I recently found a game named Eufloria. Is it pleasant? Is it ever!
The game gives you a brief narrative about spreading some seedlings around a number of planets and quick tutorial on how to plant new dyson trees there. What's that, "I'm just planting trees?!" you might be screaming? Yes. You are planting trees and spreading plant life. What's really notable is not the soothing background music, nor the narrative of spreading life, but what really jumps out at you is the speed of the gameplay.
I like to play this game while doing other things. This game doesn't require all my attention - the way the game works even demands that you wait before you act. Yes, you have to think and consider before you act; even those actions take a little while to take place, little seedlings take time to fly through space don'tcha know.
Now, I like Eufloria. But one night while I was surfing around their website and saw a number of other links along the left-hand side - let me jump to the chase: there is a whole new genre of game I had discovered. Ambient gaming. What does this mean?
Ambient games are meant to be a game you don't have to focus on to still be playing. You can participate even though there are other things going on! Cooking dinner? No problem. Your toddler just woke up? Also cool.
Even moreso, every game I've played so far from this genre seems to relate to social issues or concerns. Eufloria has an eco-feel to it, but enough about that, let's look at a couple more.
My personal favourite right now is Auditorium. Simple mechanics, intuitive design with no overt instruction. Perfect simplicity. What do you DO?
You direct light particles to "sound containers" using vectors, or gravity fields (or other actions I haven't even found yet) and as you fill the containers, a portion of the soundtrack comes to life. That is the game. And I love it. Also, when you finish a level, all the elements are removed so that you only see this beautiful, organic line of movement set to your now completed soundtrack. Mmmm.
Jump ahead. To another sub-category: sheer exploration. Aether. Quick narrative about a sad, lonely boy who is befriended by a space-octopus; sounds little off-beat, but it's cute. You and your octopus go out into the universe to find other people who might be lonely. What.
Now here is where it gets a bit meta-cognitive. After you've left the planet (using a physics and tether strategy), you land on other planets where you see this:
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| "At least no one can hurt me here" |
Oh my gods! Why are you so sad little planet?!
In some places people tell you to go away, or that they're stuck on their planet because they were bad, but you can't do anything to change the fate or thoughts of these entities.
This game is actually giving you the chance to peer into other peoples' minds, but it is no mean feat to affect those minds. Sad, but I think there's a lesson about empathy and perspective in here somewhere.
Flash to another sub-category: narratives. These games are driven primarily by the story they bring to you, explicitly or implicitly, and the interactions are minimal. Check em out: Samorost 2, Process, To The Moon. It's like reading book in video game form!
Quick shoutout to Desura for helping me to find so many of these interesting little games, and more. There are also a mess more links to interesting games back on the Eufloria website that I highly recommend.
I tell you what, I could wax for ages about ambient games (and I will!), but that day is not today. Today is for exploration, so get out there.
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