A look at originality in video games
For those of you who don’t know. Some time ago, the international video game community was mind blown by a demo video coming from the little town of Hamar, in Norway. It was developer team «Krillbite Studios» who showed off their first large-scale indie-title; «Among the sleep». A first person horror adventure, in witch you play as a two year old child. After lots of international attention and several news-stories they took the project to Kickstarter, asking for $200 000 so that the core team-members could quit their part-time jobs, and work on the game full-time. In the project description they had quotes from big game personalities such as Cliff Bleszinski, saying the game looked interesting, and that they wanted people to support it. After the funding-period was over, they had raised over $248 000. A tremendous success.
Today, there has for some time been a public demo out, and countless have played it. The dev-team has also gotten their hands on a dev-kit for Oculus Rift (a virtual reality headset) and at the time of writing, they have incorporated it quite successfully into the game. I was lucky enough to go to Norwegian Game Expo, where i got to meet the team. Also, not only did i get to play the demo on a normal computer in a dark-room with sound-isolating headset, to aid the horror, but i also got to try out the game with Oculus Rift. I remember being blown away when i saw the first trailers and concept art for the game. I remember being rendered speechless when they published the public demo. When i played it with Oculus Rift, it was beyond my abilities to describe. But why is that? Why is «Among the sleep» such an amazing experience? I think it’s got to do with the fact that it’s just so unique. Do you remember back in the day? Games like Counter Strike, Doom, the early Super Mario games, Zelda and all the other classics where all hailed as incredible. Today, we have games in all those genres, that far surpass those old games in almost every way. Today, if a game came with the same clunky controls, short campaign and multiple poor design-choices, the title would be frowned upon. But back then, they were praised, and they still are today, because they had one thing games today doesn’t have. They had originality. They were unique. People hadn’t played anything like it before. Thus they were sucked into it. Consumed by it. What makes people still like those old classics better than many games today, are the fond memories, and not the classics superior quality. Star Fox 64 is one of the most iconic and praised games of all time, yet still, it had a campaign six times shorter than games that today get’s significant drawbacks on their review, because of a short singleplayer. So why was Star Fox able to pull of shipping such a short campaign, yet still be praised? Because of originality. We see the same today. Portal released with a 1 hour campaign, yet still it’s one of the most praised and beloved games of all time, by critics and community alike. Why? Most of the other games get’s ripped on for having a 6 hour campaign. Yet, because of originality, the ridiculously short campaigns of Star Fox and Portal are allowed to fly. People accept it, and they don’t care, because they’re having so much fun, playing something they haven’t played before.
I talked about this in my review of GTA V. A big part of why It’s such a success, is because it dared take risks and it was never afraid to innovate and try new things. This is why i’m so much in love with Among the sleep. Though in the sense of graphics, smoothness in gameplay and content it may not be at the very top (although it’s certainly shaping up to be fantastic in those aspects as well), it doesn’t really need to be. It’s got the best weapon of them all. It’s unique. Just think about it. Have you ever played a first-person game, from the perspective of a toddler? We’ve all seen everything in our house, but we’re looking down on it. Sure, maybe you crawled on the floor to do push-ups, lie down on a soft carpet or pick up something that rolled under the table, but you can move a chair that’s in the way. You can reach up and open a door, you can get back up again right away. The days when you couldn’t are long forgotten. This is what makes the concept so unique. Sure other games throw puzzles and challenges at you. Get 6 headshots. Kill 50 guys within the time limit. Find away on top of that building. Don’t break stealth. All stuff we’ve done a billion times, in a billion different games. As a toddler, something as simple as opening a door becomes a challenge. All in all, you get puzzles and challenges that you’ve never had to face. They may have much of the same structure, but it’s an entirely different feel. I’ve never felt so handicapped as when i played. But at the same time, i’ve never felt so empowered. You can hide under a table or in a kitchen closet. As a toddler, it’s the world from a whole new perspective and things you never deemed possible in you’r state and mind of adulthood, suddenly becomes a reality. You have to throw away everything you know and start fresh. Thinking in an entirely different way.
At the same time there’s the horror aspect. Anybody who has played a horror game today, or seen a horror movie is used to getting scared by bloody corpses, ghosts jumping out at you or a big guy wearing a scary mask, carying a chainsaw or a pickaxe, but would you ever dream of being scared of thunder? Are you scared of going to the bathroom late at night, because the house is empty and dark? Most likely not. But all of those things are stuff that could genuinely scare a little child. When you’r little, there’s completely different things that scare you. And thats a big part of what Among the sleep plays on. The ambience. The unknown. You don’t know what dangers lurk in the shadows. You get thrown into, and completely immersed in this little child’s world. You find yourself running from things, yet you don’t know why. It doesn’t rely on direct graphical violence or horror, of the kind that most games and movies do. It relies on the unknown. The fears of little, scared child so far, far away from his warm, cozy bed and a loving, protecting mothers goodnight kiss.
For those of you who don’t know. Some time ago, the international video game community was mind blown by a demo video coming from the little town of Hamar, in Norway. It was developer team «Krillbite Studios» who showed off their first large-scale indie-title; «Among the sleep». A first person horror adventure, in witch you play as a two year old child. After lots of international attention and several news-stories they took the project to Kickstarter, asking for $200 000 so that the core team-members could quit their part-time jobs, and work on the game full-time. In the project description they had quotes from big game personalities such as Cliff Bleszinski, saying the game looked interesting, and that they wanted people to support it. After the funding-period was over, they had raised over $248 000. A tremendous success.
At the same time there’s the horror aspect. Anybody who has played a horror game today, or seen a horror movie is used to getting scared by bloody corpses, ghosts jumping out at you or a big guy wearing a scary mask, carying a chainsaw or a pickaxe, but would you ever dream of being scared of thunder? Are you scared of going to the bathroom late at night, because the house is empty and dark? Most likely not. But all of those things are stuff that could genuinely scare a little child. When you’r little, there’s completely different things that scare you. And thats a big part of what Among the sleep plays on. The ambience. The unknown. You don’t know what dangers lurk in the shadows. You get thrown into, and completely immersed in this little child’s world. You find yourself running from things, yet you don’t know why. It doesn’t rely on direct graphical violence or horror, of the kind that most games and movies do. It relies on the unknown. The fears of little, scared child so far, far away from his warm, cozy bed and a loving, protecting mothers goodnight kiss.
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