this came out in late 2019 and it really feels like a summation of an entire decade of gimmicky indie “one clever mechanic” (which i also call "1cm") puzzle design of the 2010’s to me. i almost imagine this game as being a statement about that type of game in general, in some form. but perhaps that’s me imposing my own reading onto it. more recently in this genre we got Viewfinder. Superliminal is snappier and more innovative than Viewfinder. it’s more The Stanley Parable/30 Flights of Loving than a game with discrete puzzles like Viewfinder - there are bunch of different simple scenario designs that are run through at a rapid pace, and the boundaries between them are basically nonexistent. the puzzle design gimmicks go further than something like Stanley Parable also - there’s a real focus on constant mind bending moments. and that’s legitimately cool! …at least for awhile.
because it’s a constantly shifting reality, there is seemingly never any interest in making the place you’re in feel real and tangible. once you’re used to these kinds of design tropes being used over and over, they fail to really move you anymore. and the writing never really approaches being coherent or contextualizing anything you’re doing in an interesting way - because the game seemingly has no interest in that. it’s a tech demo designed to be “mind bending” and push buttons, and it does succeed at that - but it’s underwhelming if you were expecting any more from that. even like Portal or The Stanley Parable, which are pretty one-note in many ways, at least have concepts in the fiction that are more immediately graspable and relatable. a lot more tools in the toolbox were used to make Superliminal than those games - and they’re cool tools! it’s the kind of stuff the Doom wad “ALT” or some other weirder Doom levels (like “Myhouse” for that matter) do that i like, but in a hyper-concentrated form. there’s a lot to be gained from that. but it’s not really clear for what purpose they’re being used. it feels directionless. at the end of the day you're wandering a bunch of nondescript rooms and hallways that are kind of hard to pretend are anything but something there to set up the puzzles.
here’s something about this particular approach to game design - like you’re Jules Verne unraveling the mysteries of the deep, or Werner Herzog filming in the jungle. approaching game design like it’s a kind of science, something inherent to the nature of being that you’re unraveling through your curiosity. it’s something that i find both admirable and completely delusional and un-self-aware. it’s a kind of macho attitude, but for a certain type of insulated programmer nerd. games like this offered a promise of a glimpse into something deeper, but rarely surpassed going beyond “huh, that was cool i suppose” because it was coming from people who worship the idea of technological exceptionalism and were thus uninterested in contextualizing it in larger art history. the insights to be gleaned were all very polished gimmicks rubbing up against each other in a consumer-friendly package intent on planting the seed of Deep Game Design in the minds of players - because that, in itself, was somehow powerful. Videogames Matter, folks. Videogames Can Do Things! videogames are technology, and all problems with technology can be eventually brained to death.
perhaps this approach works in some ways - Braid got me back into following games, after all. but if it does it’s less so because of the end result, but merely because they’re at least attempting to be something different than a majority of games… and that at least makes them stand out from other things.
but yeah - in that way i think Superliminal really embodies a lot of design trends of that era, many of which were on their way out by the time it came out. like i said it’s more expressive and innovative than Viewfinder - but i’ll also give that game credit, i feel like that one least it was trying to say something larger with the story that this doesn’t. even if it was clumsy. i’m not sure what Superliminal has to say about anything beyond “look at what we can do”. and that’s a real bummer, because in isolation - completely removed from the context (or lack thereof) of the game, i liked a lot of things about Superliminal.
but speaking of “My House” - i feel like that takes very similar ideas and actually does the whole thing much better, because there’s a really strong sense of angst and pathos there that never is remotely in this game. that’s perhaps the direction i can imagine more of these games taking in the future - the sort of hauntology angle vs. the “i’m a great scientist unraveling the secrets of the universe” one.
because it’s a constantly shifting reality, there is seemingly never any interest in making the place you’re in feel real and tangible. once you’re used to these kinds of design tropes being used over and over, they fail to really move you anymore. and the writing never really approaches being coherent or contextualizing anything you’re doing in an interesting way - because the game seemingly has no interest in that. it’s a tech demo designed to be “mind bending” and push buttons, and it does succeed at that - but it’s underwhelming if you were expecting any more from that. even like Portal or The Stanley Parable, which are pretty one-note in many ways, at least have concepts in the fiction that are more immediately graspable and relatable. a lot more tools in the toolbox were used to make Superliminal than those games - and they’re cool tools! it’s the kind of stuff the Doom wad “ALT” or some other weirder Doom levels (like “Myhouse” for that matter) do that i like, but in a hyper-concentrated form. there’s a lot to be gained from that. but it’s not really clear for what purpose they’re being used. it feels directionless. at the end of the day you're wandering a bunch of nondescript rooms and hallways that are kind of hard to pretend are anything but something there to set up the puzzles.
here’s something about this particular approach to game design - like you’re Jules Verne unraveling the mysteries of the deep, or Werner Herzog filming in the jungle. approaching game design like it’s a kind of science, something inherent to the nature of being that you’re unraveling through your curiosity. it’s something that i find both admirable and completely delusional and un-self-aware. it’s a kind of macho attitude, but for a certain type of insulated programmer nerd. games like this offered a promise of a glimpse into something deeper, but rarely surpassed going beyond “huh, that was cool i suppose” because it was coming from people who worship the idea of technological exceptionalism and were thus uninterested in contextualizing it in larger art history. the insights to be gleaned were all very polished gimmicks rubbing up against each other in a consumer-friendly package intent on planting the seed of Deep Game Design in the minds of players - because that, in itself, was somehow powerful. Videogames Matter, folks. Videogames Can Do Things! videogames are technology, and all problems with technology can be eventually brained to death.
perhaps this approach works in some ways - Braid got me back into following games, after all. but if it does it’s less so because of the end result, but merely because they’re at least attempting to be something different than a majority of games… and that at least makes them stand out from other things.
but yeah - in that way i think Superliminal really embodies a lot of design trends of that era, many of which were on their way out by the time it came out. like i said it’s more expressive and innovative than Viewfinder - but i’ll also give that game credit, i feel like that one least it was trying to say something larger with the story that this doesn’t. even if it was clumsy. i’m not sure what Superliminal has to say about anything beyond “look at what we can do”. and that’s a real bummer, because in isolation - completely removed from the context (or lack thereof) of the game, i liked a lot of things about Superliminal.
but speaking of “My House” - i feel like that takes very similar ideas and actually does the whole thing much better, because there’s a really strong sense of angst and pathos there that never is remotely in this game. that’s perhaps the direction i can imagine more of these games taking in the future - the sort of hauntology angle vs. the “i’m a great scientist unraveling the secrets of the universe” one.