stephen lavelle, or increpare, is becoming one of my favorite designers. each of his games is an experiment with a single concept – usually it’s left to the player to determine exactly what that concept is. he uses text not so much to present narrative as to characterize the rules of his game. the text appears in the squarish default allegro font that is quickly becoming his signature. he often leaves out enough detail that his games possess an ambiguity, a subtlety, of which most people working in the medium seem incapable. and his games come from a queer sensibility that i, naturally, find refreshing.
he’s also hella prolific, which is intimidating: i’ve been meaning to talk about increpare’s work for a long time, but he just won’t shut up long enough. well, i’m putting my foot down. here are three games i think are among stephen lavelle’s most effective: triptych, lacrimosa and infidelidad. they’re also very short, so take them as an invitation to explore more of his work.
12 comments
I actually find a lot of them too hard. I tried Almudy Park and I think I got stuck, or it restarted, or, uh… I wasn’t sure what that one was about. He makes a shit ton though, right? I’ve only had his feed for a month maybe and that’s like five games.
Oh yeah, I tried pieta and, BTN, the tapping! I tapped, it was great, I saw where he was going, that it was a simulation of running and running even though you can’t anymore but you must because you have to save the short person, but, um. I had to go to work.
What was that one, the “dark world, full of pain, today I die” game? I kept getting stuck at that too, I couldn’t move the words around fast enough. Wahhh :(
PS. That wasn’t him, the game. It’s “Today I die”, and it’s by… Daniel Benmergui, says Google.
here is daniel benmergui in a diaper. his face isn’t in the picture so you’ll have to trust me.
i don’t have a picture of increpare in a diaper.
we require a picture of him in a diaper
oh and I agree with you about his games, he’s like cactus but less shooty and less visual and more cognitive
I’m sorry Dess you are wrong
His best game is Opera Omnia and it is seriously one of the best indie games ever ever EVER made no joking.
Thanks for these! I tried to get into his games before, with Opera Omnia (which made me feel stupid because I couldn’t get past the second event while everyone was oohing and aahing over the story) and Judith, which I wasn’t enchanted by. I enjoyed your recommendations a lot more instead, especially infidelidad and lacrimosa.
Oh hey, I just realized he did Rara Racer too! Love that game.
i really want to like opera omnia but i just can’t figure it out. christopher never shuts up about it.
increpare is one of the most interesting indie devs out there for sure. and the most prolific also, he is publishing now way more than cactus. he’s probably a damn genius and should be photographed in a diaper, for great justice.
everybody should play mirror stage, it’s one of his best games so far, and easier than opera omnia.
Another emphatic vote for Opera Omnia here. The challenges that the game faces you with, as well as the actions that you’re required to perform, tie you into the game’s theme and force you to identify with the protagonist’s role in a way that’s ultimately forceful without being forced.
At first I had tremendous difficulty getting far in Opera Omnia, but this was largely because I didn’t understand that “constraints at time 0″ refers to the far right hand side of the time line, and that the population number there is usually all the game cares about.
Some of his stuff thrills me and some goes right over my head, but it’s always interesting.
For those that want a spoiler on Triptych, the full descriptions are available here:
http://www.scribd.com/doc/16751938/Triptych-Spoiler
Even playing it 100 times, it will still preserve it’s mystery … but at least now you know what it’s trying to tell you.
post a comment