Introduction
In order to make a game together, we should discuss games. This may appear hypocritical when we were talking about not playing games in class and that is understandable.
If the rules for class need to be modified for research purposes this is also understandable, you should know the difference between looking at a piece of software in order to understand the aesthetic, UI, or mechanics of a game and opening Roblox willy nilly in the middle of class.
For this shpiel, I want to do a kind of tapas sampler of a bunch of different games before we niche down a bit. The thinking here was to roughly alternate between commercial games from independent ones or ones that are more critical. My interest here, is the following:
- Talk about games in a serious way.
- Understand your interest, or lack thereof, in them.
- Understand other games you may be interested in, or perhaps, played in highschool or middle school.
- Have more context when we make our own games.
- Understand both "mainstream" games and games, or gaming-related experiences, that are made for critical reasons or as art.
JODI Untitled Games (Quake Mods) (1996 - 2001)
This is a collection of hacks or mods of the game Quake (a seminal 1996 true 3D FPS game by id Software), which you can tell by the sounds in the case of th below video. The visuals however, are totally obscured, almost disorientingly so.
Here is footage of the game Quake for context:
Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike (1999)
This game is known for its excellent sprite work, and tight, intricate controls and input design. The previous iteration in the series Street Fighter II and it's related revisions ("Super", "Turbo", "Super Turbo") were responsible for basically inventing the fighting game genre because of the invention of things like combos and cancels.
These were, initially, timing related exploits, that were known to be in the game but were not consciously designed into the initial version of Street Fighter II. An example is, if you hit your opponent when jumping in while low enough to the ground, you can then attack on the ground and then perform a special move like a Dragon Punch, before your opponent recovers; doing significantly more damage. These timing rules have been intricately dissected by avid players; knowing "frame data" for many characters is important to be a tournament or competitive player.
You might be familiar with the game from "Moment #37" which occured during an EVO tournament.
周一忱 Zhou Yichen GRANDMA (2025)
This game was making the rounds on social media for understandable reasons. That being said, many of 周一忱's other games are quite interesting. They are often small, and almost mythologically simple (in another game you are a small person who discovers themselves to be swimming in a giant cup).
You can play it here. If you're curious they use the GB Studio game engine.
Tetris ("Classic" Tetris on NES) (1989)
The below video of so-called classic Tetris, on the Nintendo Entertainment System (or NES) is by Blue Scuti. Tetris on the Gameboy was the so-called "killer app" of the Game Boy, however the NES version has been explored so thoroughly for high level play that it effectively can be broken in the way shown below.
Hylics 2 (2020)
I haven't played this game (full disclosure), however when I first saw this game (I believe via Tumblr) I was instantly transfixed by the aesthetic. That being said, the type treatment of Hylics and this game left something to be desired, showing the relationship between a games graphics and menus / UI / HUD ("heads up display") is crucial even if it is mainly aesthetic.
Dead Cells (2018)
Dead Cells is a "rogue-lite, metroidvania-inspired action platformer." Shown here mainly to show a different form of game structure. Although the game has distinct zones and items, you go on "runs" where the placement of those zones and items are dynamically generated. This is the "rogue-lite" portion. "Metroidvania" is derived from the games Metroid and Castlevania (Symphony of the Night is the canonical example) where the game is organized in a larger world that you can back track and explore "non-linearly."
This is someone playing Rogue (1980)
This is gameplay footage of Castlevania: Symphony of the Night (1997)
Braid (2008)
Braid is a game that is themed around the manipulation of time, and is clearly meant to be almost a love letter to canonical platforming games like Super Mario Bros. Although it was part of a kind of crop of difficult platforming games from the time like VVVVVV (sometimes colloquially referred to as "The Letter V Six Times") and I Wanna be the Guy, Braid expanded specifically on the time manipulation mechanic of Prince of Persia: Sands of Time in a mechanically thoughtful way.