So I finally got around to playing Thirty Flights of Loving

And I love it. It’s bizarre and experimental. As PC gamer said, it tells a better story in 13 minutes than most games do in 13 hours. It made me feel feelings.

There are so many convention breaking ideas in this game. Most notably, smash cuts are used frequently to move the story along. This is one of the game’s triumphs, as it takes an initially jarring mechanic and uses it to great effect, leaving me wondering why story driven games never did this before and haven’t taken inspiration from it now.

This game embraces its limitations and uses them to craft a story in a way that’s arguably better than what could have been done without those limitations.

It’s a short story, and one told out of sequence (Tarantino style) but it’s incredibly satisfying and encourages multiple playthroughs.

The developers commentary gives you a good look into Blendo’s process and just how much love into the game. It even includes little sped up videos of the development process, and some incredibly useful design tips.

I feel dumb for putting off playing this for so long.

I love to write. But for my games, I try to stay sparse on text. I feel games are at their best when you’re interacting and playing them — it’s a tough sell to force the player to just sit there and read your prose.

Brendon Chung on text in videogames. [June 13th, 2012] (via his blog).