One and One Story, a game in which the mechanics change with the story and your relationship. “Hold it, hold it. What is this? Are you trying to trick me? … Is this a kissing game?”
On the microtransactions front, the soundtrack is available at standard MP3 rates.
: Zubon
Wow, that was surprisingly fun. Thanks for sharing that. Reminded me of Braid.
This proves to me once and for all why I absolutely am not and never will be a “gamer”.
The music was lovely. The design was elegant and attractive. The writing was witty and amusing. The theme attracte me and drew me in.
I immediately empathized with the two characters. I wanted to know their story. I wanted to see how it played out. Everything was in place for an enjoyable, entertaining experience.
I lasted less than three minutes. After two deaths I thought “What the hell is the point of this? How is this story in any way improved by having to fiddle about with jumping and hopping and trying to get into precise positions? What possible connection do hand to eye co-ordination and muscle control have with an unfolding narrative?”
Games and game mechanisms do not support narrative. They obstruct, obfuscate and delay it. I think there’s a great place for interactive narrative, where you inhabit an avatar or a point of view while exploring a story. That adds depth in the way flashback, montage and the endless variety of shots and framings add depth to a film narrative.
Jumping across pits of spikes adds nothing but delay and irritation and I’ve always thought that, even when I was 30 years younger and had the reaction time for it.
If the people that made this would like to do a version without the jumping and deaths, I’d love to try it.
I hate books,
The process of having to read and turn pages instantly detracts from the narrative being beamed into my subconscious by thought rays. The distraction of physically having to move an object breaks the immersion of the narrative unfolding, a disjointed and jarring realization that what you are doing is not real, that it is fiction, that it is at best only in your imagination.
Anyone who says a book is an accurate way to translate a gripping story has no understanding of how medium impacts narrative.
If the people who wrote books would like to do a version that I can consume while perfectly inert, I’d love to try it.
+1
@innuendo: That was clever, but it might be a little more snark than is strictly called for. Bhagpuss isn’t some philistine who has wandered in from Ebert street, he’s an MMO fan who has added constructive comments to about half the articles on this site.
@Bhagpuss: Actually, the shifting mechanics create a brilliant metaphor for the sometimes frustrating, sometimes liberating ups and downs of a romantic relationship. When you first begin meeting, control toggles between the boy and the girl: its the awkward first dates, where you are both trying to put your best foot forward and trying to decide if your partners best foot is good enough for you. Very soon you and your partner are mirroring each other’s movements–and finding the attempts at cooperation even harder than when you were first figuring each other out. Then you discover your differences, the times where it seems you’re moving in opposite directions and the all-consuming challenge is finding some way to meet in the middle. Maybe one of you gets a little scared, limits how and when the other party sees them, worried that they’re about to run headlong over a cliff. Eventually you come to the realization that no one has complete control over a relationship, that the other person is still their own entity, liable to do things you don’t want, or even things you consider self-destructive. But if you can weather through it, if you can determine in your heart of hearts to love the other person and let them love you back, you find that being together is enough even when you aren’t sure of the next step, and that the plunge of entrusting someone else with the rest of your life becomes not only possible, but grand.
It’s a pity you found the platforming so frustrating. You’re missing out on much of Dante’s Divine Comedy if you don’t read it in the original Italian, and you’re missing out on most of this game’s brilliant narrative if you don’t play it through yourself.
If you insist, though, I found you a version without all the deaths and frustrations. But without the actual game play to slow it down, I’m afraid the pacing is shot to pieces:
http://armorgames.com/guide/one-and-one-story-video-guide
“Very soon you and your partner are mirroring each other’s movements–and finding the attempts at cooperation even harder than when you were first figuring each other out.”
But that’s not like a relationship at all. When you’re mirroring each other you are in sync and the relationship is easier.
Incidently, this is where I gave up, because it was just easier to push a block over a 10-story cliff onto my girlfriend’s head than deal with the BS of trying to get to her.
Incidently, this is where I gave up, because it was just easier to push a block over a 10-story cliff onto my girlfriend’s head than deal with the BS of trying to get to her.
And you’re saying this is not reflective of a lot of relationships you know?
“But that’s not like a relationship at all. When you’re mirroring each other you are in sync and the relationship is easier.”
Ha! I should be so lucky.
Bit late coming back to the thread, so I missed Jabberwockist’s kind words, for which, many thanks :)
Interesting that you mention translation. I read nothing in translation if I can possibly avoid it (by which I mean that sometimes I don’t find out a work was translated until after I’ve read it). I’ve had countless discussions on the subject over the years, but my position on translation remains pretty much unchanged since I worked it out while at university, namely that if you want to read the translator’s work in and for itself, that’s fine; just don’t imagine you are getting the original.
I’ve always found it odd that there’s no ambiguity in music, where a cover version is always understood to be a separate work from the original and part of the oeuvre of the cover artist not the originator, whereas in literature the convention is that the translation is somehow still the original work.
Leaving that aside, though, my real objection to One and One Story is that I flippin’ well can’t stand platform games. I played a million of them in the 80s and now I cannot bear the sight of them! I was never good at them and now that I’m a quarter of a century older they are pretty much impossible for me. Sticking an interesting story into a platformer format is adding insult to injury!
I worked as a professional translator for years, and I couldn’t agree more – the translated work is no more the original than a photograph is a landscape.
I used to keep a plaque over my desk inscribed with the Italian saying “Traduttore, traditore” (“Translator, traitor” in English) for just that reason.