Notgames Forum

Hey guys, I'm new here, first of all congratulations for starting a new art movement  :) I like to think of notgames as dada mixed with surrealism, if that makes any sense - we're not following the strict conventions that have been set out over these thirty-odd years of gaming, and a lot of the content created seems to have a strange, dream-like quality to it (i.e. "The Path" when you go to grandmother's house). Anyways, even though I have no programming skill whatsoever I do wish to contribute ideas and I'm a little confused about the whole narrative issue. I've read over a few of the topics here and there seems to be some confusion as well. Is the narrative of a notgame kind of like "Majora's Mask", where you have a set of events which happen over the three days, but you have (more or less) the freedom to navigate the story as you wish? Or is it simply existentialism, where the character just interacts with the world, because it is through the scenery of the world that we convey meaning? If it is the latter, then surely notgames should mostly incorporate 3D graphics because they are more immersive (this is my opinion, but I'm sure other people will agree)? I hope that we can find a balance between the two, because, inside all of us, there is still a desire to be told a story (mirrored, I think, in the Tale of Tales' own name). So, any ideas on how to tell a story through the medium of notgames? Thanks

Notgames is not a category. And I hope it will spawn more than one art movement! :)

Notgames is sort of an exercise: a motivation or challenge to design for the interactive medium without falling back on common game elements. Everybody is free to respond to this challenge in their own way. The idea is to expand the medium. In general, I do think that there is indeed a strong desire for a form of storytelling that we feel is hindered by typical game structures (which seems to impose its own narrative). So a desire to make games about something, instead of putting this something in a game. But how exactly we work with narrative will probably be very different for each designer, or even for each project. We're still exploring the potential. It's important to experiment with many different things.

Welcome! :)

I'm not subscribing to the idea of me being part of any movement  >:(