I completely disagree, both with your message and the current state of indie games. From my perspective, it seems like developers focus more on some shallow gimmick in artstyle/story than making the game fun. No, it's not "the 80's" anymore, but why do people still play those old games? No one plays Tetris because it's some modern day reflection of our political climate; it's just fun!
35 days ago(+1)(-4)
Thank you for completely misunderstanding the point. A great example of exactly who is referenced in the first paragraph. Tetris is still played today, how many variants of it do you think have superseded its gameplay? List them please.
Consider the following games which have incredible gameplay.
- Dark Souls
- Red Dead Redemption 1
- Majoras Mask
- Dead Rising
- Deus Ex
All of these games are derivatives of already existing gameplay systems. Yet the reason they are ascended into gaming culture is not because they are the first games to do this gameplay. It is because they used this gameplay to structure something beyond it. That is the entire point of the piece. Gameplay never mattered
This manifesto as part of #manifestojam2026 is to point out that game developers today should be aware of this reality and focus more on the substance of their art than the glue which holds it together.
35 days ago(+2)
I'm saying Puyo Puyo is a variant/successor of Tetris that isn't overshadowed by Tetris. (And I already owned up to it being completely secondary to their actual point.)
34 days ago(+4)
well you're not even making arguments you're asking chatgpt to make them for you, and even then first you said puyo puyo is a tetris variant and then posted "evidence" that it isn't, so i don't think you really know what you're arguing here
18 days ago (+2)(-1)
Love the list of games here. Amazing cherry picking at work. I can make lists too! Here, let me try.
List of games that have amazing gameplay, are innovative for their gameplay as well, and are influential pieces of art for gameplay reasons:
- Doom
- Super Mario 64
- The first MMOs (and, by extension, the first online games in general)
- Devil May Cry
- Resident Evil
- Ico
- Yume Nikki
- Metal Gear Solid
- Parappa
- Vib-Ribbon
- Actually, Dark Souls
- And Deus Ex too, by the way
Doom and the groundwork it laid basically birthed the FPS as we know it today. Same for Mario 64 with the 3D Platformer. Yume Nikki helped shift the perception of what a game could do without a single word of story or dialogue. Metal Gear Solid expanded that perception in the other direction, showing how games could learn from other artforms while still retaining its identity as a game (not to mention the series being the progenitor and icon for the stealth genre.)
Dark Souls gameplay is exactly why it "ascended into gaming culture," what are you talking about? The game revolves around you exploring and understanding the world around you instead of the world revolving around you, which, by the way, the entire point of the game and the thesis it pushes is "the world will exist with or without you, do not try to change the current of fate for your own sake," and it does that with minimal dialogue. Wow! Gameplay can communicate ideas to the player directly? Who woulda thunk?
Deus Ex is literally famous for being extremely innovative. If you ask, like, anyone about it, that's the first thing they'll say about it. It literally won innovation awards at two separate events. It's the primo example of the immersive sim. Come on.
6 days ago (+1)(-1)
Strange...
Why did you put Metal Gear Solid and not Metal Gear 2 Solid Snake? Which has identical gameplay? I would love to hear the reason?
Why did you put Dark Souls and not Demons Souls (which came out first) which has identical gameplay? Why did you put Doom and not Wolfenstien (which came out first) which has identical gameplay? Why did you put 'the first MMOs' and not the first MUDS which have the identical amorphous strawman? Why did you not put Another World instead of ICO which is a spiritual sequel to? Why did you not put Devil May Cry 3 which is superior to DMC 1 on every way? Why did you not put System Shock instead of Deus Ex which pioneered the systems which Deus Ex refined? Why did you not put Alone in the Dark instead of Resident Evil which is the inspiration for that gameplay?
Are you getting it yet? The reason all these games are great is because they are MORE than just gameplay. That is the entire point of the manifesto.
I said Metal Gear Solid because it's simply the one more people know. It's funny that you use that as an example because the story of MGS is also notorious for being a near copy of MG2, so like, the point about "more than gameplay" is moot there. Almost everyone at the time entered the series with MGS first, if people entered the series with MG2 it would have been innovative for its gameplay too.
Demon's Souls and Dark Souls play drastically different, what are you talking about? The areas are more linear unlike the more interconnected Dark Souls world, the crescent grass functions different to estus which changes its usage in the game, there's item burden, there's world tendency, NPCs matter more. Just because they both have stamina bars and you can roll and swing a sword doesn't mean the gameplay is the same.
The same applies to Doom and Wolfenstein. Go play Doom and Wolfenstein back to back and tell me the gameplay is the same besides you shoot gun at people. Doom is as similar to Wolfenstein gameplay wise as it is to Halo. Even just the addition of character momentum changes how you play entirely, and thus the feelings and ideas evoked by each game (see even just how differently Doomguy and BJ are characterized in their subsequent remakes. Hey, another example of gameplay being able to convey ideas on its own!)
Does Ico being a "spiritual sequel" to Another World make Ico's gameplay not at all unique or different? Like???
Hey, mind telling me why DMC3 is superior to DMC? What exactly people think makes DMC3 a better game? Is it, perhaps, the gameplay????
Like even besides all of that what even is the point that you're making? Yes, games build upon eachother's systems and add to them with their own concepts and ideas. That's how art works. "Cloud Atlas is derivative of Slaughterhouse Five because it also utilizes a non-linear narrative and therefore the framing device doesn't actually matter to the novel" What Are You Talking About
Gameplay isn't a set of interacting buttons you press to get through a movie and that's the part you don't understand. It's an intrinsic part of the medium in itself that is needed to create the experience. Truly great games are great because they are more than gameplay the same way paintings are great because they are more than strokes on canvas, or books are great because they are more than prose on a page. No game is great without gameplay. They are no longer games. Gameplay obviously always mattered. You've missed the point of the artform.