Notgames Forum

Site: http://www.propaganda-bureau.se (http://www.propaganda-bureau.se)

Hello all.
Just wanted to introduce myself. Because the registration seemed to take some time in November when I opted in, I figured something came between. By chance it now seems I got in and all, 9 months later. So I've not been lurking that long. :/ </ot>

My name is Mikael Vesavuori and I work under the pseudonym of Propaganda Bureau. Currently I live in Gothenburg, Sweden where I will study my MFA at Valand School of Fine Arts (Gothenburg University) for 2 years, starting next month. Previously I've studied in Karlskrona (Blekinge Institute of Technology) and also teached there for a year and a half.

Besides some consulting I do "art" and games and such. What you will probably be most interested in are the games, of course. Although I wish to be brief I must state my gratitude for this forum being here, and that others around the world share a similar mindset about games, not as culture (because they already are) but as forms capable of expressions more complex than what most have seen to date. Thank you, Michael Samyn and Auriea Harvey but also all of you others. My games this far have been both poetic in its rhetoric but also deliberate reworkings of conventional game mechanics. Themes have included asylum case work, fear of rape and political violence.

I've been doing my thing seriously for two years now, and I released my first buggy, incomplete attempt in October last year. As many of you other self-taught folks know, getting basic skills takes time but these have been honed over time, finally to an acceptable level. My entry point into games as a serious art form came through digital game theory and critical gaming. I've never been a huge fan of gaming in general (in the 'AAA' sense) but have instead seen (especially) more pleasure in freer forms of role-play and spatial exploration. A few months ago I slightly switched directions, including orienting myself towards an installation-type gaming experience thus reworking some of my previous and current portfolio for that. That means that the games I released earlier are now unavailable and getting major overhauls. I apologize for this, and will make up for it in due time. This is all for the better and is closer to what I originally saw these games as.

All in all, I consider myself a very determined but curious artist today with a clearer mindset now than when I originally registered. I wish you the best, and we will probably see each other more from now on. It is an honor being among you.

I'm afraid it's not possible to get registered for this forum "by chance". Since we get dozens of registration requests of spammers every day, you need to send an email to admin at notgames.org to notify us to manually approve your account. It's annoying but otherwise we'd get far too much spam.

Welcome!
Glad to see an artist choosing to use video-games as a medium.
Slightly worried about your shift to installations. That sounds like a step back, towards the gallery system...? Stay with us! Online, in software. :)

I like the title "Boring Games for Adults"! :)

If not playavble versions, are there any videos of your games avaialable?

The installation track is primarily reserved for a subset of games (the ones under 'Boring Games for Adults') because my demos and prototypes felt lacking, honestly, as purely digital mediations. I think it is for the best, seen to the results, that I thus revise them with some more attention to other poetic qualities of those ideas.

Anyhow, I do have playable versions of quite a few games. If you all are interested I can burn some more midnight oil to give you the revised versions faster. I'd love to show them but there are a few things I am unhappy with. If I just was a kick-ass animator! :)

Because of the updating, there are very few (and old) images on the site. Those are getting changed.

I'll be sure to give you download links to the games as soon as humanly possible.

Site is slightly updated, including new, current images from Equalizer and Don't Get Raped. Also, DGR soundtrack is up again (was removed by accident when I took down the old build).

Wow, I am very impressed by the premise of Don't Get Raped. That sounds like a really good use of the rails shooter mechanic. I look forward to checking out your stuff :)

...and it seems that I can't, the download was taken down?

Glad to hear you like the idea. It is down as I am polishing it to a better state, and rethinking some minor details. I will post when it is ready to be played again.