Sleep is Death is either going to be one of the coolest things I've ever played, or it's going to reflect my own boringness in such a way that I'll never be able to do anything remotely interesting with it.
Described as "a storytelling game for two players," Jason Rohrer's Sleep is Death will likely adhere to his New Gamist Manifesto -- which, if you're too lazy to click the link, means it'll have less to do with scripted narrative, AI-driven characters and a definite endpoint and more to do with endless discovery and player-on-player interaction.
In lieu of a video trailer, the Sleep is Death site has a surprisingly exciting slide show/preview thing created entirely in the game engine. It's interesting stuff, but, again, I worry I'm either too dumb to understand the interface, or too boring to create really interesting stories.
You can pre-order the game for $9 and get it a week early, or wait until April 16th and pay $14 for it. Since the game is two-player only, your $9 entry fee gets you two copies of the game.
Contest:
3:00 PM on 02.28.2010
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Do want...
I feel like Tim Schäfer just released his new metal game that promised me to be the fucking shit...only with Rohrer I know it will be awesome.
Ironically enough, I donated more money for passage than Sleep is death costs.
Is this christmas or am I dead and in Heaven?
What happens if you want to swap who does what?
Looks good, will probably buy if I can find a friend to give the free 2nd player to.
Sort of like Bakushow, it's most likely only as good as you make it.
idk.
Also, this isn't very encouraging: "It is easiest to play over a local network. Have a friend over and plug in two laptops, or play over local WiFi. It can be played remotely over the Internet, but one player will probably need to fiddle with his or her router settings. Instructions for remote Internet play are included."
Well, I'm living with one person I was considering playing it with next year, so LAN = no problem, but I don't know if she would like it or not.
I suppose I could buy it twice (if I like it) as it's only a fiver or so...
Passage was shitty, pretentious garbage.
This, however, looks REALLY FREAKING awesome, but just glazed over in a layer of pretentiousness - a layer which you can ignore. I think Jason thinks of it as "art", but to be, it just looks freaking FUN!
Oh, man... it's like Omegle meets The Sims or something.
Well, I didn't see any merits to it. Was boring, and the only message it really delivered was the tired old story of "carpe diem".
I'm really excited to see if I can pull off playing this game with my girlfriend without her realizing it's two player. That slideshow really gives the impression that you could fool someone into thinking that the game is like magic or something. Can't wait to try this out for myself and learn the interface :)
So... whycome the excitement?
That's a fair question, honestly. If the game doesn't do something to spur you into a particular sort of creativity, or give you really interesting opportunities with its tools, it could definitely become a slightly more structured version of Pictochat.
Quirky, yes, but ancient, and not original.
What we have here is pretty much just a restrictive version of what could be played with pen and paper; yes, the visuals and separation of players one and two adds some nice polish, but that's pretty much it; the only real special thing I see here is that the separation of players would make it seem more like the game itself was reacting to you, and not the second player, but overall you could get the same effect by chatting over AIM with someone extremely pretentious. For you to get ay actual meaning out of the game you would probably have to play with Rohrer himself. Furthermore, although it is interesting to have a game where NPCs actually react like real people, that's pretty much all it is; an interesting little experiment. Furthermore, because NPCs react like real people, their responses seem like they would be pretty predictable, unless player 2 would deliberately try to do something unnatural, in which case it would become more like The Path.
You could experiance the exact same thing by going into a house and just doing the sorts of things done in the game.
In any case, the idea is new and could definately be utilized, but in this situation, it seems like it wouldn't be special in any way; as far as I know, you go around doing stuff in a House. Cool?
This seems like it could be implemented better by using a multitude of real life people for individual NPCs in some sort of epic online rpg adventure, or something as simple as an all human animal crossing village; using just two people doesn't seem like it would make a big enough impact. Using real people for NPCs has so many better possible uses for simulating real situations than a guy in a house.
That's just me though; anyone else can feel free to check it out and enjoy it by all means; if you do, thats great. I just personally would want to buy a game to see what sort of experience the developer has created for me, not having to somehow flail around and wonder what sort of thing I'm personally experiancing.
Ack, I wrote a lot, and probably made myself sound like a jerk. Shit. >.>
Also, is it just me or was calling your own game 'magic' like, extremely pretentious?
If it's executed well, it could be a great Indie title. I, for one, can think of some pretty hilarious ways to use a game like this.
HE is not the one placing importance upon the game, others are. It's important to make that divide. If you don't like the game, cool, you don't have to, but that doesn't make it bad. Whether you enjoyed it or not, it is good design, and it has an audience who appreciate its themes. Don't be so ignorant.
Hmmm... why is it pretentious, let's see... well, first of all it's;
Adjective
1. Marked by an unwarranted claim to importance or distinction
Second, it's also;
2. Ostentatious; intended to impress others
But I think that's about it.
Also, don't even pretend he wasn't placing importance on it. The very act of making the game places unwarranted importance on it.
"Something he "felt" and wanted to express; you know, the very -idea- of art. Thats pretentious?"
Yeah, that kinda is. Especiall if the thing you want to express is basiclly just "DUR your gonna' die!".
Big game developers try new things all the time but never get the praise that people pile on this crap.
Independent developers are great as long as they stop making 'indie as a genre' games and actually try something new.
I mean look at how he describes his game called Gravitation: "my fourth game, about mania, melancholia, and the creative process." Like are you KIDDING me? It's fine if you would like to subtly inject an underlying theme into a video game, but something so heavy-handed and pedantic as this.. just, ugh. Games should focus on being games first, and let "big picture stuff" come second. That's one thing Jim Sterling is 100% correct on, is that indie developers need to cut the fuck out with this pretentious shit and just make solid games.
Also saying "you could just do this on paper/in a forum" is a little silly, I mean its not even out yet and it does put visuals to what you're doing in many ways. I mean you may as well argue that you could play any game on a forum.
*you step off of a train into a train station filled with threatening looking guards. A mans voice welcomes you to City 17 over a speaker while pontificating a speech about his great works. Exits E, type inv to check your inventory*
GASP ITS HALF LIFE 2, WHY BOTHER PLAYING THE GAME WHEN YOU COULD JUST DO IT ON A FORUM DERPDERP
But then again if you're the kind of person who thought it looked stupid, you're probably not the kind of person people would want to play this with anyways... so, despite how stupid I think your arguments are I dont actually care what you think about this I suppose
"Imagine a videogame where the nonplayer characters are being played by actual gamers who are providing in real time the games script and reacting according to how the player is acting. It would be completely impossible to do but it would be a great experiment to try to have all the nonplayer characters played by real people"
Sound familiar? How about we let Jim Sterling speak for Jim Sterling and you can just speak for yourself.
Preordering it will mean <i>less</i> money goes towards Jason Rohrer, someone I actually give a shit about.
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