[mabbo]

"Stanley Parable" is, imho, a strong example of video games as a form of art.

Few are going to play this game for 10 hours or more. I topped out at about 3. But it's still one of the most impactful, thought-provoking digital experiences I've had the pleasure of playing.

[jkingsman]

The two creators continued the theme in their next works -- Davey Wreden's "The Beginner's Guide" is a 2-3 hour game and a powerful look at what it means to make art and how we interact with it through an epistolary-style series of nano-games ostensibly made by his friend Coda. It's the greatest game I've ever played.

William Pugh made "Dr. Langeskov, The Tiger, and The Terribly Cursed Emerald: A Whirlwind Heist," which is a goofy 30 min game where you arrive early to a game and must deal with that situation as it develops.

Both are absurdly creative, funny and/or touching, and obviously have the same creative fingerprints of Stanley Parable within them.

[gambiting]

It's really interesting, because I have also really enjoyed "The Beginners Guide" and I think it's absolutely brilliant in its theme and delivery, but then I made my sister play it, and she said she hated every second of it - in her words "it's the most pretentious piece of art I have ever witnessed".

So....yeah, you're going to get strong reactions to this one I think.

[dtech]

The response to "The Beginners Guide" seems to be linked to how much of a "creator" you are. It did not vibe with me at all, but a friend who is a musician on the side loved it.

[gambiting]

Well, this guess doesn't seem to apply here - my sister is a film maker by education and now works as a photographer, and nope, just really didn't like it. I'm a video game developer(programmer, not designer) and I love it.

[smoldesu]

I quite liked "A Whirlwind Heist", if I'm not mistaken it's still free on Steam which makes it the perfect endcap to your weekend if you haven't checked it out already!

[scyzoryk_xyz]

Exactly - a responsibly made work of art conveys a message, a feeling, an idea in a reasonable window of time and let's you go back to your life.

This I think, is something the bigger 'industry' doesn't and will never fully aim for, because games like this don't drive the type of consumption that can deliver the kinds of profits which are to be expected with industrial scales of production.

Something similar happened in filmmaking in the 1970's, when tools for film production and distribution methods became gradually less expensive and more accessible. I think that we will see something very similar in the coming decades as game-design continues to develop as a mature artform.

[thenthenthen]

The soundtrack is also amazing, regularly listen to it on yt.