Michael, came upon
this post of yours and it just got to me how long you have been thinking of this stuff.
And how pathetic that I never changed in all this time!
In fact, Tale of Tales was sort of founded on these ideas. They were still embryonic at the time, but there was a strong desire to make video games for people who don't play video games. Because we really believed in the potential of the medium while we also understood how conventional game design prevented this potential from being developed.
1) Are there any other notgamey people that are lost in history?
(...)
(I know there where CD-rom artists in the past, but I am unsure if they truly fit as they did not really thread into game-territory, or am I wrong?)
I would not discount CD-Roms. It's true that their authors didn't seem to be thinking much in game terms. But that just makes their ideas more pure, doesn't it?
Another group of people would be the demo scene, I guess. Though those projects often have a very technical bias.
2) Is this the time for notgames to really break through? Or will all of us just fade into the history?
Well, even if we fade, we will have tried, won't we?
And even if notgames break through, there's no guarantee that we will receive any of the credit.
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 think this would have happened if it wasn't for lack of ideas on how to design interactivity that is not a game. And design it in such a way that it is equally stimulating and entertaining (even if, perhaps in part for a different group of people, though not necessarily a smaller one). That's where we come in, I guess: independent developers with a passion and a vision and a willingness to risk making complete fools of ourselves by attempting to do something that many people desire but that most of our colleagues claim is impossible.
With digital distribution the only problem is reaching out to the media, which also has turned out to not be that hard.
I think we have a good story that is fairly easy to explain to games press.
We'll probably need a few more (and more widely accessible) examples before we can be attractive to the larger entertainment press. Maybe we'll need to go through the art press first (but considering the hard time that new media arts are having in the fine art world, this may not be very useful; perhaps the film press or even the literature press might be more realistic).
And oh found this quote from you michael:
Adding a story on top of the explicit display of characters, environments, motions and time would make the total far too saturated. In other words, it would leave no room for the imagination of the viewer. And it is precisely in this imagination that the power of art resides.
That sums up The Path very nicely I think! Did you ever speak about stuff like this to the media?
I think we mention these things often in interviews. Perhaps not always equally eloquently.
Again, I think we'll need more examples to make these things clear. More and clearer examples. Amnesia is a great example for me. But I notice that a lot of people who are not looking for the same things that I'm looking for, get stuck in its game layer and can't see further. So I feel we may need to be a bit more radical than would ordinarily be necessary, in order to make a point.
I think we're all working on projects that fit this, though. You at Frictional are working on a new, more radical game. So is Jeroen. I'm really curious about the remake of Dan's Dear Esther and how it will be received. Krystian's Trauma is practically done. Have you seen Erik Loyer's Strange Rain? Quite interesting as well, especially since it's coming from a literature angle, not games. We're only a small group of people, but we're all very serious about our work and will continue to release games in this vein, one after the other. This is not a hobby for any of us. I don't see how we could fail now. We've already succeeded.
And must say, it's really great to feel us all being so supportive of each other. I had thought that I would have been jealous. But I'm not at all. I'm so happy every time I read an interview with one of you, see your games mentioned or hear how well Amnesia is selling. The time sure feels ripe!
