Discover Top Posts Tagged with #elk boy

hey if Ash was a furry what animal would he be

i JUST saw this my apologies…

i actually have drawn him as one before, haha. he would be an elk! his big sad elk eyes…

#in my mind he gave himself diy antler surgery #that’s my transgender equivalent #elk boy #bowiescabin #ash williams

The Orthogonal Game Design Association

I found a rather unusual flyer on one of my morning strolls. It was at the corner of Purple alley, an old dilapidated brick wall sat at the back-end. A brick wall with a crude glass bulb for a light fixture, a host of cobwebs, nail polish art, semi brownish layers of gunk, furry tail from some sort of animal pinned with nail, pieces of glass stuck with cellophane and insect wings glued at carefully chosen positions. As I drew closer, the bulb on the wall emitted a faint glow, revealing a flyer. A simple monochrome color scheme it had, white background and black font. Like a pearl amongst the rough, the flyer read 'The Orthogonal Game Design Association is Hiring!'. It looked like a notice for a video game company of some kind. It was no ordinary flyer as I would soon find out. Underneath the header was written in bold, 'We make video games that reveal the true nature of reality!'.

At first I didn't know what to make of it. 'Orthogonal Game Design Association'? What does that even mean? (A quick google search that I did later on: For the unacquainted, orthogonal game design is when the elements of a game multiply the game's space rather than add to it. An example is chess where all the different types of pieces have unique moves like Vertical, Diagnol, L shaped etc. This thought process leads to games that are pure and abstract, and therefore more profound. To sum up: the elements of an orthogonal game are qualitatively different rather than quantitatively). As I keep reading the flyer, I find a manifesto and I think to myself, 'In a world that is driven by money, here is an artisan that truly cares for his craft'.

Mission Statement of The Orthogonal Game Design Association:

1) To make games that inspire awe. The games of today are merely toys expecting us to 'role-play' and pretend. Where are the video games for adults?

2) To make games that do not borrow from other forms of art like books, film and music.

3) To give people a unique experience by subverting expectations. In other words to make games that do not feature 'guy with sword' or 'guy with gun'. Games have been and still are a fast-food experience. People know what they are getting into almost all the time. This must change!

4) To make games that are 'non-manipulative'. A famous designer once said 'A good puzzle game is one that makes you feel smart'. Manipulative much? We have our doubts as to whether this man was a designer or a parasite.

5) The current state of games feature too much 'fluff'. They use cut-scenes, unnecessary story, arbitrary progression systems etc. and dilute the gameplay. Some might even say that these elements are used to hide how brain numbing the actual gameplay is. We are looking to make games that are pure and transparent.

6) To make games that will open the mind of the player through a series of transcendent realizations, thereby improving the quality of life itself.

7) Each game must be beautiful, unique and mind altering. If a game is missing any of these traits, we don't ship it.

By the time I had reached the end, tears filled my eyes. All this while I thought video games were arbitrary when along comes a group of incessant radicals with a mission statement so ambitious that it might just blow a hole through the stratosphere.

I trotted back home, pulled up my keyboard and searched for the 'Orthogonal Game Design Association'. I find the website, and it opens to a poem.

A computer simulation is like a lens to the universe

It has the ability to express the fundamental truths

The nature of interactivity is a deep joy

Whilst being visceral

It also has the ability to conjure up any complicated commentary

However in the pure geometry of it all

Lies the ability to invoke a sense of play

If the flyer produced tears in my eyes, then this poem made the hair on my arms raise in salutation. It is done... I must play their games. I search the website and to my horror, I don't find a single trace of interactive anything. This must be a mistake so I try to look elsewhere on the web. Thirty minutes later and without any success, it hits me like a haymaker. The Orthogonal Game Design Association was instated in 1996 and to this day have not released a single game. Was their ambition of an artistic work, a dream too big? Are they still tinkering away, perfecting some tiny detail? I guess we'll never really know.

(Based on the musings of Jonathan Blow)

#short story #elk boy