Every artsy flash game appears to be about

Myrmidon

A:Disobeying authority

B:Humans being dicks

C:The programmer's ex-girlfriend.

Granted, some of them are better than others, but come on guys.

snowbull

Now you can have all 3 (okay, not the first) at once!

Also helps that it is relevant to my interests.

RedEyedAbyss

"C:The programmer's ex-girlfriend."

[citation needed]

^All right. Let's see then.

GLORIOUSLeader

The Company of Myself and K.O.L.M. are good, even if they are C and A, respectively. 

Myrmidon

They're not all bad. It's just there's a lack of originality when it comes to themes.

Noimporta

Sometimes they are about the monotony of everyday modern life.

Iaculus

Well, those are all relevant themes to the average indie game developer...

Trash_Vortex

What about Passage? The ultimate Ur-art game?

Myrmidon

^^True.

Also, come to think of it, Time Fcuk doesn't really fit into the aforementioned categories. So good job, whoever did that one.

Sammy

"Sometimes they are about the monotony of everyday modern life."

Have I mentioned this game enough? No.

Your mind cannot comprehend such art.

DonZabu

Must everything in the indie circuit be so trivial? It's like a big contest among all indie musicians, filmmakers, and game designers as to who can make the most trivial and meaningless characters and story ever written. And I don't mean "meaningless" in an interesting Nietzsche way, I mean "legitimately devoid of meaning".

DYRE

However, Meat Boy is not an "artsy" game.  It's just a game.

A game which I suck at because the controls and physics are shit, but a game nonetheless.

Codename_M308

Commercial and indie "art" games aren't that special message-wise, anyway. Braid fits "B", and while Limbo doesn't fit in with any of the categories, it doesn't even have a good message other than "Be prepared to die a lot for no reason to beat games like this or IWBTG" or "Be prepared to encounter a lot of obstacles you can't foresee." Passage seems like it's also doing an elementary message itself, even if it doesn't fit in one of the three categories.

Stormtroper

Free will (you don't have it)

Longfellow

I bet a lot of artsy flash games are just about platforming or something.

DYRE

What bothers me more about "artsy" games is that they usually put very little effort into... basically every single aspect of the game, aside from hyping it up in interviews, which is something they put an outrageous amount of effort into.  Braid was fun, I think a couple other games that are considered to be kinda artsy were fun, but overall they usually just have boring, generic gameplay and crappy graphics.  Though, they often have decent music, which is bizarre, but seems to be in line with the fact that a lot of the time they treat atmosphere as more important than... basically every other element of the game.

Myrmidon

Braid was C, with traces of B.

Codename_M308

^^ This so very much! Because of this they shouldn't be called "art" games at all. Art is simply a very, very, VERY high standard that few games have ever achieved, like R-Type, Metal Storm, and Lemmings. Any game that percieved as art these days is simply a game you can't bash without getting George Wooded*. An art game has to be considered as such after release, not before.

The thing about these "art" games is that they focus on having one particular element for the whole game, like Shadow of the Colossus and its huge bosses, or Limbo and its black and white levels. While MDK2 has examples of huge bosses like the first one and Shwang Shwing, the latter you fight twice, it doesn't matter because it's not advertised enough AND/OR it's not in enough quantity.

*George Wooded - attacked by something like "If you don't buy or even love this game to give it a 10+/10, you are STUPID! Yeah, it's insulting, but it's also the truth!" Also known as "Like not buying Donkey Kong Country." A more minor example is "You don't understand it. Understand it or shut the hell up!"

Myrmidon

So was there a point buried in that wall of text?

Also, you better not have insulted Shadow Of The Colossus, because then I will have to knife-fight you.

GLORIOUSLeader

That gives me an idea.

I have a challenge for Jonathan Blow. In the sequel to Braid, Tim gets breast cancer. Imagine the drama of a vulnerable Tim, despite his illness, still persist in his adventure. It needs fleshing out -no pun intended- but we guarantee the industry will be shocked, stunned, and moved at the efforts to make Tim's character more meaningful. We love Tim, but it's about time the industry had a big shock for a change.

Bob

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_JU6dXf39JY

Why anyone would be expected to pay for this is beyond me.

DYRE

^^^^ I think you were trying to insult me?  Maybe?

But I honestly can't tell what your point was.

Codename_M308

Made my wall of text into two more readable paragraphs, and no, I'm not insulting anyone.

Myrmidon

It still makes no sense.

Codename_M308

Art is supposed to be simply a very, very, VERY high standard for a game, and no, a simple or cliche message isn't enough. But if you try to deride a game percieved as art, you simply get a thought-terminating cliche like "You don't understand it."

Also, people tend to consider a feature innovative if done in enough quantities or advertised. Otherwise, another game which does the quantity thing or the advertising better will overshadow the originator.

Myrmidon

It's like, you have ideas to communicate, but they're on a level too low for me to understand them.

Deboss

They're made by art students, what did you expect?

GLORIOUSLeader

Hey, don't insult indie games by insinuating that they're made by art students. That's just low. 

glennmagusharvey

@Codename_M308: "^^ This so very much! Because of this they shouldn't be called "art"
games at all. Art is simply a very, very, VERY high standard that few
games have ever achieved, like R-Type, Metal Storm, and Lemmings. Any
game that percieved as art these days is simply a game you can't bash
without getting George Wooded*. An art game has to be considered as such
after release, not before."

No, art is whatever the observer deems to be art.

That said, some things are generally regarded as particularly good or bad.

Also, I haven't heard of Metal Storm before, but I would put into that category things like Castlevania: Symphony of the Night and Super Metroid.

Bob

[Comment deleted]
[Reason: Shitpost]

DonZabu

Paint a painting, except all the white paint is...yeah.