Games that Aren't Games

Sad the video is over? Head on over to Nebula to get another whole essay, in which I take the concept of quad-wielding far more seriously than it deserves. Also, you'll be supporting me at the same time! nebula.tv/videos/jacob-geller-the-world-has-forgot…

I’m disabled, and as a result I can’t walk for long distances without having to sit down. Throughout the years I’ve noticed benches slowly disappearing, and how much of an impact that has had on my ability to traverse public spaces. I’ve heard every reason, from wanting to prevent crowding to wanting to prevent homeless populations from having places to sleep, and none of them make any sense to me. So a Monument to Guilt hits me pretty hard. I’m glad it exists to bring attention to a problem that a majority of people probably don’t think about often.

I was having such a good time watching this video and then you dropped the Kid Amnesia title card and I almost fell out of my chair. I was one of the members of the sound team on it! Primarily I was just making sure things weren't broken and fixing some audio programming, but there's a few sounds of mine in there :3 I'm so happy to hear that you enjoyed it so much and it fills me with excitement that so many people love the experience so much.

I was the character artist/tech artist on Kid A. Thanks for covering and giving it such a warm and glowing review, it makes me feel that much more proud to have been a part of it. It always makes me happy to see my creepy little sons out there accompanying folks in such a weird and wonderful little museum.

Not sure if you missed it or just didn't mention it, but in "Monuments to Guilt" following the numerical order is designed to be confusing and annoying, forcing you to backtrack multiple times and scan each room just to proceed to the next numbered monument. I think it's to give you the feeling like whoever designed it didn't care much for your ease of access, kinda like the benches don't either for people who need them for more than sitting.

I actually played LSD for longer than anyone should, probably around 12 hours. One thing that may not be obvious from the first glance is that there are reliable methods of reaching certain places within a game, so you can see all the possible events through your playthrough, if you are willing to draw a mental map of which place connect to what. Certain doors, sometimes posters and windows can take you where you want to be and more you play, more randomization aspect messes with how game look and sounds. But one location that always intrigued me was a creepy sea side town. It had a lot of possible events and it's probably best place to meet with a mysterious man, that sometimes spawns in your dreams. Game actually have a really good amount of content, since there are different events that can play out on same location. Someone should use this game a template for a modern exploratory indie title, hopefully not a monster screamer fest, like many exploration games nowdays.

!!!! I was the character animator for KID A MNESIAC EXHIBITION and I lost it when I saw it covered in this video!! Thank you for articulating so many things that make this project special, it was an honor to be a part of even in a small way. The zooetrope monsters, the stalking minotaur in the pyramid, the giant stickman and red cube guys were some of my contributions. I worked alongside our tech artist David (my husband!!) who created all of the museum occupants as well as bringing the player character to life from Stanley Donwood's paintings. Thank you again and cheers!!!

I was shocked when this video started discussing the things it did. Just this morning, I was taken to an art museum. And to my horror, the experience was almost exactly like how they depict it in popular culture. All of the installations made me think, "I don't get it. What did the artist mean by this? Did the artist mean anything by this?" Everything looked like they were important pieces to something bigger, but had been plucked out of their context and placed together in this location and given the spotlight. I spent the whole trip trying to come up with angles from which to appreciate the pieces. There was this one outside installation, a big,..geometric...thing... all of us thought that it looked like a jungle gym. But you couldn't climb it or walk under it. You had to keep arm's distance from the art - no touching! What was the point of meeting this giant form in real life if I was prohibited with interacting with it in ways that I couldn't with a mere digital recreation??

The coolest thing about LSD Dream Emulator to me is how we still don't really know how the dream chart works. All we know is that doing some things might take you in a specific direction on it. Even after decompiling and looking through the code, we don't have a full understanding of it.

hearing everything in its right place gave me goosebumps. kid a art exhibition is one of my favorite games ever

I left a rather well-regarded game design program for a new program that took artists and taught them to code, model, and animate saw what kind of art they would make. The games made in the program broke my idea of what a game is. I went from a program where you had to make sure your cover shooter had to have enough cover, and your UI had to be a carbon copy of an existing game -- to one where the restrictions were what one could accomplish on their own. One of my classmates even called her work "I make games for old people" which disregarded decades of game design to just create an experience.

A small but important correction: The dream diary that Osamu Sato drew inspiration from when creating LSD Dream Emulator was not his, it was that of Hiroko Nishikawa, a close associate of Sato's and screenwriter on a lot of his works.

As someone who fell out with Radiohead around the time they released TKOL, I have to say that museum thing was great. SO MANY LITTLE GUYS. The little guys are perfect, love them.

I've always felt that this conversation only happens because of a historical accident. It'd be like if we called paintings "watercolors" because the first paintings happened to be watercolors, and then spent ages talking about whether or not a watercolor made with acrylics was a watercolor.

Yo, Jacob, a small correction at 4:37: the dream diary that inspired LSD Dream Emulator was actually from Hiroko Nishikawa, an Asmik Ace employee, not Osamu Sato himself. The whole thing was published alongside the game as a sort-of graphic novel called "Lovely Sweet Dream" that has each dream accompanied by illustrations from various artists (one of them being Sato himself), there are tons of scans of it on the web and it's a really interesting read!

One of my favorite little puzzle games growing up was the indie title Bad Milk, and the creators said something about they originally wanted to make art installations but everything they wanted to do was way too expensive to realize in the real world so they ended up building everything in virtual space.

I think one of the best game non games I've seen was a beginners guide. More a walking simulator, it was still such an emotional journey and it will always be in the back of my mind.

Genuine shoutout to you for putting up a real flash warning at the beginning, especially with voice over. Most people will just hold a pop up on screen for a few seconds without narration and your consideration is really refreshing to see. Fucking amazing video

The inherent comedy of Jacob saying “but that doesn’t mean I’m not gonna try!” followed by the text “Slave of God” is fantastic lmaooo

I instantly recognized the beat from "Slave of God" even though I only played it once at an unimportant evening in my childhood 11 years ago and never thought about it once since. But still it instantly resurfaced with the beat. That is fascinating.