VIDEO GAMES FOR GROWN-UPS
WITH GAMER DEMOGRAPHICS CHANGING FAST, “DEEP GAMES” OFFER CEREBRAL, CREATIVE—AND OFTEN OFFBEAT—CONTENT.
- Adam Bluestein for Fast Company November 20th, 2014
- Source: http://www.fastcompany.com/3038466/video-games-for-grown-ups
The office of Funomena, a small video-game company based in San Francisco's SOMA district, has all the creativity-enhancing knickknacks you expect in a Bay Area startup: clumps of clay, hydrophilic sand, a Lego mermaid, and what cofounderRobin Hunicke describes as other "stupid things we fiddle with." The idea is to set an atmosphere that's "more like a Montessori school than a game development studio," she says.
That makes sense: Funomena isn't like most other game companies. Its first commercial-project, Luna (which is not yet scheduled for release), will offer no high-caliber weapons, no alien-zombie invaders, and, most surprisingly, no scorekeeping of any sort. Instead, it will be an allegorical, grown-up fairy tale that explores how we might understand and integrate past traumatic experiences in order to grow and accept who we are now. Heady stuff for a video game.
