Cruise Elroy

While shopping at Target, Kevin Allen Jr. noticed something strange about a rack of t-shirts: each one had an cardboard CD case attached. Closer inspection revealed that the CDs were actually short video games from the Experimental Gameplay Project — a challenge to prototype an original game idea in less than a week.

The games are all pretty interesting sounding. Not your usual game content, for example there is a game where you’re a little dude with a gigantic head (like, your head has gravity and that effects play) trying to grow a dozen roses so you can attract the attention of a girl with a gigantic head. Or you are a robot spider in some uncertain distant desert future that has to traverse a dangerous landscape all while keeping your egg sac safe for future generations. The games get variously more abstract from there.

These are the rules of the Experimental Gameplay Project, as listed on the website:

1. Each game must be made in less than seven days,
2. Each game must be made by exactly one person,
3. Each game must be based around a common theme i.e. “gravity”, “vegetation”, “swarms”, etc.

The first two rules seem designed to create a creative frenzy akin to NaNoWriMo or the RPM Challenge, which thrive on the panic created by a looming deadline. This state is perhaps responsible for the bizarreness of the prototypes.

The third rule, though, really strikes at the core of game design. Many of the video game canon’s most beloved titles are built on simple mechanics. Isn’t Super Mario Bros. really just based around jumping? Isn’t Portal really just based around, well, portals? With so many developers intent on tossing in the kitchen sink, it’s refreshing to see games that strip away the extraneous nonsense and go back to basics. That focus, combined with the original gameplay ideas that the project encourages, are what make small independent games like these exciting.

In closing, Allen provides another nice perspective on the casual/hardcore/bridge trichotomy I wrote about yesterday:

These games are short, they play in the time it takes to watch a tv show or a youtube video, not an epic mini series. These are games for people who like games but don’t have the interest to invest 40+ hours of their lives in cinematic immersion. At the same time this is an informed audience. They are aware of the big games out there. I would imagine most of these folks probably have a “gamer” buddy who they play with once in a while, who informs their opinions about games. These more serious players buy and try the products in the game software aisles. The games that make the cut get filtered down to your casual crowd, our t-shirt buyers. These games are about pure fun.

(Hat tip to Waxy for the link.)