The Shadowy Flight into the Dangerous World of a Man Who Does Not Exist
So Datura is... uh...
Published: May 8, 2012
This is a good time for smaller-scale game development. Call it "indie," or "artsy" or whatever you wish; the intent is usually understood. In stark contrast to the insane budgets that would make even some Hollywood flicks cringe, smaller-time developmental efforts, bolstered by the low overhead of digital publishing, have started making bold inroads into the very same consoles that used to be the realm of the major publisher. Self-published and guided by the vision of just a handful of people, these games aren't always perfect or even especially well-made efforts, but they have that spark of ingenuity and inspiration that's at the heart of many of the best games we've all played.
It's been something of a source for the revival of the whole "games as art" debate -- one I've never felt comfortable taking a side on because I think it's entirely subjective. I certainly know that when I played a game like Journey that I was hit with a kind of emotional resonance that most games will never hope to accomplished despite budgets many orders of magnitude higher. It was interactive, and it had a point, so I suppose it falls under the "game" definition, but it was so evocative of a wide spectrum of feelings that I could very easily see it being propped up as art.
At the opposite end of the arty spectrum lies Datura. The product of Polish technical maestros Plastic, there's a clear line of progression traced from their days getting started in the demoscene to creating actual retail products now, and it's not entirely without help from Sony. You may remember the interactive tech demo experience that was Linger in Shadows, a wildly creative tear through a world haunted by evil. It wasn't, strictly speaking, a game, though. It was interactive, sure, in the same way that most SIXAXIS movements are (which is to say, clunky in the kindest sense), but it was doing things with your hands to make things happen on the screen, almost as if you'd explained what games are to a blind person who had never heard of one before.
Some of the blame could be leveled on the controller itself, which is why when Plastic decided they wanted to make another go of things, I was more than interested in seeing the end result. I'd watched countless demoscene bits of wizardry in the background, but the intent this time was to make something that you well and truly played. It didn't hurt that the name, Datura was something I'm more than a little familiar with. In my younger years, experimentation with various botanicals led to some wonderful and terrifying (but ultimately important) experiences that still stick with me to this day. Like so many plants that have hallucinogenic properties, low doses of datura can produce intense effects that are completely, utterly indistinguishable from what you'd normally perceive as reality. I'd never dose myself with the stuff these days, but I'm thankful that, after careful research, I at least allowed myself one trip, because Datura the game is a perfect distillation of what some of the effects are like.
It's been something of a source for the revival of the whole "games as art" debate -- one I've never felt comfortable taking a side on because I think it's entirely subjective. I certainly know that when I played a game like Journey that I was hit with a kind of emotional resonance that most games will never hope to accomplished despite budgets many orders of magnitude higher. It was interactive, and it had a point, so I suppose it falls under the "game" definition, but it was so evocative of a wide spectrum of feelings that I could very easily see it being propped up as art.
At the opposite end of the arty spectrum lies Datura. The product of Polish technical maestros Plastic, there's a clear line of progression traced from their days getting started in the demoscene to creating actual retail products now, and it's not entirely without help from Sony. You may remember the interactive tech demo experience that was Linger in Shadows, a wildly creative tear through a world haunted by evil. It wasn't, strictly speaking, a game, though. It was interactive, sure, in the same way that most SIXAXIS movements are (which is to say, clunky in the kindest sense), but it was doing things with your hands to make things happen on the screen, almost as if you'd explained what games are to a blind person who had never heard of one before.
Some of the blame could be leveled on the controller itself, which is why when Plastic decided they wanted to make another go of things, I was more than interested in seeing the end result. I'd watched countless demoscene bits of wizardry in the background, but the intent this time was to make something that you well and truly played. It didn't hurt that the name, Datura was something I'm more than a little familiar with. In my younger years, experimentation with various botanicals led to some wonderful and terrifying (but ultimately important) experiences that still stick with me to this day. Like so many plants that have hallucinogenic properties, low doses of datura can produce intense effects that are completely, utterly indistinguishable from what you'd normally perceive as reality. I'd never dose myself with the stuff these days, but I'm thankful that, after careful research, I at least allowed myself one trip, because Datura the game is a perfect distillation of what some of the effects are like.
