This morning, tipster Detry sent us a link to what may be the most singularly weird Flash "game" ever put on the Internet. It's called game, game, game and again game and it's either a genius piece of self-reflective work on the validity of design as art superimposed on top of none-too-subtle messages concerning the materialism of the 21st century, or it's what happens when a Flash programmer has one too many beers.
You play a squiggle, and your objective in each of the 13 levels is simply to reach a door. While one out of every five levels actually makes this goal sort-of-kind-of difficult to reach, for the most part the game just revolves around artistic interpretation of the landscape. Every time you hit an "item," it disappears and is replaced with random words/philosophy. Every once in a while, you can watch a video by the creator.
So, work of genius or mindless BS? As always, you be the judge.
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Contest:
12:49 PM on 04.26.2007
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It's basically someone trying to make game art, "hey let me put some more scribbles, thatll make it more artsy and crazy"
it's kinda interesting, like he's the pollock of flash, taking something usually very clean and typically kinda sterile (flash vector art) and making it organic and about the act and movement inherent to animation. or you could relate it to the typesetting work of david carson, the way he changed the function of type into a graphical element and allowed it to convey a feeling, this guy took the vectoring of flash and made it irrelevant and almost sickening in it's application.
also cocks
That doesn't mean to say i don't like this, i just don't know whether to define it as some smug prick sitting there happy because he was able to play people around to the point of making them think he's a genius, or someone who actually wanted to do something different and who really appreciates what he's saying and has an entire philosophy behind the things he thinks.
The natural temptation for most people is to say the former, but there are some things that actually stand out as being really inspired. There's a little bit on the penultimate level where you have to choose between two doors with a heavy suggestion for you to pick one in particular. If you pick the other one, you get sent back. But it subtley highlights a point about obedience which you pick up on and have to learn from in order to get the get the final prize. Yes, it may be pretencious, but it makes you think, and while it's still a very blurred distinction, it's still something.
Basically, as much as i hate to say it, i'm leaning towards the idea that there might be something in this, i think it's the video at the end. I'm still not taking it entirely seriously though.
Anyone know where I can get my hands on some human adrenal glands?
I certainly wouldn't go so far as to call this a work of genius, but I did enjoy it myself. Programming is a very rigid and structural processes, as a result a lot of games can feel pretty impersonal. Building something that seems ramshackle and haphazard within that structure is a pretty interesting concept(I'm doing something similar in a game I'm writing at the moment, but not nearly to the same extent). Gh05T made a pretty good point about the sterility of flash games' vector graphics too.
-> Ugly: I don't get any impression of smugness from this game at all. Stuff like the game's intro page and about are clearly self depreciating, and he actually thanks players for tolerating the game long enough to play to the end. Also, the ending video(which I found pretty funny) does show he's not taking himself too seriously. Just because something tries to be different, it doesn't automatically make it pretentious. It's attitudes like that that stifle people from wanting to be creative, and without creativity there's no innovation or change, just stagnation.
-> Rev ant: Good call on posting this. I hope it'll generate some decent debate on the "games as art" front. It almost makes up for that 4/10 debacle(nevar forget...).
Maybe I'm lame for liking it, but when I spend hours of my day playing Population: Tire and Falling Sand it obviously doesn't take much to amuse me.
"come on and meet your maker"
sage francis anyone
I support being different and (i'm not blaming you not reading and remembering every post i've made, but) i've been making that pretty clear in my posts, i think. The problem is exactly that if you try to be different, you're accused of being pretencious, but the reason for that is because it's so difficult to define between the two. I want to support people being different, i really do, but i don't want to be caught out mistaking one for the other, so i was kinda sitting on the fence and not really saying either way. That being said, you have made some good points.
Check out this game. I think you'll like it.
Forbidden.
I think I was planning on making another point, but what it was has entirely escaped me. Too much adrenochrome...
-> Phil: I didn't mean to give the impression I was attacking you, one of the unfortunate limitations of textual communication. I was simply trying to discuss a point you validly raised. For all I know, the guy IS a smug prick, laughing at all the gullible morons who actually thought his joke of a game was good. My point was just that in this particular instance, I don't believe that's the case. The only thing I meant as a statement I was moderately certain about was that this wasn't mindless. If it is some kind of joke, the guy sure went to a lot of effort for that punchline.
One question I would pose to you would be to ask why you're so concerned about being caught on the wrong side of the fence?
–noun
1. the quality, production, expression, or realm, according to aesthetic principles, of what is beautiful, appealing, or of more than ordinary significance.
You didn't give me the impression that i was attacking you, and i'm sorry i gabe you that impression, i think you just misunderstood me. But enough of this, we could be here for a while otherwise.
As for being wrong, it's hard to put into words. I mean, it's obvious to you until you have to describe it. I suppose it's because i draw a line between meaningful art and pretencious, intellectually stunted art. There are people who are actually striving to understand the world, to produce something that the can call their own, to express beyond the normal - it's different from person to person. But then there are people who are doing it to look good in the crowd, people who are doing it for money or for attention, I don't know. Then there are people who just aren't trying. I don't want to support a kind of apathetic, easy take on life. People who make cheap jokes at easy targets for example, or people who take trust for granted.
It's a very complicated argument, and i suppose you've caught me at a bad time. I'm still trying to understand myself and i can't always come up with an answer immedately. The basics of it though are that i don't want to be wrong, i don't want to see art in everything, i only want to see art in tallent, effort or intelligence. I want to see art in things that people have invested themselves in. I mean, lets say you get a troll on a forum. even if you agree with the general point their making, you don't ACTUALLY agree with them, do you? Because they're just showing off, violating their freedom, being a pain in the ass. You just imagine some nice juicey insult and you send them on their way...
I could go on about this for ages, but it just boils down to perspective... Why do i not want to be on the wrong side of the fence? I don't know, probably because i just don't want to look like an idiot, but i don't know.
When i look at art, or most things in life, i try and take something away from it about the person who made it and ultimately about humanity or behavior in general; I'm trying to understand a persons mind. I don't ever say "the artist was thinking this when he made it", i come up with a list of possibilities, of supposes, what he could have been thinking and trying to analyse the different areas on the art such as the strength of the brush strokes or the wording or the story being told - whatever it is in the art that actually matters.
The problem is that with art this vague and frayed and wild, it's just hard to tell exactly what was going on in the artists mind. Or at least, it's too easy, because you've just got two very strong and obvious points of view:
1. He was drunk
2. He was being different
So i prefer to sit on the fence until i can come up with a real reason why i think one way or the other, so that i can actually, truely understand something useful. I mean, if i'm interpreting something which is fake or just nonsense, then I'm blundering right into the mistake of imbueing TOO MUCH meaning into stuff, and that's part of the course to looking back on yourself and saying "wasn't i such an idiot at that age?" Of course, the chances are that'll happen anyway, but i'd like to think I at least wasn't the cliché teenager, trying to find beauty and sadness in everything and trying to act like i know everything and anyone 2 years older than me and vaguely famous is an idol and so on.
Anyway. Im OK pretty much gave the answer I was implying. If you like something, who cares where it came from, or what other people think about it. Basically, there's no point in taking life that seriously. Cheap jokes on easy targets can be hilarious(see south park). Art is just a word, and it can be easily argued that everything created by man is art, to some degree. Someone trolling a forum isn't violating their freedom, they're expressing it, and sometimes it's more entertaining to play along.
There are no rights and wrongs when it comes to stuff like this. Your liking something shouldn't be dependant on other people's opinions. Say you like listening to justin timberlake. I may(and would) slag you about it, or otherwise express scorn and dismay, but it would in no way invalidate your opinion. Some people just like a catchy beat, and that's absolutely their right.
It's good to talk to people like you guys, it's reassuring to know that there are intelligent people out there.
->Phil: Everyone changes over the course of their lives. That doesn't make who a person is at any given time any less themselves. As long as you're honest with yourself, there's no reason to view a past self as immature, and there's absolutely no point in trying to be a future self it's impossible to predict. Finally, most people are wrong about most things most of the time. There's no shame in it. The only problem comes about when people are unwilling to admit their mistakes, and insist they're right pigheadedly against all reason. If you learn from your errors, they can actually benefit you more than your victories.
Just as an aside(about the meatcake thing), you shouldn't make assumptions about things you haven't tried.
unique experience
Howdy all, noticed all the hits from this site to my artwork and after reading the commentary....wanted to offer my thoughts, being the creator of this work.
It is strange that so many people are suggesting that I must have been under some influence when creating this. Have you ever tried to make a flash game under anything but strong tea? I suppose I created this to counter what I see as a trend in net art, the trend of clean lines and straight forward ideas. Most of our lives and belief systems are a muddled and confused mess, and thus the work is equally messy and strange. Also this work comes from the tradition of digital poetics, and I thought using a game interface as a way of navigating through non-linear poetry and hand drawn elements would draw people into the artwork. And would help gain an audience outside the art world. And it seems to have worked.
If you are curious you can explore some of my other artworks:
http://www.secrettechnology.com/works/everything.htm
And again, being the creator of this artwork, it is exciting to see it is generating converations on cool sites like destructoid.
cheers, Jason Nelson
Thinking along the same lines.
The meat cake thing actually just didn't work. I was finding it hard to actually think up stuff you use as bad ingredients - first i thought salt, but then i thought that might work, then i thought fruit, but there's carrot cake and then there's cheese cake and the only think that i could coe up with that was abstract enough was meat. Anyway.
The basic logic for it is being the best you can be. Of course people make mistakes, of course there's no shame in it and of course it's all part of growing, that's all very cliché and super. But take a look at Sun Tsu's Art of War. He describes preparedness and understanding; victory comes not just through understanding your enemy but from understanding yourself, which i presume to mean your limitations, your advantages, you disadvantages, the way other people see you, and so on. In other words, to be self aware.
Of course people are going to make mistakes, I make them all the time, but as long as i'm prepared for the idea that i'll make mistakes, we're okay. The problem arises when i make stupid mistakes, mindless blunders into things i should have thought about more thoroughly first. The way it relates to this is that if i go ahead and say "this is probably a load of shit" then there's the automatic counter argument of "but what if it isn't? What if this person has spent hours pouring their heart and mind into this and you've just decided to ridicule it there and then?", and vice versa.
I'm listening to System of a Down for the first time in ages and they still sound fantastic. My Chemical Romance, on the other hand, i grew out of. I don't mind that, and i still think that MCR have musical tallent, even if i don't like their songs at all any more. SoaD on the other hand are pure genius, you can appreciate it on different levels, so it grows with you. Actually, this comparison relates to this a lot more than i first thought; this game could be either of the above two, it could be just a random spew of emotion and rubbish like MCR, or it could be making real political and personal points, such as with SoaD. Just something to think about, i suppose...
Anyway. It comes down to leaving your options open, not going blindly into a dead end and then havng to back track if you can work out the route logically (i'm thinking of it like a hedge maze). Of course people are going to make mistakes, but not all mistakes are unavoidable.
If you want to go into this on a psychological level, it makes sense; i was bullied at school as a kid and led to believe that any expression would result in ridicule, so i began to choose my words more carefully as i grew up and hold my opinions back until i was sure i was right, so that i didn't embarress myself. It's very textbook and all part of life.
Aw, to hell, i'm just gonna go ahead and say this. Look, try and get one step ahead of my thinking. Right now you're saying things that are very true, but for the most part i already know, i've already thought about and gone beyond... try and imagine the thought processes that i'd go through, then combine it with your own mindset and come up with an answer.
I think the only advice I can give that would be of any use to you would be to try meditation. Read a few chapters of this and make up your own mind. There's more to it than you may have been led to believe.
-> helipod: Some interesting stuff there. Don't have time at the moment to check them all out(there are lots), but I especially liked between treacherous objects. Digital art should really be the subject of more media attention. You can really do some pretty amazing things with 1s and 0s. Have you ever heard of processing? It's absolutely ideal for those kind of thangs. It's basically a specialised java api/IDE for visual projects, so it's far more powerful than flash(I imagine, haven't used flash myself). Check out the examples for an idea of what it's good for. I'm making a game with it myself at the moment(still very early build, not close to the final feature set{if it runs like ass in the browser, you can download an exe from the page}).
Cheers,
Bradley
Nor is Jason Nelson... that was as bad as Will Ferrell's acting mixed with Superman Returns: The Video Game, E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial for Atari 2600, and Joseph Lieberman.
I blame the state of COnnecticut, EA, and Xbox Live Marketplace.
The only way to "win" the game is to reach enlightenment/kill yourself.
I'd like to see what happens if you make someone who was truly mentally delusional play this game.