Gish on Super Nintendo!

Well not quite, but check this out, it is too cool:



The Gish designers had never heard of or played Jelly Boy 2 before (I asked Alex at IGC04). All the more likely considering JB2's age and obscurity. What is interesting to me is that the designers of both games arrived at similarities independently of one another based on a common, more fundemental video game lexicon.

What do I mean by this lexicon? Well plenty of games allow you to save files, crouch, attach to walls/ceilings, go through tubes, go in water, ride swinging platforms and carts. These are pretty basic devices used over and over in games (think wall switches, teleporters, double jumps, shields, etc). With both games starting with "let's have a blob with a face for the player" it is natural that they come to some of the same conclusions. Playing JB2 is a totally different experience than Gish - there's no physics, less control and depth, you shoot enemies instead of ripping their heads off, it's just way different. But still, they came to some of the same things based on that fundemental lexicon, and that's just fascinating to me. The same thing happens with movies all the time.

A personal project I have had in the works for some time is to go through and identify that lexicon across all games, and use those "atoms" while designing a new game, particularly as a tool to help overcome design obstacles or add depth and variety. I think there may be similar works like this out there, but I want to research and identify the atoms first-hand as design "homework" if you will. Some day soon.

Anyway, thought this was too cool not to share. Enjoy!