Alternate Title: Perception and Thinking Inside(?) the Box
I don’t usually come across games that surprise me more than they actually should. When I was about to play 8:Capsule, I was expecting some arcade action with puzzles and when I did finish the game, I really had action(a very little bit of it) and puzzles so no surprises there. What I found surprising, however, was that 8:Capsule managed to help my brain figure out what to do via visual/audial clues without giving clear objectives; you know, in a in-yo-face fashion. This is more about in-game objectives as other information such as controls are written in the Readme file, accompanied with an interesting introduction. This way, 8:Capsule gives you the fundamentals(curiosity/motivation to play and what buttons to press) and leaves the rest to your perception. What has science done?
8:Capsule can be summarised as a little puzzle game dressed in pixels. This littleness is about its resolution, number of bytes it consists of and play time. Among those things, the only one that quite upset me was its shortness, to be honest. 8:Capsule offers some nice brain exercise and when you think you are ready for what’s next, all excited, it ends; in the most obscure way possible. Although I deal with independent games, most of which are quite experimental, I have to say I can’t quite stand obscurity done just for the sake of obscurity. However, I will make an exception for 8:Capsule and dare to claim that the ending indeed suits the overall experience.
Ignoring the 320x240 resolution, the graphics are pretty well made. They are not annoyingly glowy or have meaningless post-processing effects on them. 8:Capsule is constructed in Construct -Sometimes I run out of puns, please bear with me.- and you can easily switch to fullscreen by pressing F4 but sadly, say goodbye to the aspect ratio(for non-4:3 monitors) and embrace the interpolation -blur, that is-. 8:Capsule’s audio department will please your ears with retro inspired, but quite modern-electronic sounding tunes.
As I have said, my brain liked 8:Capsule. It made me realize what was missing from the contemporary independent gaming: making the player feel smart/a sense of accomplishment. Certainly there is a good amount of independent games which require player skill and provide lots of enjoyment. However, the number of independent games which dance on the line between being interactive and noninteractive is growing and I have to say, there are not many good examples of this kind of games. Especially the most popular games of this type are unfortunately -and I’m trying to be optimistic- glorified “walking simulators”. 8: Capsule is none of that. It can be defined as a prototype to show you that thinking inside the box is sometimes smarter and more satisfying, rather than “deep” and “meaningful” gameplay that ultimately feels artificial.
My faith in independent gaming is restored every time I play games like 8:Capsule. There are many people out there making/willing to make originally conceptualized and cleverly designed games and that’s what makes independent gaming attractive. I hope these games are not overshadowed by shallow and pseudo-intellectual work. 8:Capsule is not the only Anthony Domenico game and wait, there’s more! Erm, I mean he also makes music and here is the link to Anthony Domenico homepage.
