Image source: Gorogoa by Jason Roberts
I mean, kind of! The weather’s actually not so bad! Even better, after the break below there are some pretty awesome links from the internet. That makes this the BEST DAY, and it’s my gift to you.
Are you ready? If not, take whatever time you need to prepare yourself before reading ahead. Better safe than sorry, I say.
Edit: Never mind there is freezing rain and it’s horrible.
T • E • T • H • E • R
Tether is an animated music video of sorts, but is (I believe) more procedural in nature as shapes, patterns colours generate to accompany the track by UK-based electronica band Plaid. It’s also interactive! Click and drag your mouse or tap and hold your finger (if using a tablet) to manipulate the sounds and images. Or don’t, and let the music play out in its own way.
Quick epilepsy/seizure warning: There are a lot of pulsating shapes, flashing colours and eye-breaking patterns here. If you’re particularly sensitive to such things, you might want to skip ahead.
Gorogoa
I get a special burst of glee whenever I run across indie games that take on the medium in new ways I hadn’t thought of before. Gorogoa is such a thing.
Beautifully illustrated, animated and designed by Jason Roberts, the game begins with the vision of a colourful monster roaming the city as your character looks on, determined to satisfy the creature with a worthy tribute. To do so, you must move and drag pictures of his landscape into a proper path (sometimes even overlaying tiles on top of each other) to help direct him toward his goals.
The mechanic is really clever, and has a very Escher-esque quality about it. The puzzles are a bit frustrating at times, but the colourful art and beautiful animations more than make up for it.
The game is still in development, but a fully-playable demo is available for both PCs and Macs.
HIGH END CUSTOMIZABLE SAUNA EXPERIENCE
This is one of my new favourite things ever.
Sauna is, essentially, a cyberpunk choose-your-own adventure-type hacking simulator that’s also a high end sauna simulator, because saunas (and hacking) are freaking awesome.
Moreover, it’s some of the funniest writing I’ve come across in a good long while.
It’s a short ride, but I can’t say I’m complaining. After all, this is probably the best cyborg-hacker cupcake-heisting sauna simulator on the internet, at least for now. But I’ve said too much. Get to it, hacker. Good job.
CAGE DOES CAGE
I’m leaving this here, because why not?
This is John Cage’s 4 Minutes and 33 Seconds as performed by Nick Cage. Because eventually this had to happen. And again, why not? This is the internet.
I have nothing else to say, except: Bye Lindsay! This one’s for you…