Went through all the levels of this art piece. I found this rather impactful. Especially considering I'm an artist making erotic games. It's a space that's been getting crushed. Listening to you talk about the commodification of games and the general gentrification of the craft (a craft that is already kinda a privileged to engage with), definitely resonates.
It is disheartening watching so many artist struggle and so many projects exist to chase a trend. I can be rather draining. Especially as I'm pushed out of the ability to fund my art sustainably.
The idea of "Kill Gameplay" definitely connected. Working in the nsfw space, a lot of game suffer from game play. My own projects almost died because I was thinking to much in terms of traditional gameplay. It simply got in the way.
The most inspiring games to me were less "go and shoot", "go and stomp", "go and plunder" and more "just wander about for a while". Another collection that kinda hits this vibe is 50 Short Games.
Additionally, I found the amount of "gameplay" that just kinda emerged from my own discovery of the game was neat. There is a surprising amount of movement tech. I got to hard to reach areas.
Also, I found it interesting that the tutorial says mentions the idea of "winning" but none of the games/poems/stories have a clear "win" state. The game only acknowledges you completing levels periodically and with little fanfare.
My favorite story/poem/game thing was downstream. That one definitely hit me the hardest. Something about the idea of being under water and longing being juxtaposed to together. In the current political and social environment. It really hit.
Having gone through the game, and taken the time to appreciate it, I feel bad that I had that trained thought of "is this worth 20 dollars". Especially when I've spent 20 bucks on stuff that left me with nothing but regret for the time spent. This will definitely be one of those creative works I come back to when I'm feeling stuck.
I'm glad it had a chance to exist.










