The End of Gameplay

That was a lot of work to ultimately say something pretty mundane. I guess for me, I'm looking for my art to not just be a communication of vulnerability, but to say something interesting. Hacking down the 4th wall to say the walls are fake and the common structures of the medium are fabricated just doesn't hit with me. Especially when, if the thesis statement (near as I can tell from looking at Droqen's words online combined with playing this all the way through) is that the use of gameplay has been unartistic in many games, then I question the extent to which this also applies to this game? To what purpose do we jump and slide and roll climb up the walls. It isn't any more meaningful or artistically honest than anything else, it lends itself no credence to its own purpose. None of this is to say that I generally disagree with Droqen's (seeming) broader point. Lots of video games are unartistic in so far as they fail communicate a greater point or a reflection of the creator's vulnerabilities and flawed perspectives (especially when they are made by too many people to function under a true unified vision), and that the gameplay of a video game is frequently an outside entity …

I love poetry I love poetry because it doesn't need to be made public to be seen I love poetry because if I cut myself and bleed on it, it doesn't reply, to me, anyways I love poetry because it won't mock the viscosity of my blood I love poetry because it doesn't shout at me for writing words in a different way I love poetry because I don't have to be scared of being wrong I love poetry because it lets me cry and cry until I feel better I love poetry because I can long for more and still finish the story, despite I love poetry because I can stop writing and finish or come back to it another time, whenever I want, whatever I like, it listens I love poetry because I can stop

Don't take the thumbs up too seriously. This is an interesting game and I'm glad it exists, but unless you're really invested in how games can be used as an art medium and want to hear many different voices on it, I wouldn't recommend it. I'll use this review to try to parse my feelings on the rhetoric presented by this game. Before playing this, I had no idea who droqen was, nor did I know what the kill gameplay philosophy was about. I recommend looking into droqen and kill gameplay after playing, it contextualizes this game nicely. Also, I apologize if I misrepresent the kill gameplay philosophy. The End of Gameplay advocates for a rather extreme position that forbids all "extraneous" gameplay. Essentially, gameplay should solely serve the message of a game. There should be no gameplay for gameplay's sake. I think there is worth in gameplay for its own sake, but we might call these games "toys" rather than actual interactive art pieces. My issue moreso comes with the definition of "extraneous gameplay". The dissonance comes in two levels: "gameplay (killing)" and "dream of fire". These are two of the only traditionally difficult games in the collection. gameplay (killing) as…

As a game developer myself ( and playing throughout the entire thing ), this gave me a thought-provoking new outlook on game development as a whole and all the quirks and things to come with game development. To call this a game would, by technicallity, be correct, but it is more so defined as an interactive poem. It is something to be experienced, and it is something to be bought for. 10/10

A series of interactive poems made with an incredible level of personal vision. The death of gameplay comes in so many different forms. The game tells you to win by exploring a level but there is no real win state in any conventional way. The game openly allows you to exit out of any of the interactive experiences, and in a handful it's the only correct option available, really putting a mirror up to the idea of what is interactivity and the forces which drive us towards them. That isn't to say this has no gameplay, not at all the jumping and movement mechanics it brings is super fun and incredibly interesting with the way it's used and recontextualised though moving through the levels, but all throughout it poses the question of what is the end of gameplay, what is our final goal to achieve with it. It's given me a lot to chew on, with my personal favourite poems being Snow, Romantic, and Machine Lover. I'm going to be thinking about and returning to this fascinating work of art time and time again.

a playful game. plays with pixels, plays with tunes, plays with frames, plays with jumps, plays with me and you. plays for poetry. thank you droqen