passage
Latest
NYC Museum of Modern Art opens game collection with 14 classics, exhibiting in March 2013
Given the subject matter, this is usually where the author waxes philosophical about whether -- having been accepted by a major international museum -- games are indeed "art." We're gonna skip that needless exercise today and simply tell you that the New York City Museum of Modern Art is officiating its intake of 14 video game classics as the start of an ongoing gaming collection, set to go on display in March 2013 in the MoMA's Philip Johnson Architecture and Design Galleries -- the same galleries that house an original iPod and more. The games range from Buckner & Garcia inspiration Pac-Man to modern classic Portal, and even includes some lesser known gems (vib-ribbon, anyone?). The MoMA blog calls this initial selection just the "seedbed" for a chunkier collection of around 40 titles, all of which will be part of a "new category of artworks" at the iconic museum. Head below for the full first 14.
Jason Rohrer Anthology gravitating to DSiWare [update]
Diamond Trust of London, the strategy title about the diamond trade, isn't the only game from Sleep is Death designer Jason Rohrer headed to the Nintendo DS. The ESRB lists an "Alt-Play: Jason Rohrer Anthology" featuring three of Rohrer's previous games, published by Sabarasa Entertainment. Included in the set are Gravitation, the two-player Between, and Rohrer's best-known game Passage, which is also available on iPhone. This DS collection, then, will be another option for those who want to feel terrible about their mortality on the go. Sabarasa's recent press releases list the Alt-Play collection as an "upcoming project," and confirm that it's being made for the DSiWare platform. It certainly makes sense as a download: it may be three games, but those are three very brief games. [Update: Sabarasa press releases also mention that Rohrer's puzzle game Primrose will be released separately on DSiWare.]
Jason Rohrer: Spielberg's 'LMNO' project probably cancelled
Before it was known as Boom Blox, Steven Spielberg's puzzle game project was known as PQRS, and it was revealed alongside an Xbox 360/PS3 action game, codenamed LMNO, about a former secret agent on the run with a dynamic AI character.Boom Blox, of course, was released to great critical acclaim, but LMNO hasn't been so lucky. In fact, the last thing we heard about it were rumors that the team had been laid off (which Spielberg denied) and the project put on hold.In an interview with Edge, Passage creator Jason Rohrer revealed that he had been involved with the project. "On top of (odd programming jobs), I did some consulting work, most recently for EA on the Spielberg LMNO project," he told Edge. "My understanding is that project's pretty much been canceled now, what with the changing economy, but I'm not sure."[Update: EA responds, telling Kotaku: "The rumor is incorrect. EA remains deeply committed to its collaboration with Steven Spielberg and projects we are developing together. LMNO was a code name for a project in development at EALA. While the project continues to develop at EALA with Steven, we no longer refer to it as LMNO. We have no further details to reveal at this time."]
Passage creator releases Primrose, an iPhone puzzle game
Jason Rohrer gained some nice accolades among the indie gaming scene for his game, Passage, which took the player through a whole pixelated lifetime in just a few minutes in a very powerful and artistic way. Lately, he's turned his attention to the iPhone -- he released Passage on the platform (though it doesn't work quite so well -- you should probably stick to the free desktop version for the full effect), and has now created another iPhone game that's not quite as meaningfully reflective, but is definitely lots of fun.Primrose is the new title -- it's due out on the App Store any minute now (and will be released for desktops as well), but Rohrer gave TUAW a pre-release look at the game. You can browse through a few screenshots in the gallery below, and our impressions (it's good) are in the second half of the post.%Gallery-45258%
Passage now passes time on iPhone
We understand your position. You see no reason to pick up Jason Rohrer's Passage on iPhone (or iPod Touch), especially when (a) you don't "get it" and (b) they're charging 99 cents and it's still available for free on his website for PC, Mac and Linux. Art games aren't for everyone, but aspiring game designers take note: This game says more in 5 minutes and 100 x 16 pixels than most games do maxing out a DVD-ROM. If you're into that sort of thing, you might want to consider giving Passage your support (and a hard-earned George Washington at that).[Via Braid Game]Download -- Direct link (opens iTunes)
Passage is a lifetime in five minutes
At this year's Montreal International Game Summit, the game development collective Kokoromi held their second annual Gamma event, challenging designers and coders to create games under strict guidelines. For this year's event, games had to be a maximum of 256 x 256 pixels, and be fully playable in around five minutes. With these constraints, Jason Rohrer designed Passage, a tiny game that has been making tiny waves in our tiny community.There's not much to say about Passage. The game is available for Mac, PC, and Linux, and lasts exactly five minutes. In short, there's no excuse not to play it.[Via Raph Koster]
