Notgames Forum

A very interesting take on "indie games" and why it is starting to be no different from the mainstream.

http://gamingphilosophy.wordpress.com/2010/02/23/making-computer-games-is-easy/

I'm happy to see somebody encouraging the indies to be independent for a change.

I like the credo, making games is easy, designing games is hard. I agree.

Personally I see Braid as a 'almost' version of what Watchmen was in comics. Watchmen took the superhero mythos and showed how the reality of vigilantes could be; Braid took Mario and reconstructed it into something that was also fun. It is a problem I see with designing games. I want to make them fun by traditional standards all the time.

To use pop culture narratives as a metaphor for serious things is a fairly common thing to do. At least in theory. If you try to do this in practice, the risk is very high that you don't exceed your source material. Much like in theory, you need to abandon the qualities that made the original great. This of course implies that you would be working for another audience. And Mr Blow apparently does not see this as an option. In the end Braid is not better than Mario. Not even as a metaphor.

I thought the article had some good points! Although one should perhaps not be too quick on judging sidescrollers, etc since that is more of an interface choice than gameplay (as soon as u start hopping on platforms, etc, you go down more well defined path though). Guess that author implied that though.

For me Braid did not feel as a step closer towards art in games (whatever that means...). I really liked the game and most of all its esthetically design such as the vague texts, the visuals, music etc. Was really a joy to play and experience. But I did not feel like it gave any deeper meaning any more than Mario did.
Whenever people remake platformers or similar, then it is almost always a reflection on the game mechanics. I have never seen an example where it is a reflection connected to real life. In Watchmen, the superheros are put in a real world context and ll kinds of implications are worked out from there. If platformers where to bring the games in new direction, they should do something similar. But as you say Michael, then you will probably have to abandon the qualities of the old game and this is sacrifice few (none?) wants to make.

They have to take the risk to make a game that is not fun. Any most designers don't dare to do that. Because they know that there's a good chance that they will lose practically their entire audience.