Indie in a Minute: DinoRubbish Megabundle - Piotr Ilyich Tchaikovskysaur IN SPACE

I've been wanting to say a little something about this game for awhile now, but haven't yet found the appropriate time, space, or words that may adequately describe it.

But the truth is there are no words that can. And there never will be. Not necessarily because the game is impossibly amazing and words can't actually suffice, but for a rather different reason. Honestly, there's a feeling that's been seriously nagging at me for the past few days that sounds like pure madness, but is of course perfectly logical: why do we keep writing about games?


I feel like I spend so much time thinking about what to write about a game that I no longer really enjoy playing all that much. I'm too busy wondering if it's "supposed" to be funny, or if it's "supposed" to be entertaining, or if it's "supposed" to be gamey. Are games no longer allowed to just be games? And really, what does that question even mean?

After all, aren't games supposed to be played? For all my talk about how games do wrong and right and how design is important, the most important thing for a game to be is fun, right? For all these great multi-million dollar and developers and for all their talk about what it takes to make a multi-million dollar game, doesn't everything simply boil down to playing the game you make and then honestly asking yourself "is this game fun?" and if the answer is no, then asking "what would make this game more fun?" and falling back upon that iteration over, and over, and over again?

Maybe that's why we write about games. And maybe that's a good reason to, fine. But let's be honest here: this isn't the kind of writing happening out there on the internet. It isn't really happening here either, as much as it so pains me to admit. I don't write about "thinking about making games better". I know I don't. I try to, but I simply don't have the smarts or for the experience for it. But damn do I try.

So I've resolved to stop writing about games. I don't want to stop reviewing games or stop writing game-relevant things, but I've decided to just play games and then think about how much effort and heart went into it; how much of "person" is there. If there are words for games that I used to enjoy, I suppose that's the closest I'll get. Games were good because I felt the hand of the creator behind them, and that creator was thoughtful enough, creative enough, smart enough, maybe even beautiful enough so that when I come into contact with it, through the game, I find myself pleasantly enjoying its presence, its guidance, and its message. And isn't it this the very thing that we see in every good piece of art?

Anyway. PixelJam's DINORUBBISH Megabundle.

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