This game continues to intrigue me. There’s a number ofreasons for it, however, as with most games I am entranced by, it’s the atmosphere that gets me. Although the term is growing cliched, Love has a very painterly look, largely from the smudgy coloured grass and trees, or the often glowing ‘fog’ that muffles the landscape to soften it.
It’s so easy to be sucked into the game while drifting around the world, you see a strange, almost artificial landscape, and on closer inspection, see it as a settlement you helped create a week ago. You see a bizarre creation on a plateau high above, but with no way to reach it, it remains a mystery.
As a statement about architecture, the game succeeds by questioning how design could move into the Wiki style ‘user-creates’ field. With players able to modify the settlements at will, they grow organically, and interestingly, almost act as a caricature of the post-modern movement. As a settlement begins, purely functional elements are the first to appear, simply to keep the village from being overrun. Settlements almost exclusively become four high walls, with ‘tokens’ (the game’s resources) arranged in neat blocks within these walls. Once survival is no longer the main goal, players start the aesthetic improvements, which to many means adding ornamentation, or retrofitting ‘trends’ into parts of the village. Since players generally work on one section individually, the settlement becomes an eclectic mix of ideas, sometimes remaining unfinished.
Perhaps more soon…
Just been reading your posts, glad to be the first one to leave a comment.
I didn’t know this was a blog, otherwise I would have tuned in sooner. You only told me you were setting this up as a platform for any games you were gonna make and want to present/test out to people.
You never give yourself enough credit, you actually articulate yourself really well with words. Granted this is something you are totally passionate about, but still.
But I feel I know you that much more now after reading these posts. This is a side of you I never see and it’s sad. Just because I’m a casual gamer (all due to you I might add) doesn’t mean I don’t want to hear what you have to say about games and the industry overall. What’s important to you is important to me. Don’t you forget that.
I can’t even try to feign interest at the very least (I’m not saying I will) if you don’t give me a chance and don’t let me. Stop being so guarded and such a close book!!