Strangers

By: fuzz

On: February 2nd, 2010

<img src=“http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2725/4325705901_1f8391b109_o.png” width=“400” height=“400” hspace= "50"alt=“Strangers” />

Strangers, by Jan Willem Nijman (a.k.a. Jwaap or JW) and Jonathan Barbosa Dijkstra, is a short platformer set in a traditional sci-fi world. Jan Willem excels graphically here, as always, but what really makes this worth the download is the story, which has an interesting twist that you may or may not see coming. Gameplay-wise, it’s fairly standard platforming fare with movement that feels great, due in part to its FPS style controls. The jagged edges and interweaving colors of the art resemble a bizarre watercolour, and this effect is enhanced by the unintentionally blurry fullscreen mode. Each setpiece and character is made up of a number of large boxes, which creates a fascinating visual effect that plays on our tendency to gravitate to geometric shapes. There’s no music in-game, but according to the topic in which it was announced, this song is intended to be listened to during play, which is quite suitable to the overall style of Strangers. In the game, the unnamed main character is accompanied by his dog, Columbus, and he encounters quite a few slimy, one-eyed monsters in his exploration of a rather small alien planet. To say more would give away the best part, but once you’re done playing, hit the jump for my thoughts on it.

Again, you can download Strangers here.

Strangers is one of a rare few games that implement moral choices in a meaningful way. Sure, you have games ranging from Fable to Infamous touting their merits as a representation of life and the difficult decisions that must be made in it, but nothing I’ve heard of so far has ever gone beyond bland and obvious story-based choices. Jwaap has mentioned several times how game designers should not be playing games, and this exemplifies that notion: because he tries to approach his games from an outsider perspective, he’s able to criticize their established tropes, and in the end create a more gameplay-based storytelling formula.

I saw the twist coming from the beginning. When I realized that the aliens weren’t shooting at me, I tried walking through them, expecting them to hurt me. They didn’t, which is when I realized that while I was playing the game, the reverse was also true. The “kill or be killed” motif present in so many games is here removed, but since it’s packaged in all the trappings of a traditional 2D platformer, there’s no expectation or curiosity on the player’s part that this might not be the case. At first, I thought it a fault that only one ending is present, no matter whether you shoot the alien’s children or not, but it appears that his reaction can act literally as well as euphemistically; perhaps his children are playing hide-and-seek when you choose not to brutally murder them. This versatility of meaning works towards the game’s advantage in that it allows Strangers to act as vignette rather than anything more. Jan Willem has made several “art games” before this one, but this seems to be one of his first non-parody ones, and it’s all the more effective for it.

Here’s JW’s initial mockup for the game, if you’re into that sort of thing; also check out his article on proper violence in games.

seminar_2_mockup

  • shoo

    great message, very artfully stated.

  • http://www.klaimsden.net Klaim

    Aaaaawww commoooonnn !!!

    I wanted to use this game title so badly!!!

    Ok I’ll need to have the game first XD

  • fuzz

    @ klaim: more than one game can have the same name- i’m sure there have been games named “strangers” before this one.

  • magallanes

    F*CK!
    and now i feel dirty.

  • halcyon

    Why do you keep writing articles that are 10 times longer than the actual game?

    You know what, I’m not going to reiterate what’s been said in the past, since people have already given you perfectly good criticism and all you’ve done (with Derek’s help) is say “I don’t give a shit.”

    I’d do a lot of good for you to stop padding your sentences. The key to writing better is doing more with less, not less with more.

  • halcyon

    *It’d

  • halcyon

    My advice to you is to proofread what you write. You’ll be amazed at the bad habits you find. Let’s take the following excerpt for example.

    “Jan Willem excels graphically here, as always, but what really makes this worth the download is the story, which has an interesting twist that you may or may not see coming.”

    Let me point out the problems with this.

    1.) There are a lot of unnecessary (and redundant) words here that add nothing to the sentence and only act as padding.

    2.) Weasel words. Always avoid using these at all costs. For example “may or may not see coming.”

    3.) Passive voice. This ties in with #2 slightly. But as a rule of thumb, you should write in the active voice whenever possible.

    There may be more but these seem to be the biggest issues. If you avoid these habits, you can easily make your articles much more legible, concise and to the point.

    Or alternatively, you could write a short description of the game and provide a download link, as others have suggested. But knowing you, you don’t intend to do that and wish to write at length about the games you cover.

  • http://www.microwaving.net Alex

    Nobody loves me.

  • halcyon

    Okay, I played this and I’m now convinced that this entire article is just pure overstated, superfluous bunk.

    The game lasted for about a minute at least. It was interesting, sure, but this article overstates practically every aspect of the game.

    Is hyperbole like this really necessary?

    Here’s a new suggestion. Only write at length about things that can be written at length. If it’s something simple, do not make it look any more complicated than it really is.

    It’s like choosing to write an entire article about how grass is green, when you can simply state that grass is green.

  • fuzz

    @ halcyon: hey, thanks for the criticism. it’s really appreciated. i know that i have a great deal to work on writing-wise. i’ve not had much in the way of writing classes and such, so it’d be nice if there was a little more constructive criticism like yours rather than the “tl;dr” type. thanks!

  • jrjellybeans

    I’m really digging this art style! Looks neat, at least!

  • Louis F.

    13?! Gee, I’m impressed (and I’ve enjoyed several of your small reviews). Sure there may be some habits to fine-tune, but I think what is there is beautifully stated.

    (Actually, if anyone is game, I’d be interested in learning what is the age bracket around here. I’m 21.)

  • Louis F.

    (submitted by mistake, sorry!)

    I liked the game for what it was aiming for. Seems like it has been some time since a short provocative piece like this. Reminds me of Execution.

  • GZ

    Maybe I’m not indie enough but I really don’t care for the length of these games. I like that the game played with the players expectations, but given how short it is, and how it does it, I can’t really say anything positive about the game other than it has one good idea.

    The last four games posted were Strangers (this game), Gnop, Beef’s games, and This Is How Bees Work. All of those games are easily under 5 minutes each. That’s been my problem with the TIG main page lately.

    Where are the more fleshed out games at? Is there some kind of critical mass where all indie games will eventually be 1 minute long?

  • fuzz

    @gz: strangers, gnilley, walker and silhouette, and gnop are the four most recent games posted. of those, strangers and gnop are less than five minutes long. so that’s half, not all, of the last games posted.

  • GZ

    I got the recent games messed up, but even with those two it’s still 4 of the last 5. The video for GNILLEY is a little over 2 minutes and it’s essentially the whole game.

  • Dzzk

    I would guess that the problem is that there just aren’t enough quality, substantial freeware games out there.
    I regularily check TIGsource and Indiegames, and it really is slim pickings. Don’t get me wrong, there have been some really standout games. Karoshi, Ben there Dan that…some other ones…but I’m finding that there’s maybe 8 freeware indie games a year that I play and go “yeah, that was a really satisfying game.”
    Most of what’s out there is the shorter, more experimental stuff. If feedback is as big a motivator as I assume it is, it’s not hard to see why. A 4 hour game that took you 3 months might get 40 downloads and one message, while an experimental game can net a 30 comment discussion from a weeks work.

  • ffffff

    This isn’t a game and this isn’t meaningful, it’s the equivalent of calling notebook scribbles gallery pieces. Go back to newgrounds.

  • Derek

    The type of games on the front page is going to change a lot. Some weeks you’ll see a lot of short, experimental games and some weeks you’ll see more well-known commercial titles. Sometimes it’ll be a better mix of both.

  • Oriz0r

    hey derek what’s with the sweatshop

  • Anon

    Maybe tigs could include news about promisingly good games in development as well to pad things out?

    I don’t mind that this game was mentioned, but it’s a 30 second game that isn’t worth anything other than a 2 sentence write-up.

  • Anon

    Oh and I don’t know what halcyon is whining about. The review is pretty damn well written, especially for a 13 year old.

  • daigo

    No it’s not. Then again, it’s not his fault. It’s really sad that Derek Yu is so desperate that he’s hiring kids to write essays when they’ve never done so in their life. At least get people who are old enough to know what English comp. class is if you want them to write lengthy articles.

  • daigo

    Halcyon may seem like a dick for giving him a crash course in writing, but then again he didn’t know that he was talking to someone who is 13. In fact, that surprised even me.

    As much as I want to blame Derek for this, I admit that there’s more than that. You can’t deny that there has been a lack of substantial releases. Short little experiments in Game Maker seem to be the norm now. And it’s not hard to see why. They are easy to make and get a lot of attention fast.

    But yeah, it’s good practice to not artificially extend or “pad” your sentences. A lot of what you said could have easily been said in less than a few sentences or less.

  • daigo

    Halcyon may seem like a jerk for giving him a crash course in writing, but then again he didn’t know that he was talking to someone who is 13. In fact, that surprised even me.

    As much as I want to blame Derek for this, I admit that there’s more than that. You can’t deny that there has been a lack of substantial releases. Short little experiments in Game Maker seem to be the norm now. And it’s not hard to see why. They are easy to make and get a lot of attention fast.

    But yeah, it’s good practice to not artificially extend or “pad” your sentences. A lot of what you said could have easily been said in less than a few sentences or less.

  • daigo

    err, whoops. I said “less” twice. That was a mistake.

    Maybe I should work on my writing too, haha.

  • P-Molly

    What’s up with all the whining assholes? It’s you guys who make TIGSource less enjoyable, not these short games.

  • http://oneeyedmonsters.wordpress.com Peevish

    Slimy one-eyed monsters? Thanks for the plug!

    oneeyedmonsters.wordpress.com

  • cancerthatruinstigs

    Constructive criticism makes TIGSource suck. STOP IT!

  • Super Joe

    A 13-year-old writing about violent games? Thanks for this little slice of moral bankruptcy, Derek.

  • Ntero

    Ummm, Super Joe, I think that the article writing process is somewhat voluntary(considering the umber of guest reviewers). I also highly doubt there are age checks for posting a review in a forum.

    Also, this is not very violent, and if I had to guess would be E if the ESRB rated little games. It’s certainly not L4D, of which I find numerous 13 year olds playing. But that’s ok, keep on judging Super Joe.

  • Ntero

    Oh and more on topic, I thought this was neat.

    Yeah, it’s a short prototype, but it demonstrates very good use of allowing the player to discover the story you are laying out for him, and makes it feel more like his adventure than yours.

    Probably more likely to be interesting to people who are into making games rather than playing games though, due to size and simplicity.

  • Jamal

    Alex responded to everyone’s lengthy criticisms with just three honest words, and it seemed to go under the radar.

    Bravo Alex! :)

  • Mr. Podunkian

    before i start, i’m a huge fan of jw’s work and have written about loads of them on pigscene, so i don’t intend this as a criticism so much of jw, but rather whatever the heck this article is trying to say. dear alex: do you have any idea about what you’re writing about?

    first off (and ignoring all the twaddle from the beginning about watercolors), you say “strangers implements moral choices in a meaningful way.”

    really?

    because in life, moral choices go far beyond “kill things for the sake of killing them, and then listen to an alien make a joke about how you killed its children” versus “don’t kill things, but then listen to an alien make a joke about how you killed its children anyways.” in fact, if either acting in a morally reprehensible manner and morally neutral manner have the same consequence, where is the depth to moral choice?

    likewise (and assuming moral choice at all), how is this meaningful? surely, the nonconsequence of the murder (i.e. arriving at the same tidbit of dialogue either way) should point towards the lack of meaning to these moral choices, which given jw’s post (which is largely irrelevant to what you were writing besides the presence of the word “violence”).

    to quote jw regarding your post “the writing baffles me.” what are you saying, how does anything you say prove what you are saying? and why is it taking you so long to say what you’re not saying?

  • Adamski

    *Gives Alex a cookie*

  • Dinsdale

    what moral choices? what’s the point of having a choice when there’s no consequence to whatever you do? this is just laziness and halfassery at its finest.
    if I’d only read the article before going through this crap twice, would’ve spared me a few minutes.

    somewhat ironically for me, the biggest problem with this article is the entire paragraph about the “twist” which, being pretty much the only reason why this game exists, is described and explained in such detail that one shouldn’t even have to bother playing it.

  • Dinsdale

    eh, I didn’t see Mr. Podunkians post before commenting but… YEAH!

  • doobsby

    Welcome to the land of crushed expectation response.

  • Ezuku

    Hmm…

    Ironically I didn’t kill any. They don’t look aggressive, kinda like pet rocks. Didn’t even realise I was supposed to shoot at them until I thought more about it.

    I just walked right through them, talked to the guy, walked back, went in the ship, and got confused. I’m sure many other people probably did the same. Maybe the children at least need fangs or claws or something for me to even consider shooting them.

  • paul eres

    “Then again, it’s not his fault. It’s really sad that Derek Yu is so desperate that he’s hiring kids to write essays when they’ve never done so in their life.”

    “Derek Yu is so desperate that he’s hiring kids to write essays”

    “hiring kids to write essays”

    “hiring”

    you realize this is unpaid, right? tigsource is a free service, we volunteer our time to write stuff for it.

  • undertech

    Reading these comments is at least as much fun as playing the game is. Thanks guys!

  • GZ

    The TIG comment section is now considered an art game.

  • rick

    I know that there is a lot of temptation to bash this game and blame it on JW. But look at the forum post. JW is not the one who made these claims about this game. JW simply put a download link and a short description.

    If you wish to get angry about the “moral choices” comment, at least get angry at the person who made that claim.

    And yes Alex, I know you’re 13. But articles like these which over-exaggerate and make presumptions about games do a disservice to those who make them. Let the developers and their games speak for themselves, stop trying to overexaggerate and inject your interpretation into everything. This is not your soapbox.

  • rick

    I know that there is a lot of temptation to bash this game and blame it on JW. But look at the forum post. JW is not the one who made these claims about this game. JW simply put a download link and a short description.

    If you wish to get angry about the “moral choices” comment, at least get angry at the person who made that claim.

    And yes Alex, I know you’re 13. But articles like these which over-exaggerate and make presumptions about games do a disservice to those who make them. Let the developers and their games speak for themselves, stop trying to overexaggerate and inject your interpretation into everything. This is not your soapbox.

  • rick

    Also, you don’t tell people that there’s going to be a twist in the game!They’re supposed to find that out themselves. It’s like asking someone if they want to hear the joke then spoiling the punchline. You just don’t do that!

  • tommommie

    @ halcyon: why not take your own advice and shut the fuck up already?

  • boringname

    @tommommie uhh… he already did? or was that directed to rick? or podunkian?

    i’m so confused….

  • spulenker

    everyone go to the indiegames dot com blog. it’s a much better written site. the guy leaves enough to the reader and doesn’t ruin any surprises. hell, he even types in the “active voice” (though I really dunno 100% what that is but whatever).

    TIGSource is dead. Stop beating a dead horse. Derek Yu stopped caring about it years ago, and now we have people hardly out of middle school picking up his slack. What a shame…

  • AmnEn

    > The TIG comment section is now considered an art game.

    Which grants it the ability Immunity: Criticism.

    Joke aside, the article actually isn’t that bad. I did enjoy the links to further information on topics.
    That’s actually a direction I wouldn’t mind Tigsource heading in. Some more research into topics and a more complete list related links.
    If for example, the game is spinning around consequences of virtual death, there surely are blogposts or entire threads discussing that very topic and to further read into.

    But please, please, do not turn your article into something you could have just posted in the Game’s Thread: Your opinion on the message/twist/ending/whatever.
    That’s making things redundant and bloats your newspost to a point where most will just tl;dr it. Especially since people generally don’t care about said opinion unless they want to discuss it themselves. Which not everyone wants to.

  • Inky

    Off the rather lengthy side topic of writing like a 13 year old vs. sounding like one… I love when music that inspired or fits the theme of a game is provided by the game’s author. Music is hard, and not all developers have the ability/time/resources to do decent music or sound. That little, “I was listening to this when I wrote the code.” or,”This is similar to what I would want done if I could do it.” can add to the experience of both the game, and understanding the creative process.
    And for anyone who is interested, I just about jumped off the futon when I heard it: the band is, “Battles” the track “I PT 2” off of their “B” EP. Good stuff.