Experimental Videogames

Genres are there to help us. By setting a boilerplate mechanic that is proven to work, it allows us to forget about the core and focus on details. Genres even allow room for limited innovations.

But this incremental approach to game design shackles deep experimental gameplay. If I fail at achieving something new within a genre, I’ll be tempted to give up and fall back to the core mechanics that we are familiar with.

To truly be in the wild, genres must be left behind. One way I found for doing this is the removal of essential features. Removing these features burns the bridges to safety. They force you to rethink mechanics to the core.

The recipe is simple: grab any genre, think about what is the activity players do most while playing, and remove it. In most cases it will feel confusing and ridiculous, but after a while new gameplay landscapes I never thought about start popping up.

Some examples:

A FPS without weapons (no shooting)?
A turn based strategy game without economic nor military aspects?
A MMORPG without leveling?
An action game in which time plays a fundamental role? (like Braid)
A RPG without any kind of physical exploration or movement?

one group has nearly done what youve said up top
its a first person platformer, cant recall the name now. just thought youd like to know someone is taking your advice to heart (in spirit)
horizon something? cant recall it

I think you may onto something with regard to literature as well.

William might be referring to Mirror’s Edge. There’s still shooting, but it’s minimal. The game falls back on conventions in other ways, but is still interesting as an example of removing features to create new gameplay focus.

[...] an article I found in my distraction fueled [...]

Personally, I really liked portal.

The industry stepped into a larger market, and more and more peoples took interest into indie games thanks to the unwell called casual gamers.

Developpers (artists?) like you brings new perspective for video games!

http://www.squidi.net/three/entry.php?id=30

Above is an idea for an MMORPG without leveling, money, experience points, money, and clans/factions. Needless to say, all conventions go out the window. I actually recommend reading that guy’s 300 mechanics website. It’s very well-written.

And yet one of the most popular games ever made (World of Warcraft) is a veritable kitchen sink of features. The most popular franchise ever created, the Sims, is based on releasing expansion after needless expansion. Neither game is built around an economy of features or modes of gameplay. Your games are works of art, and fascinating ones at that. However, there is much money to be made in building a better mousetrap, and innovation creates many more duds (Black and White, Homeworld, Virtual Boy) than quality products.

@Captpoco: So, on account of the possibility of there being more bad games by experimenting, we should give it up and play it safe like the AAA industry has been doing for the last decade and a half?

No thank you I much rather Mr. Benmergui’s approach, because games need evolution, nor more stagnation.

To me words are like the finger pointing to the moon. The finger itself is not the moon, nor is the word actually what it is. It is a symbol pointing to it.

To me words can serve as a prison to concept more than a descriptor to it.

With that being said taking your idea of going beyond genres to the next level. I propose making a game without categorizing it within a genre during development.

That frees you from thinking “since this game is in this genre I have to do this or I can’t do that.”

You begin adding things to the game that best fits your goal of making the game without limits or prisons.

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	Today I Die IGF 2010 Finalist, Indiecade 2010 Jury Award, my most well-known artgame.
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Being Experimental: Burning Bridges

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