Even before my day gets a chance to become interesting on its own, I get this post by Introversion lead programmer Chris Delay dropped in my lap, courtesy of Kotaku. While not everyone will find the technical info about rendering structural details in virtual skyscrapers fascinating (I do!), I’m simply excited at the prospect of a new game by Introversion. If you haven’t heard of them, Introversion is an extremely independent developer that specializes in minimalist, high-concept games. Its two significant releases, Darwinia and Defcon (both available on Steam if you haven’t checked them out already), are both visually severe games with very specific and unique gameplay philosophies.

These are what games would look like if you were to give the technology of today to video game designers in the early 1980s.

I found Defcon to be particularly evocative, and not just because I love WarGames (I do!) but also because of how much it does with so little. It’s basically a thermonuclear warfare simulator, and its tagline of “Everybody Dies”, along with a gameplay model where “winning” is a matter of losing less of your population to the thermonuclear holocaust than your opponents, give you good sense of its grim tone. That’s fascinating enough on its own, but then another layer is added with the stark launch-terminal visuals and the quiet hum of technology in the background, which subtly suggest that, within the reality of the game, what you’re seeing is more than just a simulation. I rarely call something “chilling!” unless I’m being quoted on the back of a Dean Koontz novel, but Defcon definitely merits it.

This entry was posted on Monday, February 4th, 2008 at 8:53 am and is filed under games, movies. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.