Assignment: Expressive Environments Homeplay

Homeplay = homework but for playing

Here’s some short first person games and immersive experiences made by solo developers or small teams.

They are all free or almost free, and they represent a variety of approaches to storytelling through immersive environments.

Pick 3 games/projects to play in preparation for the next assignment.
For each of them post a 3+ paragraph response in which you analyze an aspect of it that could be useful or inspiring for your project.

Some of them may be windows only.

Even in Arcadia by Phoebe Shalloway – a sci-fi immersive play about the launch of a new planet earth

Bellular Hexatosis by Neotenomie and Porpentine – a short sci-fi adventure about curing your sister

Orchids to Dusk by pol clarissou – a short experience about being stranded on a planet

I am not what remains by ompuco – a glitchy landscape

Sacramento by dziff (Delphine Fourneau) – an ephemeral landscape

How Fish is Made by Johanna Kasurinen, Jeffrey Tomec, Martin Halldin – a philosophical horror game

Anatomy by kitty horrorshow – a psychological horror about domesticity

Ode to a Moon by Colorfiction – a lovecraftian horror game

Apartment by Kalonica Quigley – a first person story about returning to your own apartment

 

Curtain by dreamfeel – a first person story about an abusive relationship

Atuel by Matajuegos – a playable documentary about an endangered watershed in Argentina

 

Gameworkers and guildworkers – by Spekwork – an immersive documentary about the labor of building virtual and real cathedrals

The Zium Garden by various artists – a virtual installation art exhibition

 

Neo brutalism of tomorrow – Moshe Linke – a virtual museum

 

LCD Dream Escalator by Hydezeke, alto, Mirecwd – a sequence of dream like vignettes

 

Songs of the lost – Paloma Dawkins Jlin and collab

That night steeped by blood river – Taylor Swietanski (2020)

If we were allowed to visit by Gemma Mahadeo and Ian MacLarty – an immersive concrete poem

 

قلبي قلبكم (My Heart is Your Heart) by Mohamed Chamas – an interactive poem

 

In the Pause between the Ringing by Studio Oleomingus – a rumination about completion, about territorial margins and about the haunting of bodies and memories that are translated across borders

Alien Caseno by Grace Bruxner – a recreation of a human casino

Morning Post by happysnake – a stylish 2.5D world

Pet the Pup at the Party by will herring – hidden object game and social anxiety

don’t look away from the colors by adam pype – minimalistic first person puzzle game