I love weird videogames. The weirder the better. Games have the ability to deliver a far more fantastical and immersive experience to their viewers than any other medium. So why not create a world that has never been seen? Why not present a universe so unique and distinctive from reality as to impart a singularly meaningful experience to the player?
My first truly strange gaming experience was at a small indie dev convention in Eugene, Oregon in 2005. At this point most indies were focusing all of their efforts on mimicking the aesthetics and scope of triple-A games. Space marines and medieval sword dudes populated so many gritty first person shooters and overly ambitious indie MMORPGs. But as I made my way through the room, one demo stood out above a sea of homogeneous games. It was called "Golf?":
Created by a joint effort from Detective Brand and Chronic Logic, Golf? was in fact a functioning golf game that featured a sort of macabre, misplaced, French art noir film-meets Alice in Wonderland art style. Artist Luke Hetherington stated in a 2006 interview with Gamasutra: “I just tried to think of what [Little Nemo illustrator] Windsor McCay would do if he had to make static objects you run around and stare at.” You play as robot with interchangeable contraptions for a head, shadowed by a drunken caddy who wears the image of Franklin D. Roosevelt. I'd never seen a game like it. It was curious, absurd, and beautiful. I felt energized. Something inside of me was awakened. I felt a realization that each game could have a unique artistic voice.
A few years later I would start a site about games with odd and innovative aesthetics, and began interviewing the devs making these things. I called it Uncommon Assembly because I wanted to highlight the weirdest indie game concoctions and hear about the process and inspiration behind the art. I met a ton of incredible indie developers, all who were extremely generous to talk about their craft.
I felt like I had really found myself in this world of artistically evocative games. Years of contemporary art appreciation crashed into this relatively new cross-discipline medium of videogames, leaving a new interactive form of expressive and conceptual art. Artists and illustrators and charlatan and weirdos were strolling into the games space and bringing their bizarre styles with them. The barrier of entry was being lowered, and anyone and everyone could try it out, regardless of background or training. The world of games was getting abruptly richer and more compelling. Eventually I saw no point in running Uncommon Assembly because weird games were everywhere. Today's indie game climate leaves no shortage of strange, and often intimately personal, expressions.
Some weird games come from a place of unrefined skill. The closest thing this medium has to folk or outsider art. Hand drawn or haphazardly assembled assets, sometimes invoking a stream of consciousness. These are maybe more about personal expression, but through a craft-oriented style. Other games feel more deliberate, and from a place of experience. Some are stylistically innovative, using experimental graphics techniques, a combination of technical challenges and refined stylism.
Of course weird games had always been making rare appearances. Vib Ribbon and LSD: Dream Emulator were released on the Playstation in the late 1990s, as well as Seaman on the Sega Dreamcast. Strange Flash experiments popped up on the web pretty regularly in the early 2000s.
Vib Ribbon
LSD: Dream Emulator
Seaman
But in the ten or fifteen years that followed games had heading towards a critical mass that would open up the floodgates for diversity and personal expression in games. Today's indie game market is a zoo of personal, outspoken, and bizarre games.
Strange games are among the most inspiring. They take us to new, visionary worlds full of awe and wonder. They confuse and delight, and open our minds to new forms of visual communication. So let's get weird.