Notgames Forum

http://www.digifish.us/ (http://www.digifish.us/)

Seeing this got me thinking, are screensavers notgames? I don't know about most people but I love wasting time playing with screensavers. These digital aquariums seem to be to be a form of notgame. Perhaps even the purest form?

Personally I think / feel that notgames should still incorporate interaction, just not in the traditional gaming sense. Screensavers don't .. as soon as you move-your-mouse / press-any-key the application quits.

Notgames don't exist.  ;D
Notgames is simply an invitation to design interactive or procedural content without game rules.

But I love screensavers!
Our first published game, The Endless Forest, was -and still is- a screensaver. And it's very interactive! ;)

I guess screensavers are designed without any attention to game conventions. So maybe they are a good example to guide us.
Some types of content simply don't require interaction. Though, in general, I'd think it's rather wasteful to create a real-time piece an not implement some interaction, given how powerful it can be towards expressing your content. A virtual aquarium becomes a lot more convincing when it allows you to tick on the glass to chase away or lure the fish.

Well actually, a lot of them do allow you to do exactly that. Also many of them allow you to run them as a screensaver or a regular interactive aquarium. Dream Aquarium for example allows you to feed the fish. AncientOcean allows you to follow different aquatic animals and read descriptions about them. One I tried allowed you to "poke" the fish. The interaction is minimal but then, how much more interactive should such a thing be?

Indeed. Interaction is not an end onto itself, it is a means towards making the simulation more convincing, amusing, immersive, etc.