Experiment Twelve
July 26, 2013 4:32 AM   Subscribe

Experiment Twelve is an ambitious game (Windows download, 218 MB), a chapter by chapter collaboration between (in order of appearance) Terry Cavanagh, Ian Snyder, Jack King-Spooner, Zaratustra, Richard Perrin, Michael Brough, Robert Yang, Alan Hazelden, Benn Powell, Jake Clover, TheBlackMask, and Jasper Byrne.
posted by nobody (12 comments total) 11 users marked this as a favorite
 
I played around with it for a minute and couldn't make it do anything but scroll through the title cards. Maybe I fail as a computer gamer, but how do you make it start?
posted by Karmakaze at 5:26 AM on July 26, 2013


Maybe I should have added this to the post: up and down arrow keys to move through the menu, space to choose a chapter. Some chapters may take a small bit of time to load, but chapter 1 shouldn't be one of them.
posted by nobody at 5:41 AM on July 26, 2013


I should also probably add: chapters one and two implement a really smart and forgiving fail-state system, especially appropriate for a 12-part game like this. Many of the other chapters pick up on that, but chapter three, notably, isn't one of them. I'd suggest quitting out of three once you get the gist (you might have to manually close the application to do this) and continuing on to the rest.

(Chapter 6, on the other hand, is tricky but so very worth sticking with.)
posted by nobody at 5:51 AM on July 26, 2013


Perhaps a little background on the game and what makes it ambitious, beyond using a boatload of contributors? Is there an overarching story? Or is this a game version of a short story anthology?
posted by Thorzdad at 5:55 AM on July 26, 2013 [2 favorites]


Yeah, I'd like to hear what makes it so ambitious up front.
posted by Sleeper at 6:11 AM on July 26, 2013


Woo. Geocities. I thought that place was condemned. Or at least condamned. Still, MeFites rarely steer me wrong...
posted by LD Feral at 6:23 AM on July 26, 2013


Yeah I would like more explanation.

Mainly because this has been really unsettling so far.
posted by solarion at 6:29 AM on July 26, 2013


Also because it's basically been platform hell and I'd like to know if it comes from that tradition.
posted by solarion at 6:32 AM on July 26, 2013


I downloaded this pretty much sight-unseen last night because it was associated with Terry Cavanagh, and I was pleasantly surprised to find I knew about half of the other developers. Over the last year I've stopped paying attention to AAA games almost altogether and I've mostly played the weird and different indie games that come out every so often, because they are much more interesting.

What was very interesting for me is that since I'm so familiar with the developer's past work, I was able to recognize bits from previous games that were used in Experiment 12. For example, Ian Snyder's chapter has bits that remind me of Thirteen Gates, from last year. Micheal Brough has his own visual aesthetic, and his chapter reminded me of corrypt and Vesper.5.

The chapters each have repeating motifs, sound effects, and themes. It's fascinating to see how each developer interprets them and makes them part of the game, especially considering how different each game is from each other.

If you only play one chapter, play Michael Brough's. But please play all of them in order, and at least stick it out until Chapter 2. I promise you it's worth it.
posted by hellojed at 7:33 AM on July 26, 2013 [1 favorite]


Of the three chapters I played, none weren't awful. This game is really, really bad.
posted by Yowser at 9:35 AM on July 30, 2013


For those not swayed to give this a try by my likely misguided context-free post, games journalist Paul Hack has written up a good chapter by chapter "User's Guide." It contains spoilers, of course.
posted by nobody at 7:59 PM on August 3, 2013


And there's now a Mac version available.
posted by nobody at 6:43 AM on August 17, 2013


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