okay, i must be missing something here, but I played that game. I don't see why it's so good. Really, whats the big deal with it?

Passage will not blow your mind. It will also not bring you to tears contrary to popular belief...

(In monotone voice) Wow, sounds like fun.

Cool! I guess!

Interesting...I'm excited to see what he will create!

MAJESCO? AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

8-Bit graphics + piano = OMG

Well, the basic idea as described by Rohrer himself sure sounds intriguing. While I definitely understand the emotional appeal of his earlier games (...and maybe you have to be a bit older than the average Destructoid user to be really grabbed by it), his gameplay mechanics have usually been inventive but not something which would hold up for longer playing sessions. It's going to be interesting to see how he makes the Passage (sorry about that) from conceptual indie freeware to a full-fledged commercial Nintendo DS title...

This is good news. Passage is awesome.

I am very excited for this. For those of you who weren't crazy about Passage, you may want to try Gravitation, from the same site. If you've ever been involved in a creative process, I think you'll find it very interesting.

I'm amazed that a strategy game about conflict diamonds is being made. That is incredible and exciting. Probably a day one purchase for me.

Ugh... passage was awful. Not even a game. Holding right on the keyboard is not a game.

I wonder if age does have something to do with it. I just hit thirty and I thought Passage was fantastic. It didn't make me cry but it certainly made me think. For several hours.

Oh wait, you can go up and down too?! GOTY!

Maybe in Passage 2, they'll add an action button or something. I had better keep this idea on the downlow though, in some countries I could be executed for such revolutionary ideas.

to those brought to tears by passage

read a book.

or watch a decent movie. Not transformers 2 or anything with Nicholas Cage in it.

You're obviously underexposed to emotion. Honestly.

@KorJax I pretty much agree with you. I didn't realize you could go up and down at first, either. And the treasure chests aren't very clear. Try Gravitation! It takes a smaller set of ideas, and I think does more with them. Also, thanks for discussing! I'm always glad when folks are into talking about games, instead of just saying "I like or don't like this."

@ Passage haters:

I liked Passage because of the amount of thought that went into the mechanics of the game in relation to the message. Most games-with-a-message just kind of shoehorn the message by way of cutscenes, or narrative, or some other non-interactive means. In Passage, every aspect of the game is meaningful and the interactivity is inseparable from the meaning of the game.

Passage wasn't a great game in the traditional sense. It was easy, it didn't have any gameplay depth, it was short, etc. But I don't think it was trying to be a traditionally great game. It was an experiment. While other games innovate on technology or gameplay mechanics, Passage innovated on the coupling of mechanics and meaning. I think that's an important and under-explored area for innovation.

Passage was brilliant.

Yes, it was "pretentious." ALL ART IS INHERENTLY PRETENTIOUS. That's not an insult, either: to actually convey a message about life and the world through an artistic endeavor, a given artist must first convince him or herself that their message is something worth saying. An artist MUST operate under the pretense that their message is worth conveying, even if they wouldn't say it out loud for fear of being mocked by those for whom pretension has a negative connotation. If they don't, they will never make any art.

Take the message of, say, Casablanca: "Sometimes we must sacrifice the things we want for the greater good." Now say that out loud. Sounds incredibly cheesy, doesn't it? Not to mention obvious. But how often do you really, honestly consider that idea? How often do you stop and look at that idea and see the essential truth (or falsity) of it? And yet, when you watch Casablanca, that's the idea you walk away thinking about. UNIRONICALLY. That's what art does: it reveals truths we take for granted and forces us to really consider them and what they mean. Passage reveals several truths worth thinking about, and it is thus a successful work of art.

Of course, art is also subjective. The message of Casablanca I mentioned above? That's my take on it. I'm sure everybody takes something different away from the film, and the best art is expansive enough to accommodate many interpretations.

The problem with the responses I'm seeing here is not that the haters didn't like Passage. The problem is that they seem to have steadfastly refused to engage with the game on an intellectual level. That's effectively like go up to Michaelangelo's statue of David, look at it for one second, and go "I don't get it. It's a naked guy with a leaf. GROW UP, MICHAELANGELO." Do you do that? Because that'a exactly what you're doing with Passage.

Now, to be clear, I don't think Passage is up there with Casablanca or the statue of David. Several complaints listed here are certainly valid, and the message is perhaps a little too obtuse in its presentation. I do, however, think that it is a fine work of art and an excellent stab at uniting meaning and mechanics. When everyone in the games industry can unite meaning and mechanics as well as Jason Rohrer can right now, we'll see progress far beyond that. We will see works of art just as beautiful and meaningful as Casablanca or the statue of David, and they will be works that use the unique qualities of the medium to their fullest extent.