Amorphite

A strange idea I devised but never expounded on some time ago was a metaphysical game where the player starts out in this sort of amorphous void, as less of a shape and more of a force. The player moves through layers of existence, starting out as a force, then maybe getting some sense of form, then maybe some depth, cause and effect, and finally a detailed vision of reality. The purpose of the game was to expand on the idea that we shape reality around us actively, not passively. The forms and forces controlled by the player are less a total picture of him/her, as in the case of an avatar, but more the physical existence of the player in the game world, where the player him/herself acts as the mind. The mind's job is to construct reality, and so that is the player's job. The avatar moves in reaction to the player's formations. It is the player's job to solve puzzles that allow the avatar to navigate more coherently.

How would such a game be programmed or designed? The player must first be thrown into a total sense of chaos, as the first step in cognition is perception without form. But how to represent this chaos and make it something playable? This seems almost as absurd as literature's conundrum in being unable to describe infinity or anything outside of the experience. A game has a well-ordered set of rules, but in order to produce a feeling of confusion in the player it will be necessary to not have a well-ordered set of rules, but a very loosely defined one. All we have are these two premises to start on, that first, the game in its initial state should be formless, and second, there is the immediately understandable objective of creating form. There should be some observable pattern out of the seemingly formless state that will lead the player to conclude a rational course of action. And this is where I'll leave off, unless this type of game is to be persued in the future.

Another slightly more ordered version of this game might be an adventure game where certain objects/forms become visible as the player collects something, building the puzzle up, sortto speak. Take the example of a single room where all one has to do is move blocks around to get to the first piece. Some blocks move and some don't and only through expirimentation will the player solve the puzzle. When he/she gets the first piece, however, some blocks change to a different color, making it clear which ones can be moved and which cannot. A second piece might reveal elevators leading up on top of ledges that make for a new puzzle and so on and so forth for each level.

A similar idea to the puzzle game but not the metaphysical game is one I came up with for Shells before it became the game described below (Bruit de Puille, with the 3x1 tiles). In this game the finishing playing board would be used to play another game of a similar variety, and then that finishing playing board would somehow be used to play yet a third game. The winner of two games emerges victorious. But this never got implemented.

That's enough brainstorming for today.