Art gaemz: Earth and ir/rational


News Art gaemz: Earth and ir/rationalI’ve recently been scanning this month’s entries for the Experimental Gameplay Project to see how far the theme “Art Game” can be stretched, mainly because I’m thinking about throwing my own little something in over the next few days.

Two games in particular stood out for me (at least among the ones that I downloaded), and you should have a look at them too:

Earth is a rather interesting take on the classic Space Invaders idea, offering multiple endings and a considerably deeper message than you’d typically expect to find in an arcade blaster. Offering too much description at this point may spoil the effect, so I’ll settle with mentioning that I took a minute or two out of my life to play through (twice) and found it to be an enjoyable, artsy experience.

And while you’re at it, prove that Michael Atkinson is a douche for banning 18%2B videogames in Australia. No, really: ir/rational is a philosophical, logic-based puzzle game which offers you the chance to construct this argument (and many more) from a mechanical perspective based on the classic “IF/THEN/THEREFORE” building blocks. It’s called propositional calculus and it rocks. Combine that with an intriguing (albeit short) story and some quirky humour and you’ll have a few glorious minutes spent looking at common arguments in an entirely more logical manner.

It’s cool and stuff.

If you’re interested in submitting your own stuff to EGP, remember that you have until 31 December to do it. That should be plenty of time to get whatever you want out the door: the competition’s “7-day, 1-man” restriction pretty much ensures it.

Nandrew