![\"\"](\"http:\/\/nathalielawhead.com\/noodles\/altgamesfromitch\/3-Zk1f.gif\")
\nSkateRPG by danieldante<\/a><\/p>\n
Last night I finally played SkateRPG<\/a>, and wow I love it. It’s this beautiful combination of a strong personal voice from the solo-dev that made it, a unique kinda glorious trainwrecks<\/a>-like design style (in a good way), and is filled with interesting, strange, and wacky characters. Why SkateRPG means this to me… SkateRPG<\/a> is about skating. You collect tricks by learning them from the silly inhabitants of the world it places you in. There’s a monetary system to it too, and you can purchase things. You wander around and talk to people. There’s smaller mission-like things you can do… What I really like about it too is some of the very arbitrary design decisions about it. Like there’s one home (the door is left open) that you could<\/em> go into. It stops you and asks if you really want to go into someone’s home uninvited. If you choose “yes” then it’s game over. I kinda enjoyed that. The silly little arbitrary design tangents that end up bearing with them meaning. Yesterday I stumbled on this incredible gem on itch.io… Riba<\/a> is a small, atmospheric, metaphoric experience about fishing for your grandmother’s bones. You recover these touching memories of someone who lost themselves to an illness.<\/p>\n Even though it’s a very short, simple game, there’s a lot to it in terms of how it creates this impactful meaning through the metaphor of the interactions it allows.<\/p>\n There’s a little bare patch of land in the corner where you can pick (drag and drop) flowers, mushrooms, leaves… and place them around the bones you collect. It offers this space of reverence for what is lost. The little bittersweet pieces of someone that’s no longer with you, but it gives you these memories you can tangibly keep… pick up… place… offer respect to. It’s beautiful. The music is just as melancholic. Riba reminds me a lot of Constacia<\/a>… speaking to shortness and that maybe making a game long, elaborate, or too fleshed out, can ruin these small experiences.
\nI love the tone that SkateRPG sets. It’s rich with this very grounding social commentary. For example, there’s a graffiti artist that’s working on a wall. If you talk to them you get caught up in a rant about mainstream art.
\nA lot of the writing is strongly anti-capitalist, underground, and (my favorite) critical of American culture. It’s one of those games that you need to hold onto once you do find them because of that no-holes-barred honesty<\/a>.<\/p>\n
\nWhen I lived outside of America (in the many places I guess I ended up calling home), all this especially affecting the Balkans, there was this sense that Americanization was moving in and just slowly eating everything. You couldn’t escape it. Because of the cultural scars left from the war there was a subliminal sense of shame. Kind of a brokenness in many of the people that lost everything. “The West” was just viewed as better… kind of having “won” in some ways. I remember, during the conflict, how Americans were making movies about what happening (the ethnic cleansing, and all that). Fancy journalists came in to watch and document (For example: recommended reading “Safe Area Gorazde by Joe Sacco<\/a>“). Western news talked about it… The movies got critical acclaim and nominations, the books won prestigious sounding awards or made some careers, the fancy journalists made even bigger names for themselves… It also felt so exploitative… then they forgot. Attention moved on. The scars stayed.
\nAfter that, it seemed like the culture that everyone wanted was America. I guess, in terms of identity, and reducing a very complicated bunch of history to a simple sentence… There kind of was nothing left? A strange mixture of broken pride where calling someone “American” was an insult, but also something people wanted.
\nThen you move here, and it seems like America continues to consume whatever is left of where you were from. I think this country digests people slowly. Consuming the culture. Keeping the sell-able parts that are desirable (like spicy food, music), and rejecting the rest. You feel ashamed of your accent, of your food, the weird music, you don’t speak of where you came from… Ironically you yourself may not talk about “the conflict” because then it’s too triggering for the Americans. It’s best left to be consumed from the safe distance of the news, the novels, and the award winning movies.
\nI grew up with lots of discussions (complaining) about “The West” (among refugee friends mostly) and what that may mean for the future. Ok, this is getting ranty, I know, but reading the comments for Balkan Beat Box’s Balkumbia on Youtube<\/a> there’s one that jumped out at me…
\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/nathalielawhead.com\/noodles\/altgamesfromitch\/youtubecomment.png\")
\nIt kind of made me homesick a little? For a space that no longer exists?
\nCultural “pride” back there is a very weird and loaded thing. I don’t think there’s much left for me back there, but wow… when you find work from artists in this particular space, from cultures outside of the US, that really confront topics like gentrification, Americentrism, capitalism (for real, not just as a trendy talking point)… it sure is meaningful. This is what SkateRPG is to me. It’s grounding, skeptical, with a strong attitude and tone that ends up being pretty impactful.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/nathalielawhead.com\/noodles\/altgamesfromitch\/skate.png\")
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\nThe quirky characters that the world is full of are my favorite. They’re all a bunch of weirdos with square heads, alien bodies, giant bug-like beans??
\nThere’s a lot to this game. I’m still playing it. I couldn’t recommend it more tho. For $2.00 USD it’s a steal!
\nSkateRPG has an English version available that’s aptly called “SKATERPG – Gringo Edition.exe”.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/nathalielawhead.com\/noodles\/altgamesfromitch\/bones2.png\")
\nRiba by nB, Music by Be\u00edcoli, and Art and Design by Ivan Papiol<\/a><\/p>\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/nathalielawhead.com\/noodles\/altgamesfromitch\/bones1.png\")
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\nYou don’t actually find bones right away. You also catch fish, which I think is interesting. For a fishing game, the fish are treated as almost a nuisance. Like they get in the way of what you really want to find.
\nRiba<\/a> is a very short game. I think you get just seven bones, because (after that) all I started getting are fish. The simplicity of it is what makes it special. I’m really appreciative to the people who made this, that shared this part of themselves. It’s touching.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/nathalielawhead.com\/noodles\/altgamesfromitch\/peservere.png\")
\nConstacia by Ludipe<\/a><\/p>\n
\nI like bringing up Constacia<\/a> as an example because it’s a perfect vignette piece. In it you ascend this never-ending staircase by typing “perseverance”… you type the word over and over and over again, and are rewarded with a little banter between the characters about persevering. It’s almost sarcasm, self-commentary, self-aware, type of design. I like it because, if it were any more complex (with loops, and magic circles, levels…) I don’t think it would be the same experience. It’s impactful because it’s small. It’s a little message. It says what it needs to say, and you really get the point.
\nThese small things may be easy to brush off as “what? this is not a game? what’s the point even??” but I think that’s where the importance of them gets lost to the culture of games.
\nThe beauty is in the metaphor of interaction. The thing you are being asked to do gets you to be very reflective by performing the action. The words are passing. The message is not explained to you. It becomes clear as you are engaging with it.
\nThings like this are very poetic.<\/p>\n