Mark Pursey's Zen Point

A beautiful concept demo, and heck, a beautiful concept from developer Mark Pursey called "Drivey" -- a NPR [Non Photo Realistic] driving simulator, found via the Indie Game Dev blog.

It was conceived as a driving simulator for old farts like myself, who are kind of nostalgic for the "old days" [ca. 1985] but are not so thick as to believe that the games from the 80s were actually in any way superior to the games we play today. They weren't. Their greatness was all in our imagination. Try playing them now and if you're anything like me you'll be surprised and mildly disappointed that what once seemed so amazing can now appear so boring and ordinary. And I'm talking about gameplay as well as graphics and sound here.

That is not to say that I think modern games are so great. In fact I consider most of them overly complicated, expensive and demanding. So what Drivey is supposed to help me explore is that zen point between realistic and symbolic representation, some concept which might engage your brain in the same way that perhaps a graphic novel might, giving the reader only the visual essence of a world, and letting imagination do the rest, leading [hopefully] to a more engaging experience.

I love Mark's point here about a more vivid reality somehow being less real. We've all driven from one place to another, perhaps a well travelled commute, and arrived and realized they have no recollection of actually driving or seeing a damn thing. There's just so much to focus on when you're behind the wheel, one of the first things we learn to do is to figure out what to focus on and what to ignore. And when you try to cram it onto a screen, without the G-forces, the wind, the true reality of it all, the result is probably more of your brain realizing what's missing from what's real -- instead of filling the gaps with your imagination.

The venerable Clive Thompson has mused about this point, over at Collision Detection, specifically in reference to faces. And, it's hard to get in a discussion about "creepy computer generated faces" without going back to point to Ward Jenkin's critique of "The Polar Express".

But, back to Drivey. It's so darn beautiful, I wish I could actually drive in that world -- no obnoxious lane switching, phone yakking, W bumperstickered jerkoffs -- and perhaps that's a better goal than trying to replicate some extended reality into a game. But to make a game that's better than reality.

Even with the keys for all the whole arcade, Pole Position was always my favorite. Thankfully there are a few of 'em left.

Posted by juechi at March 9, 2005 01:04 PM