And the most innovative game of the year is…Prince of Persia?
This isn’t huge news or anything, but Shamus Young posted a really intriguing mini-documentary on his blog, Twenty Sided. It goes into detail about the accessibility of games to the non-gamer, and how Prince of Persia offers an innovative game experience by not delivering punitive punishment for every mistake. Unlike games such as Mirror’s Edge, when you die in PoP the game doesn’t drag you back 10 or 15 minutes to the last check point effectively erasing your progress. While it’s not something that bothers the average gamer, Young points out that people who are interested in gaming get more easily frustrated at these setbacks than “seasoned” gamers. It’s completely understandable. People who are new at gaming make a lot of mistakes. If they are going to lose a significant amount of progress each time they fail, what fun is there?
The video is posted below, but I encourage you to visit his site as it gives a bit more detail about the making of this mini-documentary.
I too recommend watching this video. It’s very well made and gives a fresh way of thinking about games.
I just got to pick up Prince of Persia, and while of course the “die, then restart 15 minutes – an hour prior” business doesn’t particularly irk me, I found that never being punished definitively was a breath of fresh air. Though it did make the game very simple, it was still purely enjoyable.