Slashdot Mirror
On The Untapped Potential Of Abstract Videogames
Thanks to the IGDA for their 'Ivory Tower' column discussing why abstract graphics and gameplay are often unfairly ignored when making today's videogames. The writer notes that: "Quite a few classic board games are fairly abstract in design, including Chess, Go, Scrabble, Checkers, and so on... it's what's at the core of the game that matters." He goes on to argue that "the figuring out of a game can be made as interesting as any puzzle the appears within the game itself", and references newer titles such as Rez and Frequency as carrying on the abstract aesthetic pioneered by games like Tempest and I, Robot.
I can't think of any recent game that got as much publicity as Tetris, a game which comfortably falls into this category. There were stories saying how Tetris would make your children smarter, and how some people were playing Tetris 20 hours a day.
I attended 'Game-On', an exhibition devoted to the history of computer games, in London (it's now in The Netherlands) about a year ago and watched some of their 'games related features' in the AV room. One of them had some professor claiming to know why people played Tetris so much, and why it was so addictive.
Supposedly, certain people are conquerors, and others are solvers. The solvers like to solve puzzles and produce order from chaos. Their challenge is to get things running smoothly. These sorts of people like Tetris, SimCity, Black & White, and those sorts of ultra abstract games (Black & White being an extreme example of a recent abstract game).
The conquerors prefer to create chaos, explore, or achieve goals by using power. These are your Quake 3, and RPG players.
So, any new abstract games would need to recognise these personalities. For example, there's probably not much of a market for an abstract beat-em-up (although Grand Theft Auto was surprisingly popular for all its freeform ways). Likewise, there's probably not much of a market for an adventure driven puzzle game (Bomberman is a solid exception here).
Anyway, I have no idea what I'm going on about now, so I'll stop there without making any conclusion at all.
mogorific carpentry experiments
Rez is one of the greatest things ever, in my opinion; I absolutely adore the game. However, I know that it sold pitifully small numbers, and when shown to idiots regularly gets ridiculed because the abstract presentation is seen as a step back in comparison to the latest boring quest for realism.
A lot of these people reacted really negatively to cel-shading as well, so its not just Rez - we all know what 'real' should look like, so its a lot easier to say whether someone has done well at it, rather than you just not liking the aesthetic that has been chosen.
Mind you, this goes further than just visuals; a quick look down this week's chart shows it full of games like Medal Of Honor and Need For Speed - the fantastic seems less popular than the "realistic" in game setting as well.
"I Know You Are But What Am I?"
I don't know if it qualifies as truly abstract, because some of the imagery definitely seems to represent actual objects, but this article made me think of vib-ribbon. It has a great look, but it's one that I'm pretty surprised made it onto shelves.
Perhaps one issue is that classic abstract games like chess, checkers, etc. do not need to be replaced multiple times a year. Whereas a dedicated FPS game player might buy multiple games each year, a computer chess player might buy one game every few years. The fixed nature of these classics means there is less incentive for game makers to create yet another version of chess, for example. In fact, I have an older friend who has had the same electronic scrabble game for 10 years - it works fine for her, so why buy another game?
Therefore, classic abstract games have lower sales (but may have higher total install base) because there is less turn-over.
Two wrongs don't make a right, but three lefts do.
I wonder how come no one's taken this concept to the next level, where you can draw in 360' directions rather than just 4 directions (up,down,right,left).
How about Qix in 3D?
You want abstract video game fun?
I've got your abstract video right here, pal.
Download tranquility from www.tqworld.com and give it a try.
As an experiment, I've made a single, free, slashdot communal account so you can see what the
game does beyond the demo levels.
login: slashdot
pass: tryit
With several people hitting the same account, the server might gripe about some things,
but let's give it a try and see what happens.
If you like shmups(vertical scrolling shoot'em ups with millions of bullets on the screen) you should check out:
ABA games
The graphics are abstract, but the gameplay is pure shmup. You can download the sourcecode and also modify the bullet patterns which he defines using an XML-like markup language called, bulletML.
Check this interesting article out... Sex in Games
Evan Reynolds evanthx@hotmail.com
Two peanuts crossed the street. One was assaulted.