GDC 15: Breaking down the IGF pavillion highlights

hat faithful time has arrived once more, the grand opening of the GDC expo floor, and like a moth to a flame, I immediately gravitated to the IGF Pavilion to experience the games that were picked as finalists for this year’s award show.

I have to admit, I was charmingly surprised as well, not since I had first played Gone Home at this very exhibit years ago, had I came away from the entire thing feeling so moved but what I was able to play.

Enough of the suspense, here are some of my favorites from the event that are sure to be on everyone’s radar when they release later down the line!

Have you ever heard of the old expression, “don’t blink, or you just might miss something.”? Goodbyeworld Games decided to give that phrase a whole new meaning with their premier of their choice driven narrative adventure game, Close Your.

Taking place from a first-person perspective, players will experience a lifetime events through the role of a cipher-molded character, and the manner that the venture advances itself is what makes the entire experience so engaging; it monitors each and every moment a player physically blink via webcam, flashing to the next scene.

This mechanic instantly draws a sense of immersion as the pace of the store and its advancement is entirely personal one that you simultaneously are, and not, in entirely in control of. Each scene presents a series of choices that may either have no real effect on the story, or may be crucial developments that require your attention, and there’s no real way to distinguish them because before you know it; one blink of the eyes can transport you on to the next event before you’re even able to really respond to what was previously happening.

The dialogue and tone of the game wonderfully compliments this innovative dynamic of “blink-shifting” with an compelling sense of tension and attachment to the development of your character and what sort of path they travel in the simulated rat race of life that Close Your engages you with.

The game is still in it’s early stages, so there’s no real release window that’s been planned as of yet, but the concept that Goodbyworld Games has introduced so far is definitely a solid one, and Close Your will definitely make waves when hits the market. 

If there’s one style of game that’s generally maintained a polarizing gate of accessibility over the years, it’s the Real-Time Strategy genre.

Whether it’s the length of investment that an average play session may command, or the complexity of the dynamics involved with the combat and gameplay, this particular kind of game is usually known for both its dedicated fan base, and detractors, even after all of the different RTS venture we’ve seen over the generations. Monogon Games aspires to breach that very gate of accessibility with it’s casual, yet thought-provoking RTS affair, Interloper.

After only seconds of learning the basic elements and flow in Interloper, did it quickly become clear just how fast-paced it really was, and remarkably, it achieves this without sacrificing any of the cerebral factors involved the tactical aspect of its campaign.

The premise places players in the role of what would appear to be a microorganism with a viral field that’s ripe for the viral claiming. Navigating your avatar cell through the stage, each acre of ground that’s covered, automatically adds to your collective claim of the territory of the level.

 Along the way, you’ll encounter neutral drones that you can indoctrinate to your side, immediately commanding them to attack any of the enemy drones that make up their own field of hostile territory, which within itself is hazardous to the health of them, and lethal to your leader cell.

The only that you can traverse enemy territory is if you phase out, along you to travel through it, and reach other points of the map where additional resources or neutral drones may lie. The catch to this nifty mechanic however, is that you can’t do anything else, BUT travel until you can phase back into neutral or friendly space where your cell can homogenize with.

Expediting the process of resource development and engagement in one fell swoop, each round of Interloper is primed at lasting no more than 5 minutes before a conclusion can be reached, and yet in spite of this simplification—the dynamic is addicting, rewarding, and sound within each and every run that’s played through.

The game is set for some time later this year, and will be available on Windows, Mac, and Linux.

While rhythm games are nowhere near the level of prominence that they once were, the concept is still ripe for innovation, and SuperChop Games aims to prove with their iOS production, Ephemerid: A Musical Adventure.

As the artistically colorful setting slowly sets in, an innocent looking insect of the winged variety suddenly flaps in to view, surrounded by foliage and greenery that contain suspicious looking bushels of leaves that are destructible with a few quick taps on the screen.

As I rapidly beat my finger against that bushel, the insect descended towards its direction, and then that’s when the beat of an energetic metal-rock chorus suddenly blasted out the speakers; this is where the game really began.

The pace hastily picked from this point, as a trail of bright and vivid petals let a suggestive route down to the next bushel of interest, and it was then it became clear that each tap required to shake down the bushel into a pile of compost were intentionally crafted to the tempo and beat of the rock music that recently had emerged.

Although the gameplay doesn’t seem like it emphasizes rhythm or melodic coordination at first glance, the dynamics and frenetic vigor of all the action on display possesses an intuitive sense of influence over the harmony and progression that it builds towards, in one of the most unique methods of agency that I’ve personally ever seen from this style of game.

The game has just recently released for both iPad, and iPhone, and it comes recommended.

Continuing the trend of mobile gaming, I soon stumbled upon an endless-styled game of randomization challenge with an innovative direction that hasn’t been explored to the degree that this specific software was; enter Ojiro Fumoto’s Downwell.

Playing the suggestive meaning of the game’s title to heart, the objective was to quickly plummet down the well-like tunnel, mainly moving through a vertical base aside from few passage ways that can be found on either side of the overwhelming shaft that players fall through. Inhabiting the depths of the descending abyss are a number of dangerous creatures, and will present quite the obstacle to reaching the bottom of the well—which is where your gun feet come in.

By tapping on the screen while the mineshaft hero is diving in mid-air, the protagonist will be propelled by a burst of gunfire coming out of the soles his/her shoes, damaging or killing anything that’s within range below. In addition, players can also place a well-aimed stomp atop certain enemies, but anything that’s colored with a red-hue is invulnerable to the attack, and must be shot dead to be defeated.

The hook to the shooting is that it can only be used in busts, and can be exhausted with a subsequent cool-down required for it to charge up again. This dynamic introduces a degree of tension to the game, as players will also need to shoot down certain blockades that they’ll land against that can be past otherwise. Micro-managing when to stomp, and when to shoot between barriers and enemies commands an attention that’s effectively challenging and satisfying the more you advance.

The build of the app is still very new, but Ojiro hopes to bring it across all smartphone marketplaces, and may even set his sights on porting this whimsical title to other formats in the future as well.

Encountering another narrative-driven title at the pavilion, this one however was different in its approach, directing focus not so much on the plot the progressed the characters but more so on the inner demons and insecurities of protagonist who struggles to carry on with his day to day existence—this game is called Pry, and it’s one of the finest simulations of anxiety I’ve ever related to within a video game.

Animated through footage that’s akin to that of full motion video, the visuals deliver additional effects of the exposition and presentation that resonate with the mood and content that drives gameplay through.

Every scene is moved through the ponderings that teeter anywhere from rational analysis to the edge of a mental breakdown from the weight of everything that’s fictionally transpiring for the character. Each event can be broken down into mindsets of process, swiping through an expanding gesture on the screen will cause the an monologue that will examine the protagonist’s thoughts from an external perspective, making a crunching gesture in however, will lead you the through rambling introspective flow of mediation, rambling through a deep cache of insecurities and fears surrounding the current mediation, or even something that’s still lingering from a past event.

Even as I played through the demo on show floor environment, the presentation and dynamics of the character development was undeniably gripping, and much tenser than I would have ever anticipated.

The game is now available on iPad, and I’ll have more to say about it once the hustle and bustle of GDC 15 comes to a close.

The IGF Pavilion has, and just by merit of this year’s current showing, always will remain one of the best stops that anyone can ever make at GDC, I look forward to seeing how these particular games, and remainder of the exhibit fare in the 17^th annual award show later this evening.