A new music video: http://shadowjack-music.blogspot.com/2010/04/insect-boy-music-video.html

Made with old public domain educational films from archive.org.

[http://shadowjack-music.blogspot.com/]

I hope you all don't mind a bit of self promotion here. I have other projects as well as my game. I recently finished up a couple of albums and two music videos. I hope to in corporate all my interests into Zlythy. You can check them out at the following URLs:

Music blog: http://shadowjack-music.blogspot.com/
Bandcamp (downloads): http://shadowjack.bandcamp.com/
"Stones" music video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wK47gqOjA-E&hd=1
"Dustmen" music video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VwaXUo7KB90&hd=1

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/editorials/reviews/7241-Review-Endless-Ocean-Blue-World

"After having felt how I myself got filled with anger and aggression after playing this game, I have no doubt at all that this type of entertainment stimulates violent behaviour in people. This sort of stimulation is criminal."

I can see why you got flamed because that statement is utter horse shit. The connect between aggressive behaviour and violence in video games is tenuous at best. Like the supposed connection between porn and rape or marijuana as a "gateway drug." It's crap.

Anyway, my notgame history contribution, I'm surprised no one has mentioned it:

The Dark Eye
http://www.adventuregamers.com/article/id,317

As a game, it's pretty awful. The control is clunky and you need a walkthrough to get through parts of it. But as an experience, it's amazing. The reading of The Masque Of The Red Death by William S. Burroughs is worth it if for nothing else. It's not hard to find a download of it and it plays fine on Windows XP.

I have NO credentials and they let me in. So welcome!

Driving a wedge through the indie scene, thanks destructiod: http://www.destructoid.com/indie-games-don-t-have-to-act-like-indie-games-162789.phtml

I'm a big fan of painterly realism. Call me old fashioned but I find a well made painting infinitely more beautiful and interesting to look at than a well made photograph.

Agreed! I love the look of painting. Photo-realism is it's own thing. Sure realism was achieved with photography but there's so much you can do with paint that you can't with photos.

The photo-realism push is one of the worst developments in games. The workflow is also tedious, slow, ridiculously complex and expensive. And it's used in the most pointless context: mindless first person shooters. Great game genres like the that of the Myst series, where it could be use to amazing effect, are consigned to the dustbin and endless shooters and 3rd person hack 'n' slash stuff are all we get. The games industry has been trying so hard to imitate Hollywood and so far, they've done a bang up job of it. Weak derivative concepts and out of control budgets. Yay?

Anyway, I'm not saying photo-realism is a bad thing in and of itself but it's been wasted. But it mirrors the movie industry so closely (Disney abandoning 2d animation in a mad rush to make lousy 3d movies) it would be funny if it wasn't so sad.

the unique quality of games is being interactive; it's about action and killing things and pursuing those mechanics is tricky when bringing in classic media

Yep. That kind of says it all, doesn't it?

There are two recent games with relatively crude and simple pixel/retro styles that are highly immersive. And I believe they are far more effective because of it than if they were highly realistic:

Judith: http://distractionware.com/blog/?p=759
The Hunt: http://forums.tigsource.com/index.php?topic=10444.0
I would also include the original Silent Hill for PS1: http://www.gamespot.com/ps/adventure/silenthill/images.html?tag=gallery_summary;image_index

Notice all of these games and notgames are horror themed. They are also very grainy and/or pixellated and have a very short draw distance. What they don't show you or do only in a very sketchy manner is exactly what makes them scary. The more that is implied, the more your imagination fills in the missing pieces. Our imaginations are way better at imagining horror than when games/movies simply show it to us. The anticipation of what is out there in the dark and fog is the what is frightening. This draws you in better than highly detailed next-gen graphics. This isn't something you want in every interactive environment but they are well suited to horror.

I would agree with God at play - Small Worlds is a notgame. Gameplay-like elements doesn't make it a game. Worrying about gameplay elements sneaking in and "soiling" a notgame seems bit absurd to me. Limitations are something you work with in any medium and that isn't necessarily a bad thing.

Btw, coming here is the first time I've heard of the term "notgame" except someone mentioning it once in #tigirc but I don't think they understood what it meant. To be honest, I'm not 100% sure of what it means yet as it's definition still seems to be incomplete. I do get a general sense of what you mean be notgame and I like the sentiment. I'm just not sure I like the word.

Btw, I LOVE Small Worlds.

Thank you for the invitation!

The game I'm working on IS a game. A very simple game but a game nevertheless. However, the game aspect takes a back seat to the aesthetics, the visual and auditory experience. I'm into immersion in a big way. Check it out here: http://zlythy.blogspot.com/

It looks like I will be in good company here. Thank you again for letting me know about this board.