There are quite a few good games being created out there in the Indie scene that are free to play and have some great moments/elements to them. More and more I am starting to see a trend, a trend in the direction that these games actually speak very deeply to the player, having more to say than just “save the princess” or “destroy anything in site”. I happened to run into one such title a few days ago and really needed to share with you all the complexities of it. Not only does it say a whole lot, but it encompasses a standard game play methodology that speaks as loudly as the actual theme of the story. It’s called, “Every day the same dream” and it requires you to only progress through a series of choices that speak volumes about life and your path through it. I can’t help but wonder how this game came about; what the author was thinking and why they chose what they chose. The game is rather simple, has a nice visual style and implores the use of only the arrow keys and the space bar. What you find out as you play is that routine and monotony are the enemy, and that your only salvation is to search, look and try different things in order to break free and understand. This simple connection between adventure game mechanics and the idea that life is only interesting and meaningful when you take the less traveled road is up for some debate but I found the point to be immensely, if not overwhelmingly, powerful as it relates to me and my own life.
Sit down, relax and let yourself go with this one. It’s well worth it in the end. Hats off to the music and the graphical style.
I would have to say that I was reminded heavily of Daniel Benmergui’s work, especially his “Today I Die” game. His work is a bit more poetical…a bit more out of the box and requires a deeper reason to stay connected to the work for longer amounts of time. However, there is still a wonderful journey there, even if you can’t figure out what to do in the meantime.
There are some powerful things going on here, and I can only hope the Indie scene continues on that trend. And I hope the mainstream picks up on it, implements it, and moves it forward so that games as a commercial endeavor can also become ones that actually say something meaningful; thus changing the way pop culture looks at interactive media.
Okay. I played this game. Twice. And I absolutely loved both the visual style and the game’s very powerful ability to speak to me on a deep level. I was getting goose bumps by the end.
BUT…what one earth is the point in the end? I won’t give a total spoiler for those who haven’t played it, but I was immensely frustrated that the author gave me no ability to stop the events that terminate the game. Does this have it’s own point? I suppose it does. But when so much of my time spent in the game was searching through routines and determining ways to break them, and since this process was actually really helpful and related to my own experiences, too, to be basically handed an ending that contradicts the hopeful promise of this exploration in a way that I am not allowed to argue against it, I found to be really frustrating and a let down.
Can a game really make a point about life and still be a game? Does the amount of control required of the author to shape their narrative and moral limit the control of the player’s own moral-center to effect the narrative? And if it does, is it really a game or is it now something different? It’s like the author has a trick hand that I have to play into; I didn’t really have any choices in this game.
Anyway, great concepts all the same. This game has broadened my horizons on the power of video games and has got me thinking outside the box on how to write in the medium.
Thanks for reading Adam! You should also check out Sleep is Death by Jason Rohrer. I think that borders more on a free form type of game; more narrative story telling than goal oriented. Still an interesting stab though. I need to do a write up on that one as well.