4 Minutes And 33 Seconds Of Uniqueness

Andy Chalk

One Flag, One Fleet, One Cat
Nov 12, 2002
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4 Minutes And 33 Seconds Of Uniqueness


Are you truly unique? You're going to have to be if you want to win the latest game from Crayon Physics designer Petri Purho.

The object in 4 Minutes and 33 Seconds of Uniqueness is simple: You have to be the only person in the world playing it. Nothing actually happens; there are no scores or levels or game mechanics of any kind. You simply run the game, and it searches the internet for any other copies that are running. If any are found, both copies shut down and both players lose. If you make it four minutes and 33 seconds without anyone else on the internet starting the game - that is, if you're truly and completely unique in the world - you win.

Purho created the game at the 2009 Nordic Game Jam [http://www.nordicgamejam.org/], which ran from January 30 until February 1. The theme for this year's event was, "As long as we have each other, we'll never run out of problems." Games designed for the Game Jam had to offer five minutes of gameplay and be language independent, and also had to be put together on very short notice: 4 Minutes and 33 Seconds of Uniqueness was "developed" in a couple of hours on the last day of the convention.

"It's an exploration to what actually defines a game," Purho wrote on his Kloonigames [http://www.kloonigames.com] blog. "You can win or fail in the game, but there is no user input or interactivity of any kind. I was tempted to leave the graphics out completely, but I figured that the white progress bar is abstract enough."

Purho's previous creations include Penny Arcade [http://www.kloonigames.com/blog/games/crayon].

Are you a unique and special snowflake? Can you keep it up for four minutes and 33 seconds? Download it here [http://www.kloonigames.com/blog/games/4mins33secs] and find out.


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Hyetal

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Feb 2, 2009
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That is one of the weirdest concepts ever.. So naturally, I have to try it.

Edit: And after seven attempts, I stopped. Got 1/6th of the way through the last time. I figure there's someone who deserves to win this particular game more than me.
 

Andraste

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Nov 21, 2004
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There is no interactivity, therefore it's not a game, merely an application. A broken one which auto shuts down when someone else tries to use it, in fact.

In my humble opinion.

>edited to allow more ranting by OP<
 

Logan Westbrook

Transform, Roll Out, Etc
Feb 21, 2008
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Andraste said:
There is no interactivity, therefore it's not a game, merely an application. In my humble opinion.
It's barely even that. At best, it's a curiosity, but I believe that that is the point of it.
 

Lullabye

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Oct 23, 2008
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wow, perfect example for my psyc assignment.
"People are/not special because..." we have to give reasons y or y not.
this is y not
 

Andraste

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Nov 21, 2004
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nilcypher said:
Andraste said:
There is no interactivity, therefore it's not a game, merely an application. In my humble opinion.
It's barely even that. At best, it's a curiosity, but I believe that that is the point of it.
Yeah, but he's trying to put it out there as some (psuedo-)intellectual game pushing the limits of game-dom to make us question "What is 'game'?"
 

B-lockdown080

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Nov 5, 2008
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Makes me think theirs some old wierd guy sitting at his compy all hours of the night running this game on 5 different windows, whiles growling at the walls everytime someone else trys to get on, trying to win for his on gratitude.
 

Hyetal

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Feb 2, 2009
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Well, I'd argue that there is interactivity. You do have to start it up, and you know there's someone else doing the same, thereby ruining it for you. There's many definitions of a game, right?

"A competitive activity or sport in which players contend with each other according to a set of rules"

It's certainly competitive and it is based on a set of rules.

Jus' saying.
 

Kross

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Sep 27, 2004
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http://www.progressquest.com/ did this years ago, with many more loading bars! :)
 

DJPirtu

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Nov 24, 2008
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Needs a high score.

Edit: Needs complete statistics on how well you did and when.

Edit II: It's frightning how addictive this is to me. Also, I wonder how it will feel once you'll finaly be unique for more than a few seconds. What might one think once he gets bored of counting?

Edit III: I swear, this thing reads minds. When ever the concept of me being the only one playing the game really starts sinking in, the experience is cut short.

Edit IV: Why do you think the creator(s?) of the game considered the detailed description of it to be a spoiler?
 

Logan Westbrook

Transform, Roll Out, Etc
Feb 21, 2008
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Andraste said:
Jumplion said:
Couldn't you cheat and disconnect your internet to "win"?
Was totally thinking that myself. You gonna try it or me? :p
I also had the same thought. It's interesting though, that something that is so thoroughly not a game has us discussing strategies, albeit simple ones, to beat it.

Still not a game though.
 

Jumplion

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Mar 10, 2008
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Andraste said:
Jumplion said:
Couldn't you cheat and disconnect your internet to "win"?
Was totally thinking that myself. You gonna try it or me? :p
Heh, I just imagined a bunch of people on a thread debating on who should play it first and who should play it last.

"Okay, you go play first, I'll go by second"
"HOw do I know I can trust you? You probably want to beat the game first!"
"I don't care who beats it first!"
"Well, I'll go 4th then"
"No, you're going to play it second"
"But you'll sneak in and try to be the second person beating it!"
"I'd rather be the last person beating it!"
"You're lieing, you want to beat it first!"
 

Keane Ng

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Sep 11, 2008
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Hmm, sounds like another super-conceptual piece of art that requires participants to actually do nothing. Actually, they even have the SAME name. Well I'll be damned...

John Cage's 4'33'' [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/4%E2%80%B233%E2%80%B3]
 

SenseOfTumour

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Jul 11, 2008
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Keane Ng said:
Hmm, sounds like another super-conceptual piece of art that requires participants to actually do nothing. Actually, they even have the SAME name. Well I'll be damned...

John Cage's 4'33'' [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/4%E2%80%B233%E2%80%B3]
first thing I thought of was the 4'33 'music' thing, when I saw the title, totally made me have to read more.

I don't think there's any point trying to play it for a while tho, while it's being talked about, there's gonna be too many people playing!
 

kaziard

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Oct 28, 2008
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...debating whether or not to be a complete asshole and keep running it non stop :p