Gee-o-metric: Proun
I'm not one to leap with joy at news of a new racing game, but when I see a trailer like the one below the joy-leaping muscles begin to clench. Proun, which is a splendid word, is a 3D obstacle-avoiding puzzly racing game set in a bizarre world of geometric shapes. You rotate around a cable, rather than steering, in a gorgeous looking environment. The project by Joost van Dongen is due to be released early next year, and will be freeware, according to IndieGames.
Dongen is pleasingly unabashed about his position on the artistry of gaming:
"Games are art. Games are a new medium, not in any way less than sculpture, painting, film or music. Right now, we are still experimenting with the possibilities of games; we are like film in the time of the Lumiere brothers. Game developers have found some tricks that work and sell and that have grown the industry, but I believe we have only seen a glance of the broad possibilities of games. Maybe not all games have to entertain or educate, maybe there is room for games that are disgusting, no fun at all, or games that are just sad, or psychedelic, with their meaning slipping through your fingers like water. Games that broaden your mind. Games that are art."
And the trailer demonstrates this well enough for me.