Remember When That Bomb Went Off?

[geldonyetich]

Sounds like a crappy flash art game, assuming the OP isn't high or lying.

Now that the OP has included a link to the game, I can conclude that the op wasn't lying, though he might be high, as that game was indeed fairly crappy.

Really?

Nice 9 hour bump. Still, your reply found its way to my private mail, and I suppose I could elaborate...

Basically, it's just a bunch of really simple and crude flash games which have a 5 second counter. Sort of like the WarioWare series [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wario_%28series%29#WarioWare]. You're supposed to be able to quickly identify and solve each scene. It's a rather crappy game because some of the scenes are rather shoddily set up so it's either pretty close to impossible to react in time (e.g. the scene where you're trying to get the money before the cop shoots you) or it's completely ambiguous what you're supposed to do (e.g. you're at the bottom of a stairway, there's a guy standing on top of the stairway, there's a chandelier hovering inaccessibly above the stairway - you have 5 seconds to guess what to do).

The whole "bomb" thing is really trite and has nothing to do with the game. You could imagine it has great emotional significance, that you're actually fulfilling these characters last dreams before the bomb went off, but I get the feeling that wasn't the developer's original idea at all. He just wanted a cheap, easy, and comically thoughtless (a nuclear bomb got em' - hurr hurr) way to segway into the next minigame. Though, now that it was mentioned, he could pretend that and say it was an art game.

If you want a more compelling art game, you should try this one on for size [http://www.raitendo.com/games/air-pressure].

Spoiler: You should probably not click this until you've played through once or twice

I'm pretty sure it's referring to a heroin addiction, there's a lot of supporting points for that, but there is enough room of ambiguity for people to argue themselves into a different position on it.

 

[Jackalb]

Wasn't there another one like this where you have to kill yourself before you get married?

 

[More Fun To Compute]

The whole "bomb" thing is really trite and has nothing to do with the game. You could imagine it has great emotional significance, that you're actually fulfilling these characters last dreams before the bomb went off, but I get the feeling that wasn't the developer's original idea at all.

I actually thought that it was a pretty funny exploration of fatalism and living in the moment like wot u might see in that Buddhism stuff. You are probably right though. Who knows.

 

[geldonyetich]

The whole "bomb" thing is really trite and has nothing to do with the game. You could imagine it has great emotional significance, that you're actually fulfilling these characters last dreams before the bomb went off, but I get the feeling that wasn't the developer's original idea at all.

I actually thought that it was a pretty funny exploration of fatalism and living in the moment like wot u might see in that Buddhism stuff. You are probably right though. Who knows.

Yeah, I'm pretty sure I'm right, because if it was the developers' desire to indicate this then there are a lot more effective means of doing so. Like, don't color the mushroom cloud green or red depending on if you "won" the stage. And don't give the percentage of times you've "won" at the end deliberately.

To put it in the developer's own words [http://wherecouldtom.be/]:

Funware is what I make. It's software that's fun.

And Wikipedia told me that engineers "work to develop economical and safe solutions to practical problems, by applying mathematics, scientific knowledge and ingenuity while considering technical constraints".

That's what I do. I develop solutions to the practical problem of you having too much free time.

 

[Shoggoth2588]

Long Division!

[that was a fun little diversion]

 

[Brotherofwill]

I don't know I kinda like it.

It had a lot of these : 'Oh no!' moments.

 

[lwm3398]

Wow, what an addicting game. My favorite minigame has to be the one in which you save the dog from the falling TV. Mail-van jump is also quite hilarious.

EDIT: How would a nuke from the Earth effect a man putting a flag down on the moon?

 

[More Fun To Compute]

Yeah, I'm pretty sure I'm right, because if it was the developers' desire to indicate this then there are a lot more effective means of doing so. Like, don't color the mushroom cloud green or red depending on if you "won" the stage. And don't give the percentage of times you've "won" at the end deliberately.

How does that contradict what I have said?

I have no idea what was going through the guys mind, it might be interesting to ask him but I don't care that much.

You can win or lose at the games and in real life you can succeed or fail at living in the moment.

 

[geldonyetich]

I actually thought that it was a pretty funny exploration of fatalism and living in the moment like wot u might see in that Buddhism stuff. You are probably right though. Who knows.

Yeah, I'm pretty sure I'm right, because if it was the developers' desire to indicate this then there are a lot more effective means of doing so. Like, don't color the mushroom cloud green or red depending on if you "won" the stage. And don't give the percentage of times you've "won" at the end deliberately.

How does that contradict what I have said?
I have no idea what was going through the guys mind, it might be interesting to ask him but I don't care that much.
You can win or lose at the games and in real life you can succeed or fail at living in the moment.

Because, having studied a bit of the Buddhist aspects you mentioned and read some of the writings [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zen_Mind,_Beginner%27s_Mind]of some of their Roshis, I know that they strive very hard specifically not looking at living in the present moment in terms of succeeding or failing at what you are doing. The important thing to enlightenment is that you're paying attention to the present moment. When you get caught up in aspects of succeeding in what you're doing, the very illusions of what define success or failure have taken over, and you have lost touch with the Buddha nature of the moment. To actually think you need to do something when you're about to be obliterated by a bomb is the very opposite of their core philosophy [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buddhism#The_Four_Noble_Truths] - all you've done is caused yourself the additional suffering of craving achieving that goal.

So, basically, even if I didn't know what the maker of that flash Animation was thinking, I do know that if this was his goal he was doing it wrong.

 

[Brotherofwill]

If you want a more compelling art game, you should try this one on for size [http://www.raitendo.com/games/air-pressure].

Spoiler: You should probably not click this until you've played through once or twice

I'm pretty sure it's referring to a heroin addiction, there's a lot of supporting points for that, but there is enough room of ambiguity for people to argue themselves into a different position on it.

Nice game, but yeah your conclusion was painfully obvious. I got all the endings and don't even think it was very ambiguous.

 

[More Fun To Compute]

Because, having studied a bit of the Buddhist aspects you mentioned and read some of the writings of some of their Roshis, I know that they strive very hard specifically not looking at living in the present moment in terms of succeeding or failing at what you are doing. The important thing to enlightenment is that you're paying attention to the present moment. When you get caught up in aspects of succeeding in what you're doing, the very illusions of what define success or failure have taken over, and you have lost touch with the Buddha nature of the moment. To actually think you need to do something when you're about to be obliterated by a bomb is the very opposite of their philosophy - all you've done is caused yourself the additional suffering of thinking achieving that goal mattered.

The important thing to me is that you don't have much time to think, only time to do something. If you dither around thinking if you are doing the right thing or not then you fail at the games. You can only really succeed at the game if play the game repeatedly so you know the right way to do something on further plays but you still have to pay attention. I'm not really sure that if being aware that you are doing something wrong is enough to make you fail at living in the moment. If a Buddhist starts eating glass by accident would they spit it out or carry on eating it because it is important not to worry about doing the task of eating correctly?

The important thing is that you are playing out what the characters would do in that moment of their lives. Observing and recreating what they would do.

I'm glad that you have more thinking behind your statement than assuming that any game with a win and fail states cannot have any meaning or that anything that shares properties with warioware instead of something like a visual novel has no value.

 

[geldonyetich]

If a Buddhist starts eating glass by accident would they spit it out or carry on eating it because it is important not to worry about doing the task of eating correctly?

I think it'd be pretty tricky for a Buddhist to eat glass by accident if they're really good at paying attention to the present moment. But, if they did, they're not going to start harboring a strange belief that they should keep eating glass for any reason. Think of the biggest realist you know. They're more realistic than that.

I'm glad that you have more thinking behind your statement than assuming that any game with a win and fail states cannot have any meaning or that anything that shares properties with warioware instead of something like a visual novel has no value.

[Oh, sorry, I misunderstood this sentence, I thought you said I did believe this. Hark, the perils of the run-on-sentence.]

 

[More Fun To Compute]

I'm glad that you have more thinking behind your statement than assuming that any game with a win and fail states cannot have any meaning or that anything that shares properties with warioware instead of something like a visual novel has no value.

Okay, if you're jumping to these kinds of false conclusions, I'd best stop talking to you right here.

I'm an INTJ sort of person, I can't help it, but I am trying to work out why you are so negative about this game and can't see any sort of meaning or joy in it.

 

[geldonyetich]

I'm glad that you have more thinking behind your statement than assuming that any game with a win and fail states cannot have any meaning or that anything that shares properties with warioware instead of something like a visual novel has no value.

Okay, if you're jumping to these kinds of false conclusions, I'd best stop talking to you right here.

I'm an INTJ sort of person, I can't help it, but I am trying to work out why you are so negative about this game and can't see any sort of meaning or joy in it.

I'm an INTJ too, I misread that sentence, see the edit.

It's not that I can't see any meaning or joy in the game. It's just that there's not much to see here.

As far as a vehicle to promote higher meaning is concerned, it leaves very little reason to believe it would intentionally be that way. You can even see this it by researching the author some more: the dude doesn't make games that deep. It's pretty transparent that all you're supposed to gather from the bomb is that, hey, you only get 5 seconds. That's it. Come to think of it, Warioware had a bomb in the lower right corner as well -- just how much madness would it require to surmise additional meaning from that?

As far as being a game is concentrated, it's not very well wrought, being highly ambiguous and whatnot. Really, the main thing the game has going for it is the presentation. Turn off your volume (which is only used for music anyway). See how badly the lack of that emotional appeal hurts the game. If this were a good game, that wouldn't have happened.

In the end here, I'm just saying it's an all-around mediocre game. Just because I'm saying it's less than perfect doesn't mean I think it's a completely terrible game, lets not get lost to binary thinking here. I just don't find it particularly noteworthy.

 

[More Fun To Compute]

I'm an INTJ too.

Well that would explain why we are the only two people who are prepared to debate confidently about the relative significance and meaning of a flash game by a student.

You can even see this it by researching the author some more: the dude doesn't make games that deep.

I'm just not comfortable with that because it is a licence for valuing style of substance, not saying that you do. You can say something interesting with a light tone or be all serious and brooding and have nothing to say.

It's pretty transparent that all you're supposed to gather from the bomb is that, hey, you only get 5 seconds. That's it. Come to think of it, Warioware had a bomb in the lower right corner as well -- just how much madness would it require to surmise additional meaning from that?

The Bomb is going off in 5 seconds. Everybody has something to do before they go - it's on you to make sure they do it.

The dressing is different to Warioware which is just presented as a games for their own sake.

As far as being a game is concentrated, it's not very well wrought, being highly ambiguous and whatnot. Really, the main thing the game has going for it is the presentation. Turn off your volume (which is only used for music anyway). See how badly the lack of that emotional appeal hurts the game. If this were a good game, that wouldn't have happened.

In the end here, I'm just saying it's an all-around mediocre game. Just because I'm saying it's less than perfect doesn't mean I think it's a completely terrible game, lets not get lost to binary thinking here. I just don't find it particularly noteworthy.

I'm not sure how ambiguous it is. Most people manage to play it and enjoy it. I think it could be better but the I don't really see how it needs more emotional appeal, in fact I think that could have hurt the comic tone. It's not really meant to make you cry thinking that while the dog was not crushed by a safe it was killed by a nuclear blast due to the folly of mankind.

 

[geldonyetich]

It's pretty transparent that all you're supposed to gather from the bomb is that, hey, you only get 5 seconds. That's it. Come to think of it, Warioware had a bomb in the lower right corner as well -- just how much madness would it require to surmise additional meaning from that?

The Bomb is going off in 5 seconds. Everybody has something to do before they go - it's on you to make sure they do it.

The dressing is different to Warioware which is just presented as a games for their own sake.

I saw that, of course, when I digging up that other quote right next to it about how he doesn't develop games with any greater significance than to waste time. I dismissed it because it's very vague, it doesn't establish much other than "a bomb is going off in 5 seconds" and "everybody has something to do." Well, yeah, there's some scenes, and he decided to put a transition between each scene that is a nuclear blast, but it doesn't exactly establish he's going for a higher meaning.

As far as being a game is concentrated, it's not very well wrought, being highly ambiguous and whatnot.

I'm not sure how ambiguous it is. Most people manage to play it and enjoy it. I think it could be better but the I don't really see how it needs more emotional appeal, in fact I think that could have hurt the comic tone. It's not really meant to make you cry thinking that while the dog was not crushed by a safe it was killed by a nuclear blast due to the folly of mankind.

Ah, but look here within the context of this thread, and can see that's precisely what the original poster said makes this game significant, isn't it? The only reason I bring this up because I don't think that significance was intended. It seems that you agree here.

I mean, is the whole purpose of this discussion here so you can make a mountain of my trying to point out a mountain has been made out of this molehole? It seems unlikely I'd be willing to go along with that considering my original focus was to the contrary.

 

[Sneaklemming]

The flash game :the game: and :the game 2: are much better *nothing* games.

 

[More Fun To Compute]

Ah, but look here within the context of this thread, and can see that's precisely what the original poster said makes this game significant, isn't it? The only reason I bring this up because I don't think that significance was intended. It seems that you agree here.

The game doesn't make me sad, it's black comedy at worst as far as I am concerned. Doesn't mean I don't see value in it or that other people are wrong if they do find it sad.

I mean, is the whole purpose of this discussion here so you can make a mountain of my trying to point out a mountain has been made out of this molehole? It seems unlikely I'd be willing to go along with that considering my original focus was to the contrary.

I disagreed with how dismissive you seemed to be of it. I don't want to analyze how you are analyzing the analysis of a description. It's getting late here.

 

[geldonyetich]

I disagreed with how dismissive you seemed to be of it. I don't want to analyze how you are analyzing the analysis of a description. It's getting late here.

Ah. Perhaps it will clarify if I point out that, with the context of this thread, the only reason I'm analyzing it so negatively was because I figure if a thread is going to be started about a game it should at least be exceptional in some way.

 

[zombiejoe]

Sounds like a crappy flash art game, assuming the OP isn't high or lying.

Now that the OP has included a link to the game, I can conclude that the op wasn't lying, though he might be high, as that game was indeed fairly crappy.

Really?

Nice 9 hour bump. Still, your reply found its way to my private mail, and I suppose I could elaborate...

Basically, it's just a bunch of really simple and crude flash games which have a 5 second counter. Sort of like the WarioWare series [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wario_%28series%29#WarioWare]. You're supposed to be able to quickly identify and solve each scene. It's a rather crappy game because some of the scenes are rather shoddily set up so it's either pretty close to impossible to react in time (e.g. the scene where you're trying to get the money before the cop shoots you) or it's completely ambiguous what you're supposed to do (e.g. you're at the bottom of a stairway, there's a guy standing on top of the stairway, there's a chandelier hovering inaccessibly above the stairway - you have 5 seconds to guess what to do).

The whole "bomb" thing is really trite and has nothing to do with the game. You could imagine it has great emotional significance, that you're actually fulfilling these characters last dreams before the bomb went off, but I get the feeling that wasn't the developer's original idea at all. He just wanted a cheap, easy, and comically thoughtless (a nuclear bomb got em' - hurr hurr) way to segway into the next minigame. Though, now that it was mentioned, he could pretend that and say it was an art game.

If you want a more compelling art game, you should try this one on for size [http://www.raitendo.com/games/air-pressure].

Spoiler: You should probably not click this until you've played through once or twice

I'm pretty sure it's referring to a heroin addiction, there's a lot of supporting points for that, but there is enough room of ambiguity for people to argue themselves into a different position on it.

I see what you mean about the game, this one is pretty good.

GOT THE GOOD ENDING! LOL