I'll definitely check out Seiklus. Thanks for the tip!
I have played, and enjoyed, the other two. I love Knytt with its atmosphere and simple platforming. Small Worlds is also quite clever!

When it comes to AAA-titles I found the exploration in Fallout 3 quite well done. It was undoubtedly my favorite aspect of the game. What I very much enjoy is when I find myself exploring just for the sake of exploring. Forget achievements, experience or quest lines. I just want to explore because I want to explore. I want to see the world, whatever world I'm currently in. 

Nice to see someone bring this up. Noctis was probably the first notgame experience I had. The way it challenged my idea of what games can be was quite profound. I absolutely love the exploration in Noctis. Overall I think exploration for the sake of exploration is very interesting to work with in games. Me and my friends tried do to something similar with our experience Sjörök (http://www.mansbilling.com/?page_id=692). Are there any other games that resemble Noctis in this way?   

Thank you! Please let me know how it works and what you think of it :-)

Ps. I purchased Vanitas and found it truly superb. Thank you for that!

I recently released Calm. It's a small experience about steering a cloud, looking at backgrounds and listening to music. This was really my first go at developing for Android and it was also a long time since I developed anything in Unity. It was thus a project with a lot of trial and error - on the other hand that seems to be the case with most projects =) All in all things turned out quite well though.

You can find some more info on my homepage: http://www.mansbilling.com/?page_id=759. There are two versions, on free with ads and another one for the price of about 0.99 $ (and with additional backgrounds). You can find them both here: https://market.android.com/developer?pub=M%C3%A5ns+Billing

Please try it out and give me a shout if it doesn't work on your device - it's always a bit tricky with Android... And note that because I've used Unity this application won't run on all devices (and in that case it shouldn't even show up in the marketplace).

Thats the 10".

Works fine on my Galaxy Tab. A very nice little experience.

[and]

Hi!

I was also part of the Sjörök team together with Max and five other guys.

@Chainsawkitten: First of all, thanks! Glad to hear that you enjoyed it. The experience does actually have an ending though I won't spoil how to get there. Let me just say that each major island has notes to gather and a "larger" puzzle to solve. If you do that on each island you're on the right track =)

@Erik: At the moment the game is windows only and the system requirements should be roughly what is needed to use UDK. Epic states the following:

Windows XP SP3 (32-bit only), Windows Vista, or Windows 7
2.0+ GHz processor
2 GB system RAM
SM3-compatible video card
3 GB free hard drive space

We have included some graphical options in the game, lowering the resolution can be quite effective.

I really enjoy the concept and it looks very nice. I also have to pick it up =)

First of all, what a fantastic lecture. The energy and the commitment really got me. Good thing I finally took the time to watch it.
I very much enjoy how several of the things Chris is talking about not only has to do with art and games but also such things as teaching practise. The part when he is comparing the lecture with the interactive discussion, i.e. talking, is something I find quite interesting. I do believe that this idea should be much more discussed when it comes to school systems.

I'm also happy to see that my current university (game design at BTH in Sweden) is utilizing the discussion more that the lecture.

I believe we are closer than ever, because the representational capacity of computer technology keeps improving, especially in the domain of realtime 3D. Every time I play one of these modern AAA games, I can't help but feel how close they are, how close they are to breaking through "the game barrier". The simulations become increasingly more interesting and elaborate while the gameplay becomes increasingly formulaic and dull (in an attempt to make their expensive productions accessible to a broad audience). At some point, somebody will realize that they might as well remove the dull gameplay and have people directly interact with the simulation instead.

I completely agree with you. Whenever I play a new AAA game I can't stop thinking about what fantastic experiences these games could be, would they only remove the formulaic gameplay and use their technology and knowledge to build worlds with emotions and "real content".

I'm also quite hyped about this, looking forward to reading the first issue.
From what I know about the guys behind the initiative (Alfred Holmgren and Johan Martinsson) I think this has great potential.

If I've understood it correctly, they won't have any reviews in the magazine either (great!). I'm so tired of reading: "This game is good. I give it seven points.", in a fancy vocabulary.

Hi!

Yeah, I've got one experience to upload. Just have to actually do it. I think I have a screenshot somewhere...
I'll try and upload it as soon as possible.

Perhaps it's bad manners to bump my old Introduction post but since I haven't been active for a while (and feel it's time to get back) I hope it's alright.

I'm still studying Game Design in Sweden (Blekinge Institute of Technology) and I've got roughly a year to go. During my education I have lost most of my interest for "traditional/AAA" games and I think that the experimental concept of Notgames is where we ought to go.

Feel free to visit my portfolio -> http://www.mansbilling.com/
I've got a mix of games there, I'm not overly proud of them all but I still find it more fun to let people play them than just hide them away.

The very best of regards,

Måns Billing!

Yes, Sleep is Death seems really interesting.
I wonder, how does the experience compare to pen and paper roleplaying?

ImmorTall was great when it started. When I walked around like a giant and people came up to me. I just walked and people followed. Then gameplay was introduced. I had to protect the people. Unfortunately it was here that the game became less interesting to me. The gameplay took over, so to speak.

I completely understand your reaction. I have experienced this with so many games! What we want is not very complicated. Why can't they let us play? 

Precisely! Sometimes it feels like the developers are just messing with me. "You liked this part of the game, didn't you? Well, too bad, because now you have to shoot a legion of bad guys and collect a million stars and avoid the incoming missiles". Why can't I just walk around looking at the flowers or the rusty sky-line at the horizon?

I think that it, at least partially, has to do with fear. Or perhaps rather a feeling of confusion. We are not used to videogames without the game aspect. We (as game developers) don't know how to act. And so we include gameplay instead of trying, instead of just following our vision, instead of lying out upon 70,000 fathoms of water =)

I did just this in one of my first games. I wanted to make a sad game about the death of the moon and how a small creature tries to save it.
But, I had no gameplay. So I included action-elements in the game. Enemies to be destroyed. When I look at the game today, I wonder why. The gameplay, the killing, does not add to the game. It just ruins the atmosphere.

The game can be found on my homepage if someone wants to try it out (and be frustrated about my gameplay) - The Night The Moon Decided To Die is the title.

[ImmorTall]

ImmorTall
http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/529320
This is a perfect example of a notgame that uses interactivity to tell a more or less linear story. But the story does not confine the player's actions - it emerges naturally. Even better, it doesn't have pixelated graphics!

It's interesting that you mention Immortall. I played it a week ago and overall I enjoyed. At the same time it showed me what it is that I find so interesting with the "notgame idea": ImmorTall was great when it started. When I walked around like a giant and people came up to me. I just walked and people followed. Then gameplay was introduced. I had to protect the people. Unfortunately it was here that the game became less interesting to me. The gameplay took over, so to speak.
Still, I really liked the game but I whised it had been like the first minute all the time. No gameplay, just walking.