Jason Rohrer

Here is a very cogent and interesting article about independent game creator Jason Rohrer.  

Writer Jason Fagone echos many of the complaints and ideas about videogames I've started to explore, and goes on to postulate many many more.

"Game companies have spent so many years trying to make skulls explode complexly and water ripple prettily that they haven't invested any time in learning how to make games that are as emotionally dense as the best novels and films."

The article touches on auteurship and the industry, (with a few testaments to the upper echelons of the development hierarchy), but it focuses heavily on the man himself.

"Why can't we make a game that fucking means something? A game that matters? You know? We wonder all the time if games are art, if computers can make you cry, and all that. Stop wondering. The answer is yes to both. Here's a game that made me cry. It did. It really did."

-Clint Hocking (a Ubisoft Designer) speaks at a 

Developer's Conference about Rohrer's games

I've been talking a lot about gameplay, and Rohrer is perhaps the best example of someone who crafts evocative and emotional mechanics.

"Rohrer is trying to make art in a medium that most people don't even think is capable of art."

 The first page of the article focuses on the game Passage, a simplistic pixelated adventure "about the inevitability of death".  Jason Rohrer doesn't realize these philosophical ideas with cinematic bookends or dialogue boxes; his games are far from arresting: he evokes deep emotions through mechanics.

For instance, one of his more recent games hinges on the idea that "Mistakes you make, early on, haunt you through some game mechanic later." 

Rohrer's games, (which are less than a 10 minutes long) also bring into question the videogame experience itself.  A game doesn't need to absorb 10-15 hours of your time.  It can be thoughtful and engaging without consuming your life.  

A game like Portal provides another example of a more thoughtful and less extensive gameplay experience.  

Jason Rohrer is an interesting and compelling figure that seems to be pushing the medium forward almost effortlessly.  His games accentuate the fact that gameplay is more than point-and-shoot; it's simply another way to experience art.  I have yet to play his games, but I plan to make a donation...his family subsists off 14k a year.  Here's a link to his site.