The Ludologist

The Independent Games Festival has published their list of entrants for the 2008 competition. This is the 10th IGF.

Nevertheless, it seems to me that indie and experimental games have gained a lot of popular attention during the last 2-3 years.

Just 2 years ago I felt that indie games were perceived as “games with low production values”, but now it seems to be more accepted that they can provide something unique, a special sensibility.

Perhaps it relates to new distribution methods. Student project gets massive publicity, becomes PS3 downloadable (flow). Quirky indie game is sold on XBLA (Eets, Space Giraffe).

With casual games and downloadable console games, we have a distribution method and economical model for smaller games.

Echochrome was probably the game of Tokyo Game Show that I found the most compelling. If you haven’t read about it, it’s all about rotating the world in order to create Escher-like optical illusions which then actually work.

Hard to say why, but the 2d games of the show looked great on high-definition screens. Seriously. Echochrome and LocoRoco – not sure if they justify a PS3 and a 40 inch TV, but we are getting there.

Here’s William Huber playing Halo 3 at TGS:

And here’s the game up close:

I am not entirely convinced here – I feel fighting games and multiplayer shooters are the games that benefit the least from next-gen graphics. There’s a brief “wow” minute, and then everything feels like it always did. But there you are.

So here’s a brief report from the floor at the Tokyo Game Show 2007:

I met Bomberman.

That was quick. According to vgchartz , the Wii has now outsold the 360 despite its one-year lead.

This is a historic moment in video game history: The clearly graphically inferior console, launched later is outselling the graphically superior console.

This is good, of course.

(Bring on the historical arguments about other graphically inferior consoles coming out on top.)

Coming out this month, Space Time Play is a new anthology on video games edited by Friedrich von Borries, Steffen P. Walz and Matthias B?ttger.

My contributions are:

• The essay “Variation over Time: The Transformation of Space in Single-screen Action Games” where I discuss the historical use of changing level layouts to create variation.
• A (critical) review of Asteroids.
• A review of Defender.

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The richly illustrated texts in “Space Time Play” cover a wide range of gamespaces: from milestone video and computer games to virtual metropolises to digitally-overlaid physical spaces. As a comprehensive and interdisciplinary compendium, “Space Time Play” explores the architectural history of computer games and the future of ludic space. More than 140 experts from game studies and the game industry, from architecture and urban planning, have contributed essays, game reviews and interviews. The games examined range from commercial products to artistic projects and from scientific experiments to spatial design and planning tools.

“Space Time Play” is not just meant for architects, designers and gamers, but for all those who take an interest in the culture of digital games and the spaces within and modeled after them. Let’s play!
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With contributions by Espen Aarseth, Ernest Adams, Richard A. Bartle, Ian Bogost, Iain Borden, Gerhard M. Buurman, Edward Castranova, Kees Christiaanse, James Der Derian, Stephen Graham, Ludger Hovestadt, Henry Jenkins, Jesper Juul, Frank Lantz, Bart Lootsma, Winy Maas, Lev Manovich, Jane McGonigal, Kas Oosterhuis, William J. Mitchell, Howard Rheingold, Katie Salen, Hans-Peter Schwarz, McKenzie Wark, Mark Wigley and many more.
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“Space Time Play” will be available in bookstores as of October 2007
(USA November 2007). The following can be downloaded:

> Cover (JPEG, 150 dpi, 1.2 Mb)
> Table of Contents (PDF, 444 Kb)
> Introduction (PDF, 436 Kb)

Review copies can be requested from Birkh?user Publishing from Gisela Graf. Please direct questions about presentations and interviews as well as any other queries to the editors.
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Space Time Play
Edited by Friedrich von Borries, Steffen P. Walz and Matthias B?ttger
In cooperation with Drew Davidson, Heather Kelley, Julian K?cklich
496 pages, 352 color illustrations.