It is rare to turn on a game and be playing within seconds of its activation. Even seemingly simple games, such as Wii Sports, place hurdles between the player and action. You must press start, then select what you wish to play, then select the number of players, your skill level, and a brief loading screen that explains how to play the game or even, in Wii Sports’ case, a screen that tells you to turn off the game and take a break. The barrier is even larger in games built on a narrative foundation, where drama and exposition need to be established alongside play. (More often than not, the two are entirely separate. Even games that meld play, tutorial, and exposition in their initial moments, like Bioshock, wrest away much of your agency to allow their inciting incident to take root.) This didn’t used to be the case. Time was, all that stood between the player and the game was two buttons: power and start. It’s easy to forget how this immediacy can elicit a profound visceral and emotional reaction from the player simultaneously.
PixelJAM Games’ Rich Grilloti, Miles Tilmann, and Mark DeNardo are in the business of making games that outwardly look like little more than simplistic retro pandering, but are, in execution, remarkable examples of immersion through immediacy. Their most recent game, Dino Run, has you running from extinction seconds after you pressing start, giving you only a momentary window to process that you must run to the right and avoid everything in your way. The bright color of the tiny dinosaur you control and his pixilated surroundings are comfortingly familiar, but the game is given urgency through music, shifts in color, and distinct visual cues. It plays on extreme emotion and reflex perfectly. The game itself is exclusively concerned with momentum; you run or you die, jumping and ducking included as mechanics not to emphasize platforming but to facilitate speed. It is an essential display of videogames’ power to engage their audience in a way no other medium can.
Many thanks to Christopher of GameSpite for pointing Dino Run out to us. Check out PixelJAM’s other games here, and be sure to also try Ratmaze which is almost as insanely gripping as Dino Run.
Previously on Indie Dev Moment:
Scarygirl
Eegra Shindig
A Game a Month From Kloonigames
