# soma gameplay teaser trailer postmortem notes on and a postmortem meta-game of "soma" capsule review: dodgy ideas mediocre system mechanics another eye-rollingly dark game; consider darkness as a modern synonym for "murky game design ideology" a common rule of video game development: one has to massively oversell a game through overbearing seemingly big ideas eg. "a first person account of some deep and really disturbing ideas regarding the self mind and consciousness" - in order for it to be brought up to the middling-default standard such games too often reach like it's almost an inexcusable act of hubris for developers to say they're working on a strictly limited scale: "we'd like to bring you our first person account of deep and disturbing ideas about the self mind and consciousness - but for now ir's this small video game we made" new rule: "all unspoken video game assumptions must be accounted for" in which scripted storytelling elements are more andor less interesting than nonlinear emergent narratives that suggest rather than tell ("show and play" vs "play don't show"; how about "neither show nor play") teh game's elevator pitch also betrays an underlying joyless turbidity welded to classic raw sci fi cheese: "the radio has gone silent on pathos-2. as isolation bears down on the staff of the remote research facility strange things are happening. machines are taking on human traits and alien constructions have started to interfere with routine. the world around them is turning into a nightmare. the only way out is to do something unimaginable" 'pathos-2? adults common. "boring sci fi tosh" indeed compare and contrast how "the fiction of these games correlate 1:1 with ir mechanics" somehow doesn't connect well with "the main purpose of interaction is to create a feeling of presence" dubious philosophy: "this is just like with reality; you do not see what is really out there but only experience a mental model based on the sum of all sensory input" // video here 0:27 "unfamiliar ceilings" syndrome - the video game equivalent of the (still largely unexplored) writer's "white room" cliche 0:30 "what happened?" standard-substandard voice acting now taken as inevitable / expected; like the first thing you'd do when waking in a remote research facility where strange things are happening is ask yourself dim questions out loud 0:40 the developer playing (/out) this scene does the old double take thing; this is not however a chuck / avery cartoon 0:43 "my g0d - raznik"; brings to mind the timeless classic "saving private lazlo" - the finest mind of ir generation - in half life 2 0:49 picks up the skull plate-thing - which then all too conveniently fits into raznik's head. why is there an un-removable sheet on ir body? we can't even inspect the object closely. the character then expresses surprise; must we also then do the same when and where teh game tells us? 1:13 hang in there raz! ey seems not to be enjoying ir nap; why can't we then attempt to remove our recent meddling and remove the brain plate thing? teh game tells us raz's brain and its cover snap shut like opposing magnets - but then we're also implicitly told there's nothing else for us to do - the damage is done and it's time to move on nothing interesting to see or do 1:19 "ey was still alive..!" oh the horror! what a weird assumption to make. shirley all we / the brain plate did was shock raz into a temporary parody of life / gameplay 1:31 the hand icon that appears above the door: consider making an entire game about these dumb pop-over icons or get rid of them entirely stick in some cool janky octodad style arms and legs.. anything. also change the entire design of the doors to eg. sliding doors? creaky doors just need regular maintenance and are only supposed to be read as scary 1:43 missed opportunity; you look at an unbroken square tile but aren't able to use it to break the wall down? 1:51 overly dramatic destruction of a small dividing wall - with no game consequences despite the noise 2:09 more untouchable dead museum (tech) exhibit based level design: the scientist already knows where they can and can't move travel or explore 2:13 an alarmed matrix-style squiddy - which clearly lets you know it's detected your presence - but when then does not immediately attack or go on the hunt; there's a sense in which the scientist only runs back to hide because teh game is signaling to us by heavy breathing that the character demands it. dodgy design assumptions in this. must scientists *always* march in step with teh game designer's forever mandatory demand of verisimilitude? 3:10 again the hand of mechanical gameplay doom: a simple failure to understand what makes for true interactivity in game design 3:12 another james brownesque jump back and piss yourself act. "what does this mean"? if a video game has to signal that it's time we started asking questions about its meaning perhaps it's time we started asking questions like "how may video game designers treat us less like the idiots we might be - but feel like we should not be treated like?" 3:18 "am i like raznik?" the answer is a no-brainer': yes - you're a walking corpse without an imagination spatial orientation timing style a spine - or any detectable importance; a stand-in with a hollow skull intelligent scientists want to get away from 4:00 "am i still here (playing conceptually dodgy games?)" unknown 4:07 glitches in art / game design - at least as they're being used here - are played out. the glitch is supposed to be read as "something terrible has gone wrong" but the answer here might just be "yeah - the ideas behind this game are buggy" general notes: h.p lovecraft was an overrated racist shut-in. ("when blackness was a virtue.." -bob dylan) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=llvoif6chge&theme=light&rel=0&w=755 frictional game's "vivarium" video however holds far more potential interest than teh game - that is in the ways potential scientists read the conceptual gap or schism between such trailers and what is called the actual game in fact these are far more than mere trailers and could somehow be seem as integral game elements - entirely scripted and unplayable but no less meaningful indeed there should be a whole series of these trailers along with a brief but dense arg trail of tinag websites - or even just soma's main site what such a video accomplishes is set a clear creepy tone and mood without the need for heavy expositionary storytelling consider that people in the youtube comments ask what is this exactly? as exactly the kind of game "soma" should be playing in fact don't even say soma is (/just) a video game: make teh game start with these videos and have the video game another integral interactive component of the soma experience'; something open-ended - and thus to evolve for / with flans. this would be true neither quite show nor play - a fuzzy abstract game space based developmental approach // republic of bob