- 平台: Windows
- 游玩人数: 1
- 发行日期: 2006
- 售价: Free
- 官方网站: http://www.rodvik.com/rodgames/marriage.html
This is a game that requires explanation. That statement is already an admission of failure. But when working with new art forms one has to start somewhere and its unfair to an audience to leave a piece of work (even if its not successful) without some justification. Its probably some kind of record to have such a small game give hundreds of words of explanation. By way of defence I should say that I regard game rules as highly compact artistic statements so its not surprising that unravelling them takes a while in prose, also artistic criticism for games is a new field so we don’t have the pre existing vocabulary to deal with outlying games like this, yet.
The Marriage is intended to be art. No excuses or ducking. As such its certainly meant to be enjoyable but not entertaining in the traditional sense most games are. This means I am certain to be perceived as being pretentious by some who read this, my apologies. This is also a very difficult game to understand, again my apologies, I have tried to assist those who are interested but frustrated with the rules summary below.
The game came out of my explorations into games as art. This thinking started a few years ago out of a series of discussions with Raph Koster when we both worked at Sony Online Entertainment. While we ended up taking different approaches to it, the aim of pushing out the edges of games as art in our spare time was a common goal. I was also very taken with Jonathan Blow’s “Raspberry” which seemed to me to start to push towards expression through gameplay.
In early 2006 my thinking on the matter had narrowed to two areas. One was seeking a unique artistic form for games and the second was categorizing game creation. These thoughts were summarized in an article for The Escapist Magazine titled “Game Rules as Art”. http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/issues/issue_41/247-Game-Rules-as-Art The Marriage addresses the first area of seeking a unique art form through games.
The challenge as I saw it was to have the primary medium of expression something unique to games. So it couldn’t be a story for example, because stories can be told by other mediums. It couldn’t be a poem or sounds because they also have other counterparts. In other words I didn’t want to limit games to being a hybrid art form. In no way is this meant to denigrate the serious work done by others in interactive storytelling for example, that just wasn’t my interest and games are big enough that there is plenty of room for all.
The game was the second try I had made in the area. The first “A walk with Max” was an attempt to experience how it felt to take my 3 year old for a walk in the countryside. That first game was a failure in my mind because it was representational. You could imagine (barely) putting a little boy in it and some nice looking trees and it becoming a better game. This was the wrong direction for me. I wanted something that was not easily represent able by other media. I wanted to use game rules to explain something invisible but real.
I wanted a game that the graphics and other elements took second stage. So for example Chess is a great game whether playing with stones or diamond encrusted ivory sculpted pieces. One should not assume the game is incomplete because of its graphical simplicity, I cheated a little here by using colour symbolism similar to painting. This is also the reason there is no sound to the game, any element I could remove that got in the way of the game itself I did. Sound and music is a very powerful medium in and of itself, I feared its inclusion would overwhelm the subtle message of the game.
“The Marriage “came out of a long weekend I took with my wife down to Carmel. It was created that evening on my laptop as I listened to the waves of the pacific below. All the game mechanics were completed that evening although I spent weeks afterwards tuning and polishing. The game was also made “in process” as it were. I simply could not design this game on paper before hand. It had to be done by exploring , discarding and balancing game elements during creation. This feeling way of game creation felt right. It was like carving with the grain of the wood or painting with the brushstrokes rather than against them.
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The Marriage is intended to be art. No excuses or ducking. As such its certainly meant to be enjoyable but not entertaining in the traditional sense most games are. This means I am certain to be perceived as being pretentious by some who read this, my apologies. This is also a very difficult game to understand, again my apologies, I have tried to assist those who are interested but frustrated with the rules summary below.
The game came out of my explorations into games as art. This thinking started a few years ago out of a series of discussions with Raph Koster when we both worked at Sony Online Entertainment. While we ended up taking different approaches to it, the aim of pushing out the edges of games as art in our spare time was a common goal. I was also very taken with Jonathan Blow’s “Raspberry” which seemed to me to start to push towards expression through gameplay.
In early 2006 my thinking on the matter had narrowed to two areas. One was seeking a unique artistic form for games and the second was categorizing game creation. These thoughts were summarized in an article for The Escapist Magazine titled “Game Rules as Art”. http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/issues/issue_41/247-Game-Rules-as-Art The Marriage addresses the first area of seeking a unique art form through games.
The challenge as I saw it was to have the primary medium of expression something unique to games. So it couldn’t be a story for example, because stories can be told by other mediums. It couldn’t be a poem or sounds because they also have other counterparts. In other words I didn’t want to limit games to being a hybrid art form. In no way is this meant to denigrate the serious work done by others in interactive storytelling for example, that just wasn’t my interest and games are big enough that there is plenty of room for all.
The game was the second try I had made in the area. The first “A walk with Max” was an attempt to experience how it felt to take my 3 year old for a walk in the countryside. That first game was a failure in my mind because it was representational. You could imagine (barely) putting a little boy in it and some nice looking trees and it becoming a better game. This was the wrong direction for me. I wanted something that was not easily represent able by other media. I wanted to use game rules to explain something invisible but real.
I wanted a game that the graphics and other elements took second stage. So for example Chess is a great game whether playing with stones or diamond encrusted ivory sculpted pieces. One should not assume the game is incomplete because of its graphical simplicity, I cheated a little here by using colour symbolism similar to painting. This is also the reason there is no sound to the game, any element I could remove that got in the way of the game itself I did. Sound and music is a very powerful medium in and of itself, I feared its inclusion would overwhelm the subtle message of the game.
“The Marriage “came out of a long weekend I took with my wife down to Carmel. It was created that evening on my laptop as I listened to the waves of the pacific below. All the game mechanics were completed that evening although I spent weeks afterwards tuning and polishing. The game was also made “in process” as it were. I simply could not design this game on paper before hand. It had to be done by exploring , discarding and balancing game elements during creation. This feeling way of game creation felt right. It was like carving with the grain of the wood or painting with the brushstrokes rather than against them.