When I went to Wired's Next Fest last October, I had the opportunity to play an upcoming game for PlayStation 3 called Flower created by ThatGameCompany. Instead of killing people, monsters, or zombies like the Top 10 Games of 2008, Flower is about roaming in a dream like environment, and helping flowers to bloom.
Each level takes place in a different flower's dream. The goal of the game is to guide the petal into other vivid color flowers in this never ending field, triggering more flower spreading around in this world. During my 10 minutes with the game, there were no instruction anywhere to teach me how to play, but as a "professional button presser", I quickly learned how to control it by tilting the controller to move around the scene. The sublime movement made me feel like I was just a gust of wind. The more petals you collect, the more sounds samples you will reveal to create a beautiful melody. It's not only visually stimulating, it interacts with sound, making you feel relaxed and calm... which you don't often feel playing a video game.
Jenova Chen described Flower as a video game version of a poem. It sounds a bit abstract, but I'm looking forward to see how the game developers can take this "interactive art form" to the next level.
Euphenia Cheng
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art, gaming
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When I played Braid on XBox 360 I felt like I was looking at a piece of impressionist art (especially on our HD TV). The graphics, game play, music, and feel all lent itself to a very unique experience. It really was like art.
Posted on February 3, 2009 13:09
Wow. For a second there I thought this post was going to be about Gears of War 2 -- but it turns out, it's something totally different (and worth checking out). Pleasant surprise. Thanks!
Posted on February 16, 2009 10:36