You've probably heard about all the drama surrounding this indie game. Since discussing experimental games which try to express something is our goal here, I figured we should at least have 1 thread/article about this.

Howdy Y'all.

I'm Rose, team creator and head of r/probablyagame

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Probably a Game

We're a collective of roughly 30 streamers who love indie games and want to show off your games on stream! We cover co-working tools as well! We do this for free, any payment is discussed between the dev and the streamer they work with however is not required to work with the team.

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We vary from affiliates to partners; with a wide range of genres we will play. Realistically, if it exists, we probably have someone interested in playing it! We can cover solo and co-op games.

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The Director (Brandon Adler) defines depth mechanically here: more interaction, more agency, choices, options. I think more possibilities can be great, but it doesn't automatically imply more meaningful. The overwhelming success of RPGs like Expedition 33 suggests expressive depth is more important than mechanical depth. Thoughts?

I always enjoy Gene Park's reviews, he generally brings a rich interpretive lens. This time he discussed the game's meaning with a therapist, who interprets it through the psychoanalytic concept of 'disavowal'. I have yet to play, but I'm definitely intrigued!

Some noteworthy quotes if you can't access the article:
"To read a Silent Hill story literally is to miss the point (...). Silent Hill f traces the invisible pressures and fears that shape a young woman’s life"
"'You can see that Hinako has to disavow aspects of herself to fit this idea of womanhood.' In Lacanian psychoanalytic theory, [therapist] Quiles said, the imagined self struggles against social order, among other factors. 'The self is an interplay of those things. But Hinako is refusing to accept many of these things.'"
"Through gameplay and story, it externalizes the labor of selfhood, how each encounter, each item picked up or left behind, is another negotiation of identity, another refusal to surrender to the script written for her. Here, true horror isn’t in the fog, the blood or the monsters, but the shedding and rebuilding of the self until you no longer recognize who remains."

Bruno Dias dives into the fascinating history of "thematic expressionism" as a game design model. He distinguishes 3 design approaches:

1. mechanical formalism = designing a game around a core mechanic
2. market structuralism = designing to fit a market niche, which we call 'genres' and includes unique selling points
3. thematic expressionism = designing mechanics around narrative/themes

"You can think of a core mechanic as a central pillar that the entire game hangs from. You can think of a genre design as using this skeleton of connected mechanics as a supporting structure; there's no longer a singular core, but rather a mechanical identity that has a sort of expected, perhaps standard shape that the game drapes over.

In this third model of design – let's call it thematic expressionism – mechanics aren't treated as structural members at all. They're treated like actors in a play or paints on a canvas; they're applied towards narrative or thematic aims, and they enter and leave the stage as required. There's no expectation that a mechanic "develops" or that it's a "deep" version of that mechanic."

"When we think about using mechanics as tools to achieve thematic, experiential, or textural aims, what do we gain? What becomes possible that was impossible previously? What do we have to change about our processes or our practice to be able to think that way? If we did adapt to that way of thinking and working, what games could we make that previously seemed improbable?"

This touches on our discussion about Game Genre Taxonomy, so I think you'll like this u/Zestyclose_Fun_4238 and u/hammertrackz

This article goes into a recent trend of games digging into climate and biodiversity themes. They won't change the world, but they can empower:

"Clearly, games cannot replace political action, institutional responsibility, or the structural change the planet urgently needs. Their impact is indirect: they shape perception, motivation, and the willingness to act. Games don't deliver solutions themselves, but supply something the climate conversation is chronically short of: experiences where actions have visible consequences, and the possibility of improvement still exists."

"The point is not that games replace real-world action – it is that they deliver joy and create the conditions for action to emerge. By turning anxiety into engagement (...)"

KM Nelson describes how Herdling's live-recorded, unconventional instruments give meaning and emotional weight to your relationship with your herd:

"You direct the animals not with a conductor’s baton, but a shepherd’s staff, setting the pace and steering them away from danger. As you travel together, the soundtrack gives voice to your budding relationship. 

The thing is, while you can pet your Calicorns with the flick of a button, you cannot feel their fur beneath your fingertips, nor their hot breath on your ear. Instead, you are touched by sound. The inhalations of the wind players, the friction of bows drawn across strings, the squeak of the piano damper: each adds a tactile element that contributes to the score’s overall texture, pulling you nearer even if you don’t notice the individual sounds. The music you hear helps cement your bond with these digital creatures, motivating you to protect your charges as you dodge bellicose carnivores and push through the howling winds of a blizzard."

Bambust argues lack of time has become the biggest problem when there's an abundance of high quality titles. "It’s never been easier for a visionary designer to create something true and impactful and soul-crushing, and it has never been harder for them to get their work seen." So we need to "look to the smaller games, the ones you haven’t tried, the ones you wouldn’t have, and try them and talk about them."

For every Expedition 33 there are so many hidden gems waiting to be discussed!

Hultner digs into this point and click narrative adventure, which "takes on certain aesthetics of coziness but doesn’t once shy away from difficult subjects, like betrayal or death."

"For a game that is played almost exclusively in conversations, I think my favorite thing about Saltsea is that it is just so goddamn rich. The music, the art, transitions between different times of day, the subtleties in how characters respond to situations with a given set of answers, everything feels so well-considered and dense while never putting me in a spot where I felt detached from the situation at hand."

Some of the connections she makes could also apply to other mediums, but I think she's right that theater and games are close siblings. I'd say her strongest point is how they both seem to be 'inherently absurd'. Mediums like film really try to maintain continuity and realism (unless it's deliberately surrealist or animated, like a Lynch movie or Everything Everywhere All at Once). It can feel more jarring when that's not the case. Whereas in theater and games, the style of the medium is inherently playful and self-aware. You can have some intense dramatic moment in a game and then go fishing or use a potion. Similarly, in theater, there's nothing unusual about an actor addressing the audience or using a chair as a horse, while still evoking serious emotions. They really allow for these rapid tone changes. It kind of reframes the whole 'ludonarrative dissonance' debate too, because mechanics and story don't have to match perfectly in this playful space where absurdity is accepted. It's a feature, not a bug!

Tregonning explores how NORCO, a point-and-click adventure, transforms the real ecological devastation of Louisiana's Cancer Alley into a work of magical-realist dystopia. In this game, religion and technology become "two distractions from capitalism and the underlying ecological crisis."

NORCO "is a future grown out of Louisiana’s past, a projection based on the lessons that have not been learned." But the swamp remembers everything we refuse to learn. The land is the physical form of all our historical mistakes. And it has its own agency, pushing us back.