Evidence of
Everything Exploding
After a long, southern-hemisphere winter hibernation, Aussie Auteur Jason Nelson hits us with another simple movement game chock full of crazy texts and post-modern level design shenanigans.
Evidence of Everything Exploding lays its proof like this: you control an arrow, everything is exploding as you move around, therefore... I mean cOme oN, it should be obvious. Your goal is to get to the "Reach This!" thingey in every level. To pull this off you have to brave things that kill you on collision, along with switches that open doors. Jason understands that these objects are the Lions, Tigers and Bears of 98% of all games ever made, and he tears apart your expectations in a delightfully zany manner, then freezes them in a block of Fosters and lets you draw your own conclusions about the future you'll experience after your mind is cryogenically de-frozen.
Controls are simple, the [arrow] keys move you about. That's it. Then you collide with things, some things are baaaad, some things are GOOD, some things explode and then provide evidence. There are also buttons that will appear that can be clicked with the mouse and trigger effects laid over the screen, such as bees buzzing around or airplanes colliding. The game itself is dead simple, as usual with Nelson's work it's all about the content.
Analysis: Jason teaches new media in a university, a job that involves interacting with 18-22s on subjects such as deconstructionism, semiotics, what significance certain video games might have, ect. It also means you get to mess around and do whatever you want, and hence we get a consistently inconsistent set of "art games" from him. I think Evidence is the best one yet, not the least reason being that it's the most playable. The control scheme is so simple (gravity is taken out of the equation and there's no shooting) that you can directly poke around with the text. The texts here are typically enthusiastic in their dance between being meaningful and pointless, a post-modern signature, but I found them particularly entertaining, especially the bits about feces being a pre-historic super food and the Spanish Flu being a powerful alternative fuel. It's also interesting to get to read actual documents written by Bill Gates and others, and last but not least, the 1984 patent for the Pizza Box. I wish I/he/they were kidding, but someone actually tried to patent the pizza box. I wrote a patent back in 2008 for a financial process involving renewable energy, and I realized it was unpatentable, apparently, that shouldn't have stopped me, and I do agree with Jason that the law is confused about intellectual property. In either case, thanks for releasing this game for free Jason, though I think trying to charge people for it would have been way more ironic.
Are you ready to accept that things fall apart, the center cannot hold, and that doors can be opened by colliding with boxes? If so, prepare yourself for this mind boggling, stunningly austere experience.
I don't mean to be overly harsh, but I'm getting a little tired of this guy. I don't get what he's trying to do with any of his games. To me they just come off as pretentious.
I agree with the idea that this is the most playable one yet, but it wasn't hard or fun, so the fact that I totally don't understand the point of it made me not want to play past the third or fourth level.
Can anybody explain this one to me?
Couldn't agree with you more, elemeno. I might just be stupid for not seeing some kind of deep, incredible message in this game, but when it's all just nonsense like here, there is no apparent meaning behind any of it. And to judge it on its merits as a game, it's just plain boring. If you ask me, pretentious is exactly the word to describe this game.
Oh, and the tag of this as a "unique" game? All of his games are exactly the same.
I'm really glad when jayisgames posts Art Games, because it's the only time I ever see the community critique anything negatively. Without them, I would quickly get the impression that the people who hang out here are incapable of any sort of qualitative judgment whatsoever.
I think it's an interesting game. Not a good 'game' by any stretch of the imagination, but I doubt that was ever the intention. It's more of a piece of art than a game. And if you think the first few levels are indulgent, wait till you see the ridiculous video after level 10!
But for all its flaws I found it did pique my interest and amused me with its somewhat random ponderings. I've emailed the secret address you get at the end of the game so I'll be interested to see what I get in reply...
Take a look at Dadaism on Wikipedia for a better idea of the sort of place this guy's thinking is coming from.
Many artists, regardless of their field, seem to equate the grasp and abundant display of the flairs of a given media with a good performance, and hide, perhaps most successfully from themselves, the lack of substance with pointless superficial details, shrugging off criticism by calling their creation original or artistic, whatever the latter means, garnering unearned affection by referring to something with a dandy name.
I like the music, but Ive seen better "art" games
After making it through just a few levels of EoEE, I am feeling ambivalent.
You see, dear forum reader, I was [gulp] an Art major. And not the kind who spent their time perfecting their marketable oil painting technique - I was "out there". My goal was to expose the hidden rules of the universe, defy all definition, and shake people up. I didn't have any attachment to the pleasure of the viewer. My stuff wasn't quite as haughty or bombastic as Mr. Nelson's, but the spirit was similar.
Interestingly enough, of all the stuff I created in college, the most well received by my Profs was probably the most offensive:
I created a moving-parts book that mimicked ca. 1999 (animated .gif) cartoon porn banners. Yeah, I know.
Now I'm not sure how I feel about it all - I still believe there is value to deconstruction, though I sympathize with those who don't feel there's anything there - it's really more critique than creation.
Pete J
I found it difficult to read the underlying pages, what with having to avoid things. Was that intentional?
I don't think it is my place to criticize others' art. Even the weirdest generally makes sense from some angle--possibly one I haven't experienced.
As to what I think he's trying to say? I think it has something to do with information overload--remember one of his pieces seemed to mock the Web experience.
Or maybe the Web combined with an LSD trip ;)
As a game, it was fun little avoider. All the distracting content increased the challenge.
@zbeeblebrox: I vote for you.
@Pete: send me that book. Do you mind paying shipping to Argentina?
I d'no, I just... d'no.
Dadaism was about creating 'anti-art' as a statement against war, and saw some of the first applications of poetry and sound as art.
Evidence of Everything Exploding - the proliferation of flu viruses is like a silent explosion, Bill Gates has created computer software, the use of which has exploded into most people's everyday reality, Andy Warhol was instrumental in the explosion of popular art... I think there are are a lot of analogies and symbols in Jason Nelson's interactive art. I think it all worked well, I agree with Joeynow's information overload theory, I think there are many layers to be explored if one can be bothered.
The only gripe I have with the whole piece is the video at the end; it is inane. Maybe it
s an anti-artistic statement...
and maybe not.
Commenting on this as a game, yes it is very simple. Something to do when you're bored and don't really want to think. Challenging enough to give your free 30 mins (or so) a good time.
On the artwork however, I'll admit I take more pleasure in deconstructing poetry than art. Maybe because I'm a writer and I can't draw to save my life but anyway, commenting on the artwork as an amateur, neutral viewer I'd say it is 'interesting'. Not unique in any way or even very 'out there'. It's a block of text with moving pictures and it's very nice to look at but not for a long time.
The content too is nice. I like to learn things, well I like to read things. I had a hard time trying to get those information but I know that the content is not really the center of the game so it's alright.
Again on the art: The content is what makes the art and from what I see the creator isn't being pretentious, maybe controversial. If he fails he's pretentious, if not he's good.
^Don't comment on that just to correct me. I know it's a noobish rant.
It made me think (in a pondering way) and process a few things simultaneously. It did accomplish that much.
After finishing this game, I can sum up my opinion of it in one word:
Ridiculous.
How do you get that highlight labeled G? I ran right over it and got nothing.
This isn't art, this is a mess. There's no 'message', there's no 'emotion', there's no nothing. It's all just you moving around with the arrow keys while stuff happens randomly.
I'm pretty sure that's what they said about Jackson Pollock, too.
Personally, I loved it. It's a dadaist... thing. I wouldn't call it a game, but that's sort of the point of Dadaism. To be pretentious to the point of absurdity. But the creator REALIZES he's being absurd, that's what Daddaism was about. I guess I would call it a collage. An interactive collage.
I love it because it's taking a stab at language as a thing. Not really any particular language, though it's in English. It's showcasing language as a vehicle for mind-numbing absurdity. Like repeating a word until it loses its meaning and you start to pay attention to the SOUND of it.
I think it's pretty great. I had a ton of fun with it.
My only problem is that the videos WILL NOT PLAY for me! What flash player is recomended for this? maybe I'm not up-to-date enough.
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