THE ARTIST IS PRESENT

Recreating a part of a MOMA  conceptual performance experience in the form of a short computer game is certainly something I haven't seen before.The pixelated graphics, the painfully slow motion of the protagonist and the aggravating period of waiting only to be awarded by a silent encounter with an unflattering image if Marina Abramovic represent a highly personal take on this exhibition. Although this game might be a dart at MOMA, Marina Abramovic or contemporary art (no viewer pays attention to a famous Matisse painting to their left) , and though the game maker clearly and effectively showed what he thought about the show and the pricing, it is still significant that it was made. It makes people think  of the significance of high art and its misinterpretation in our lives and inspires some to get acquainted with Marina's extensive opus. I wish there were more games challenging people this way.  

you can play this game here:

http://www.pippinbarr.com/games/theartistispresent/TheArtistIsPresent.html

OK/NORMAL

Finally -a soundtrack to your typical vaporwave album cover !This early 90s-inspired third-person 3d delight is everything that a sinister vaporwave genre might evoke. I do not see OK/NORMAL as a visualisation of a traumatised psyche , but a world your normal, everyday, consumer-self might conjure  while connecting the "wrong" dots. If you seek a unique combo of grievances about your gaming self and games of today in a single title OK/NORMAL might just be what you've been looking for.

FELIX THE REAPER

An elegant, overweight harbinger of death named Felix (what a clever name choice!) hopelessly in love with life and dancing and a certain Betty is instructed by the Ministry of Death to terminate people. Playing a full-blown psychopath with eerily whimsical dance moves cavorting in the shadows of a series of cleverly devised puzzle sets / dance floors while being guided by an instructor voiced by Sir Patrick Stewart? If this isn't a recipe for a classic I don't know what is. People can whine all they want about the unsavoury punchlines or slapstick gags or particular unjust deaths or the basic polygonal graphics or the uninspiring ending scene, it is a one-of-a-kind gaming experience for the open-minded.

WHAT THE GOLF

The fans that prefer their games absurd and funny and packaged in a single bundle of joy should look no more. This is probably the best golf game ever made and it's not necessarily even about golf or sports. It might have to do with sporting life, or making sense of the world in accepting and celebrating all of its absurdities, or the fickleness in us. Cats, houses, poles, office chairs, sofas, TV sets - anything can replace a golf ball. Movement becomes golf. The game makes fun of it, makes fun of us, and makes fun of a number of  indie genres and casual gaming tropes and the gaming world itself.
Another instant must-have classic.

PROGRESS QUEST

I've only recently found out about the "idle game" genre and it only proves to me that people need to enjoy or come up with new approaches and genres. Made as a parody of a famous role-playing game, the PROGRESS QUEST sets a blueprint  for the entire genre by allowing the player to set up their character at the beginning of a session and then see the game play itself out without their further  input.Truth be told, all the character's statistics and equipment play almost no role in how the action unfolds anyway. What is magical about this gem is that the "auto-attack" combat system and item acquisitions were parodied into a whole new genre. It spawned a host of games that play themselves out in real time with or without the player actually playing them...or even without their computers turned on. Fun is fun.

DREAMS

A one-of-a-kind game-making game where possibilities are virtually endless- you can play the games others have made using Dreams, or make your own game, or improve the games others have made, and even make   clones of A and indie  titles (the Superhot clone looks fabulous!). A perfect combo where a gamer is given free rein to make a game without being a game designer, the ultimate wet dream.

AI DUNGEON

In the early-to-mid 80s textual adventures were almost as equally popular as arcade titles as they allowed for the imagination spread its wings. The players would easily transport themselves into some imaginary world and didn’t even require the accompanying images that some late 80s titles had. There was one thing that kind of spoiled the fun - you were extremely limited in your variety of answers and actions and syntax and the content that the author of the adventure intended for you. We would nevertheless have a go at writing obscenities or absurd instructions in hope of triggering an intelligent response. Enter AI Dungeon.
This game allows you to make any appropriate or inappropriate comment, action, detour, and anything you type gets immediately recognized and responded to by AI. There are virtually no limits as to what you could write on the screen. As a result, the main story frame, if there be any, can be cut short as many times as you like with as many bizarre things as you like. I sense this game could even be a great creative writing exercise on how many new narrative episodes or subplots to add without completely destroying the main plot.

This is exactly what we;ve always wanted from a textual adventure. A genuine breakthrough.

KIDS

The second interactive animation by Michael Frei and Mario von Rickenbach presents another compelling meditation on the human condition. This time it has to do with crowd mentality and the clean slate mind of a child. Growth implies conformity and willing to fall over the precipice if others do so. Even if they reject to follow others they will eventually be misled by somebody else. The dark chasms kids fall into is dark and milky and resembles intestines, and digestion is painful. It is invigorating to participate in a massive flapping of hands or singing in unison or swimming through dark waters of life in company, but do our attempts at establishing connection with others really bring us any closer to understanding our own life? Or could this game be about something else entirely?

PLUG AND PLAY

I thought it was time people used actual video art/ video works in gaming. Sure, Plug and Play is confusing and outright bizarre as a video game , but it works perfectly well as a piece of art sending a powerful message to the viewer,the player. A nightmarish meditation on connectivity and isolation where people and circumstances are sockets,plugs,coins and fingers shows us a life full of half-uttered sentences,emotional and verbal outbursts,the hurting within and outside groups, and all of that is exceptionally depicted with brilliant , hand-written animations and the sparse sound and musical accompaniment highlights.This interactive animation has come closest to a true game of art I've ever seen.

MOSAIC

Any game that dares tackle whatever is mundane in our own lives deserves our utmost respect. And if it happens to do so in a visually compelling way it is bound to become a classic. Though your life might not be as bleak, you’ll see aspects of your nameless protagonist’s life that are readily identifiable. The tasteless meals, the meaningful corporate life of chasing other people’s rainbows, the joyless world of meaningless social interactions and relations, the bland and empty entertainment-everything’s there. The compendium of useless actions and toils is further emphasized by clunky controls and 3d graphics and music that comes off as both optimistic and claustrophobic. It is by putting up a mosaic of your  mundane life that you become aware of the need to change it. In truth, I was expecting something else by becoming proactive, something more daring and unrestrained, a bolder statement against  the world that made the protagonist a shadow of his former self as a perfect ending for this beautiful short game. Or maybe the game was supposed to let us know that misery always remain part of our existence, whether or not you pull the plug. No game’s perfect, right? Games are just games.