Features | Line Hollis

The Graveyard (2008)

February 3, 2009 / 0 comments

Auriea Harvey and Michael Samyn’s The Graveyard is a spare little game with only one functional object besides your avatar: a bench that plays music when you sit on it. It will start playing music anytime you sit on it and will stop when you stand up. The game takes place in a graveyard, and…

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Gravity Bone (2008)

January 15, 2009 / 0 comments

Recently I found myself wondering what a surrealist game would be. It’s a bit of a funny question, because all videogames are pretty surreal. There’s weird logic, weird environments, weird constraints on your behavior – everything in games is kind of like reality, but a bit off. You jump, and it’s kind of like jumping,…

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Seven Minutes (2008)

January 14, 2009 / 0 comments

Previously, in reviewing Execution, I mentioned that gamemakers seem to be concerned recently with the issue of choice in linear game design. That is, while gaming seems to be all about agency and free choice on the part of the player, this freedom is constrained by the fact that gamers will always make a choice…

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Execution (2008)

January 8, 2009 / 0 comments

Jesse Venbrux’s Execution starts with three statements that could be thought of as some implicit artistic assumptions of videogames: Your actions have consequences. You either win or lose. Do the right thing. The game goes on to examine these assumptions in a minimalist style. All you see is a prisoner tied to a stake, and your…

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