Simple Power

The great power of video games lies in the way they directly engage the player.  Personal experience is key to the success or failure of a game.  It is also at the heart of the promise they hold as a powerful medium of artistic expression.

The other night, while glancing through Gamasutra, the game developer news site, an interview with the indie developer, Jake Elliott, caught my eye.  His recent game, Ruins, is a meditation on the blending of simple music, simple imagery and simple game play.  I decided to give it a try (especially nice because he's giving it away).  I am very glad I did.

Ruins - © Jake Elliott (used with permission - thanks!)

Ruins is much more than the sum of its parts.  While simple, its simplicity, its stylised presentation, and music that hovers just on the edge of familiarity, draws you in.  There is a story, but you the player are left to piece the fragments together as you find them - or, more accurately, catch them.  The truly remarkable thing about this polished little gem is that it is a framed experience.  It is an experience within an experience.  The character you move about the dark, mysterious landscape, is a dog.  According to game convention, the dog represents you.  It is your avatar in this lonely little world.  But the narrative seems to come from outside that world, from our own world, and told not to you, but by you.  You are both within the game and without simultaneously.

And the experience hangs together on a single strand of music by Chopin - quiet, coming and going, providing the only colour in this shadowy world.

While the experience is brief, it is delicious, sad but welcoming, like a fond dream remembered only later.  Such a strong, intimate connection with the player, the viewer, is a significant demonstration of the potential for the medium of games to have a unique, transformative impact.  The viewer and the creator engage in a relationship where meaning is built together, where both are invested in its creation and exploration.

And in Ruins the ultimate connection with the player is that this dream invites you to sleep and to dream for yourself.