 23:29 Bret says:

    The secret final boss, of course.

    • 24/10/2009 at 16:13 The Unbelievable Guy says:

      SPOILER ALERT:

      There actually was a final boss: the sun!
      Very clever, very pretty little game. Love the music.

  34. 23/10/2009 at 23:37 apa says:

    ascii graphics rule

  35. 23/10/2009 at 23:46 Στέλιος says:

    This was quite lovely. Had no bloody idea what I was doing, of course, but still.

  36. 23/10/2009 at 23:51 Vitamin Powered says:

    The atmosphere of this game was just wonderful.

    I also loved how the very chief mechanic of the game did away with the standard problem I always face in a platformer game; becoming completely lost two minutes into a level.

  37. 23/10/2009 at 23:53 Aubrey says:

    Damnit, I tweeted it first! I am the COOL KING.

    SOOOOOORENNNN!!!!!
    /me shakes fist

  38. 24/10/2009 at 00:01 PleasingFungus says:

    That was wonderful. Played it the other day, when a friend linked it to me. Was… very impressed, by the atmosphere and the exploration. (Though not by the controls, mind. Flippin’ jump.)

    Jonas: Thanks for the explanation of the plot! I completely missed that on my playthrough.

    Taillefer: But can you beat it on hard mode You get it by entering the Konami Code on the main menu. It turns off jumping! Try it now, pansies!

  39. 24/10/2009 at 00:08 smac says:

    Ah, c’mon – that was the sole point of the game; to tell a short, well-formed story.

    Hands up everyone who escaped.

    You sure about that?

  40. 24/10/2009 at 00:10 Heliocentric says:

    I think he escaped… Strictly speaking.

  41. 24/10/2009 at 00:10 smac says:

    Was supposed to be @bhlaab – noscript probably borked the Reply button.

  42. 24/10/2009 at 00:24 Heker says:

    Beauty, it seems, dose not need the high resolution most games would make us believe. I honestly played this game and was more inspired by a few thousand pixels than bye any scene I’ve come across in the cry engine. Truly art.

  43. 24/10/2009 at 01:10 coupsan says:

    It didn’t do anything for me, really. Unfortunate.

  44. 24/10/2009 at 01:12 Melf_Himself says:

    Argh, contrary to the others I found this to be quite shite. Guess I fail on the Bartle explorer test. The music was good but otherwise… meh. Not sure where Soren gets off comparing it to Prince of Persia!

  45. 24/10/2009 at 01:15 Adventurous Putty says:

    Erm, stupid question: I got to the two world portals at the bottom, but, um, where are the other ones? I believe there’s a red and a green one I’ve missed, from the comments.

    I feel intelligent. :D

  46. 24/10/2009 at 01:25 JB says:

    Moving, and pretty (without a big-budget engine, as noted above). I'm not sure it would be half as moving without music, mind you.

  47. 24/10/2009 at 01:34 Adventurous Putty says:

    Erm, nevermind. I fail at exploration.

  48. 24/10/2009 at 01:39 Wooly says:

    What a beautiful game. The music in the red world really moved me.

  49. 24/10/2009 at 03:27 JonFitt says:

    Very good. An atmosphere, of foreboding, loss, and wonder generated with a few pixels and music.

  50. 24/10/2009 at 03:44 Army of None says:

    Great game!

  51. 24/10/2009 at 04:50 Ian says:

    This game is neither next gen-ish nor prince of persia-ish. I call BS on Soren. Its not a bad game though.

  52. 24/10/2009 at 05:36 Marshall says:

    Some of the most compulsive exploration I’ve ever experienced in a game. I found myself making sure I’d cleared every inch of blackness just to see what was behind it, or how much further I could expand the little world. That in and of itself was the incentive. A game like Fallout 3 could have taken a page from this little game.

    • 26/10/2009 at 00:52 mootpoint says:

      Fully agree, actually played it through again just now because I couldn’t remember the ending (strangely, it really stuck this time) and found myself obsessively jumping all over the place despite having seen everything before.

      I really like how that works out into a kind of “life” mechanic as well, the threat of going to close to the edge is not dying, but falling off into some place you can’t get back to where you were from, thus killing your exploration.

      Lovely lovely game. Probably the first game in long time I really like, as the emotion like, not the judgement.

  53. 24/10/2009 at 06:26 Vinraith says:

    It’s very pretty, both graphically and musically. The level design is interesting.

    Like all platformers these days, though, I got irritated/bored with it about 10 minutes after I started playing it. I think the genre’s simply lost to me, sadly.

    • 25/10/2009 at 19:48 lalahsghost says:

      The game is all too linear. on the later teleport stages, there is nearly only one way to get back to the main station. This game is too artsy-smartschy for me. This would be a good way to do a 2d Resident Evil, though~

  54. 24/10/2009 at 06:30 Idle Threats and Bad Poetry says:

    So how do we interpret this? Was they guy trying to escape the calamities that were unleashed in each world or was he the one who unleashed them in a brief by noisy attempt to create silence?

  55. 24/10/2009 at 06:51 Wulf says:

    How do I even begin…

    Let’s take the mechanical side of it first. I’m going to get a lot more out of this than most people, simply because if asked to name favourite games, I’d mention stuff like Uru and Knytt/Knytt Stories, with honourable mentions to Gothic, Outcast, and Ultima VII. See the pattern? Each had glorious forms of exploration, wonder… such wonder, no matter how limited, or contrarily how amazingly they didn’t sully their wonder with high-end graphics.

    I like exploration and wonder, especially if it ends on a crescendo, a happy ending, the wave rises high into incredible emotional heights. That’s what I got from Uru, and Knytt, and Gothic, and this… ?

    Hmm…

    :/

    I loved it, frankly, it moved me, but I felt let down by the throwaway ending, which might have been meaningful to some but I felt conned. I understood that my little man was exploring dead worlds and seeing devastation all around, morbid chaos, and even to a degree, despair… but there was that music, that bloody music.

    That bloody music.

    To be honest, I think this game might’ve been better if it were silent. As I like to say, don’t get me wrong, the music was beautiful, but that was the problem, that’s what I took away from it, that despite the surrounding hell, my little man had hope.

    He had a plan.

    Then, hey… what’s he doing? That looks like an escape pod? I wonder if some genesis device will be put to use, to give me a huge, procedurally generated World of life and splendour to explore? I knew he had a plan! And … wait, what’s that… ? That… That… That…

    YOU STUPID BARSTEWARD, YOU SHOT YOURSELF INTO THE SUN! D:<

    You got the co-ordinates wrong, you incompetent sod!

    WTF?! D:< GAAAH~!

    This lead to minutes of fuming at the silly idiot.

    That's interesting, and really entertaining in its own way, but… with all that ebbing and flowing hope surging into a wave of potential…

    So yeah, a great game, but a bit let down by either the music or the ending. I can't decide which.

    My little man was supposed to have a plan.

    *sniff.*

    • 24/10/2009 at 06:57 Wulf says:

      And yes, I was hoping for Deus Ex Machina, is that so wrong? Maybe even a time machine! I’d go back and set it all right! My little dude was just collecting data for a great experiment that would undo the end times, and make everything good again!

      That he just shot himself into the sun was emotionally jarring, very much so, and I can’t decide whether that’s brilliant, or just bloody lazy, and whether I appreciated it, or hated it with every fibre of my being.

      :’< Poor dead Universe.

      Sometimes I think I'm more John Walk than John Walker.

    • 24/10/2009 at 07:39 Mister Yuck says:

      No no no, you’ve got it all wrong. You can’t change the ending, the ending’s the whole point! Forgive me for being an English major about this, but I’m an English major…

      The narrative of the game is the player character exploring, seeking out beauty in what remains of nature. That’s why the music is so important; these bleak scenes are really sublime. Beautiful. Purdy.

      Which is absolutely wonderful, because that’s exactly what the game is for the player. The mechanics of the game make the player’s motivations exactly alligned to the player character’s. You’re both just exploring to see all the shinies!

      And then, you come back from the last portal. And you’re out of shinies. For the player, the game is over. All the portals close behind you-no more game. If there weren’t an ending, you’d close the window and end the game. But, there is a perfect ending.

      The player character is out of stuff to do too. His motivations are the players. So he ends his experience, simultaneously with the player. Fucking perfect.

    • 24/10/2009 at 10:34 Owen says:

      seriously…what the fuck guys?!! spoiler alerts maybe? jesus.

    • 24/10/2009 at 11:46 Tei says:

      *spoiler*
      He is the last man of the human race, of all races. After exploring all old world, and seeing now life on all world on all colonized world, he realize he is last, to all races and worlds. It was his decission, to sunk his shutle in a star.

  56. 24/10/2009 at 07:27 Mister Yuck says:

    Really, first comment and everything? Dick move.

    Could someone delete this before more people read it?

  57. 24/10/2009 at 07:41 Mister Yuck says:

    This really needs to not be the first visible comment. Can some man or God fix this somehow?

  58. 24/10/2009 at 09:04 Frankie The Patrician[PF] says:

    AW COOL…I would never expect the first post to be an end-spoiler. Thank You, Mr. Impulsive, really

  59. 24/10/2009 at 09:26 Heliocentric says:

    It wasn’t the first post, it was like the 71st or something. Stupid comment paging, i’ll admit it stops my browser stalling because of a 4000 comment piracy arguement.

  60. 24/10/2009 at 10:51 Shadowcat says:

    Which reminds me… that aspect of the paging has bugged me ever since it was introduced. RPS, could you please fix your paging? It’s just dumb to start at the last page. Feel free to remember track how many replies we’ve seen, and start on that page, but default to the first page!

  61. 24/10/2009 at 10:57 Owen says:

    Really, really enjoyed that. Wonderful start to a saturday morning. Finding little gem-games like this is what it’s all about for me.

    Seriously pissed off that a few cock-ends posted spoilers though. But hey, some people are like that. Hey-ho.

  62. 24/10/2009 at 11:45 BigJonno says:

    The snow world was perfect. It’s pretty and Christmassy (the wife commented that it sounded like The Nightmare Before Christmas) and then you find the base….and the map….and the silos…

    The others weren’t as good, they didn’t have the same sense of narrative, but that one should be a model for all exploration games, ever.

  63. 24/10/2009 at 11:49 Jetsetlemming says:

    I enjoyed it, and I also felt that compulsive desire to uncover all the maps, and then screenshot them to show them to somebody for some reason (even though nobody’s online and I didn’t actually save any of those print screens).
    The ending made a whole lot more sense after I read Mr Yuck’s post. The dude was sight-seeing for the memories, like when you wander around your house thinking about what went on in it the last moments before you leave to move somewhere else (in his case, the fucking sun).

  64. 24/10/2009 at 12:18 Idle Threats and Bad Poetry says:

    So, I’ve read the interpretations so far, and they’ve helped, but how does the noise/silence motif fit into things?

  65. 24/10/2009 at 12:32 Lacero says:

    If we all post lots that spoiler won’t be the first visible comment.

  66. 24/10/2009 at 12:42 Chaz says:

    I really liked it. Exploration for exploration’s sake, that’s right up my street. Very relaxing and I liked the art style. No idea what any of it was supposed to mean, and quite frankly I don’t care either.

  67. 24/10/2009 at 13:27 TheBlackBandit says:

    I couldn’t get past halfway through the first level. I got stuck – is there any way to crouch?

  68. 24/10/2009 at 14:13 sinister agent says:

    No online multiplayer. 2/10.

  69. 24/10/2009 at 14:15 terry says:

    Eh, it was okay. Not enough subways for a holocaust.

  70. 24/10/2009 at 15:42 Hmm-Hmm. says:

    A little wonder of a game. Wonder combined with a feeling of desolation, emptiness and a lack of direction.

  71. 24/10/2009 at 18:20 TheApologist says:

    Yeah – agree about the paging of comments. Love the site, but I spend far less time reading the comments now cause it doesn’t make intuitive sense

  72. 24/10/2009 at 19:51 KilgoreTrout_XL says:

    Very cool. I really enjoyed that.

  73. 24/10/2009 at 21:18 Rane2k says:

    Beautiful little game, or rather interactive story, art-appreciation with nice music … thing. :-)

    Doesn´t happen often that I play browser games more than once.

    Regarding the comment system: I´d also appreciate if the first page of comments would open up on page-load. It´s very confusing the way it is now. Or at least implement another page counter/navigator at the top of the comments. Currently you always have to scroll down to see if you´re on page 1 or 2.

  74. 24/10/2009 at 22:43 K says:

    Add to that the fact that the latest comments may not even be on the last page anyway because a reply is grouped with the original comment makes it all a bit awkward.

  75. 24/10/2009 at 23:07 Huggster says:

    I love games like this as they make you use your imagination and fill in the blanks – in a very good way. reminds me of old speccy games which required just that. Really outstanding.

  76. 25/10/2009 at 00:12 Matthew Whittingham says:

    No one got the little motif of the more you explore, the clearer things get, the more you get a sense of the bigger picture, and the more ugliness you see? I got a real sense of someone searching for beauty (He starts in a fairly desolate place, what else would he be looking for?), but the harder he looked, the worse it all seemed. Any beauty – and this was especially so on the snow level and the way that was designed – eventually proved to give way to something more desolate underneath. When you’ve reached the end of your search and all you see is ugliness, what else would you do? The music was hopeful, and that only makes the ending that much more painful.

    Grim, yes. But beautiful too.

  77. 25/10/2009 at 04:57 Lobster says:

    Its funny, this game probably has less pixels than most Screenshots I will see this year, but it still managed to inspire me more creatively than most of the games I will play.

  78. 25/10/2009 at 06:01 Urthman says:

    I’m just complaining about the stupid comment pagination to help get the spoiler off the front page.

    But I really do hate the stupid comment pagination.

    And I really really liked this game. Probably would have loved it and cried like John Walker if it hadn’t been for the spoiler.

    Thanks for linking to this, Kieron. Really amazingly good.

  79. 25/10/2009 at 10:59 Kieron Gillen says:

    I’ve just deleted the spoiler. But yeah, would be good to get it fixed, eh?

    KG

  80. 25/10/2009 at 13:24 Markoff Chaney says:

    Thank goodness for being late to the party. I also tend to play these little/big/art/interpretation games before reading comments not because people are inherently mean, but, in a discussion, we tend to talk about the things that make us Think.

    Beautiful work. Music went nicely with the story being told through our actions and unveiling of the world we explore. Thanks for the link, Kieron. Wonderful thing to wake up to on a Sunday morning, even if it’s a little bleak. What isn’t in the long run, though? Thank You.

  81. 25/10/2009 at 13:31 Electrophotonic says:

    Great little game! For some reason I saw the protagonist as a prisoner trying to find a way out, and in that context the ending was even more confusing. Definitely my kind of gameplay though, being a huge fan of Knytt Stories, Cave Story and all.

  82. 25/10/2009 at 15:58 Swanny says:

    Played it a few times now- i thing each level may represent an idea.

    MASSIVE SPOILER WARNING!

    Nuclear winter (snow level)
    The war room with the flashing lights connects to an empty missile tube.

    Killing babies- (blue level with biological elements)
    The level exit looks to be the brain of an inverted dead fetus.

    Pollution (fountain city level)
    Notice how the water bercomed polluted, then is pumped into the beautiful fountains over the city?

    Religion? (rock level with light in middle)
    I honestly have no other ideas on this level.
    Though i find it interesting that there is a light in the center and you bypass it on you way out.

    All these things can drive a person to want to throw themselves into the sun.

  83. 25/10/2009 at 16:00 Swanny says:

    Played it a few times now- i thing each level may represent an idea.

    MASSIVE SPOILER WARNING!

    Nuclear winter (snow level)
    The war room with the flashing lights connects to an empty missile tube.

    Killing babies- (blue level with biological elements)
    The level exit looks to be the brain of an inverted dead fetus.

    Pollution (fountain city level)
    Notice how the water becomes polluted, then is pumped into the beautiful fountains over the city?

    Religion? (rock level with light in middle)
    I honestly have no other ideas on this level.
    Though i find it interesting that there is a light in the center and you bypass it on you way out.

    All these things can drive a person to want to throw themselves into the sun.

  84. 25/10/2009 at 16:10 Heliocentric says:

    There should have been a comment thread level, i’m building my rocket now.

  85. 25/10/2009 at 19:10 kafka7 says:

    Best game I’ve played this year.

  86. 25/10/2009 at 19:36 cypher says:

    Superb, beatiful… proof that games don't need to dilute their central concept with peripherals like aimless violence. Probably the 'browser' game ive most enjoyed since Today.

  87. 25/10/2009 at 19:58 nam says:

    i agree with cypher. nice soundtrack.

  88. 25/10/2009 at 22:24 Urthman says:

    After playing this, I really want someone to make a big no-combat game about exploration where the micro-level exploration is really fun and interesting and beautiful and as you explore you reveal some larger picture. The gameplay can be open-world racing, 2D or 3D platforming like Prince of Persia, Tomb Raider, Mario, Spider-Man, etc., Myst-style puzzle solving. I don’t care. But I want it to feel like this.

    • 25/10/2009 at 22:52 Huggster says:

      Agreed I would love that. However part of its charm is it makes you use your imagination. Crysis is lovely, but it leaves nothing to the imagination.

  89. 26/10/2009 at 02:35 lobo_tuerto says:

    Agree with Huggster. That’s been my main argument pro old-games vs last generation games.

    In the old times, game graphics (because of it’s own limitations) would present abstract representations of things, and you, as the player would use a lot your imagination, and what you experienced would be something not defined, or limited, but somewhat endless.

    Now you can see every detail on game characters or environments, don’t take me wrong, some are truly beautiful, but it feels like it doesn’t let anything for our imaginations.

  90. 26/10/2009 at 02:40 Imagery says:

    The picture for the article doesn’t do the game justice (looks like those cross-section human anatomy diagrams of the mid section from high school sex-education).

    • 26/10/2009 at 13:54 Glove says:

      If the picture did any more justice it’d make it less fun to actually play, (y’know, sense of wondrous discovery and all).

  91. 26/10/2009 at 16:29 Soren Johnson says:

    What I meant is that Small Worlds gets the exploration and ambience of my ideal PoP game right. I loved Sand of Time but could have gone without either the combat or the linearity. Plus, I wanted to be able to go everywhere I could see…

  92. 26/10/2009 at 20:31 Iucounu says:

    The linearity of it is intentional. The designer wants you to see the big picture – the fun of it is in the way you seem to discover it naturally. That, along with the fact that you can’t die, provides an interesting control; it proves experimentally that a game can still be engrossing even if it requires almost no challenge to complete and runs on invisible rails.

Comment on this story

XHTML: Allowed code: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <strike> <strong>

Respond to our gibber

Read our finest words

(Not) Rocket Science In Kerbal Space Program

Search for clues

Play indie, mods, demos

Browse the archive