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Why Robin Makes Batman Better The Kotaku calendar indicates that we should be up to our eyeballs in “Best of 2007″ lists by the start of next week. Fortunately, instead of focusing on the top ten games of the year based on some vague merit—that’s typically just a list of the year’s most hyped, biggest name titles—Next-Gen opted to focus on innovation. Don’t worry, some of the bigger software is included, such as Mass Effect and Call of Duty 4, but a few titles that wouldn’t normally make the cut are included.
Tis the season for lots of stress – the holidays and end of semester hysteria usually leave me wanting to crawl under a rock and hibernate for a few weeks – so Ian Bogost’s latest Persuasive Games column for Gamasutra was a welcome read through. The topic this time is on what makes a truly relaxing game. fl0w and Cloud, for all their appearances of being ‘meditative’ and relaxing games, are what Bogost terms “lean forward games”. That is, they’re twitchy and responsive and don’t exactly lend themselves to a truly relaxing experience, no matter how soothing the visuals may be. He also gives a nod to my favourite series of relaxation-through-repetitive-task games:
… the most Zen gardening in a video game by far is in Harvest Moon. The daily reaping, milking, chicken lifting, and related chores require precision, duty, and calm. The crop watering is my pick for the most calming, especially on the Game Boy or DS where the tile-based graphics more explicitly frame which square is which.
Harvest Moon emphasises the repetition of simple tasks as much as, if not more than, their outcomes. Animal Crossing and Harvest Moon are games that invite the player to complete these tasks independent of the long-term goals they facilitate. Both are games one might boot up late at night, before bed, to wind down.
Nothing like infinitely repeating tasks that includes flinging chickens around the barnyard to make for a soothing play experience. It’s a nice little article and a shift from the usual Bogost fare, and he makes some interesting points on the nature of relaxing games.
Persuasive Games: Video Game Zen [Gamasutra]
thatgamecompany’s Kelle Santiago spoke at the Montreal International Games Summit, revealing some helpful details about how the developer’s follow up to flOw will actually play. flOwer, which made its debut at the Tokyo Game Show in trailer form, will be at least in part a flower raising simulation. If that sounds like your cup of organic chamomile, flOwer is said to “give the player a visceral perspective, surreal and dreamlike” and “to experience a field in a way you couldn’t in real life”, according to Gamasutra’s account of Santiago’s talk.
The whole thing promises to grounded in emotion, giving players “possible interactions for playing as the wind.” Don’t worry, I’m sure she’ll be talking about the game’s weapon set at a future date and how online deathmatch works not long after that.
MIGS: First Details On flOwer [Gamasutra]
Rumor has it that if you keep a close eye on the trailers being shown off during the Sony Keynote tomorrow you’ll get a glimpse of the next title coming from That Game Company to the Playstation Network.
That Game Company signed a multi-game deal with Sony after their college creation, flow, caught the publisher’s eye. No word on what the game will be specifically, but I hear it will be instantly recognisable as something by the people behind the ambient, motion-controlled game.
I’m keeping my fingers crossed for a PSN version of Cloud.
