Monday, January 12, 2009

The Graveyard



This isn't a trailer for The Graveyard - it's the full game, played to completion for your edification in seven minutes and thirty nine seconds. It's not a speedrun, either - that's the maximum length of the game. Nor is it only one of several possible playthroughs. This is the experience you have every time. The only player input is in directing the old lady to walk up the path.

Which raises some questions as to whether The Graveyard deserves to be called a game. It is an excellent piece of semi-interactive art. It is intriguing and I am glad it exists. But when your total interaction amounts to the equivalent of a DVD's play and pause buttons, it may not exactly qualify as gaming, as such.

Anyway, it's by Tale of Tales, it's a 2009 Independent Games Festival finalist, and you can download it for free from their website. If you like it, feel free to drop the developers $5, and by way of thanks they'll give you the "full" version, wherein there is the ever-present possibility of sudden and unforeshadowed death.

As a side note, I also direct you to Wired Magazine's article on this game, which is well worth anyone's reading time.

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