Starseed Pilgrim creator's new platformer wants to "kill gameplay"
That's an idea
The maker of cryptic block-seeding puzzler Starseed Pilgrim has announced a new game in which you are invited to do the unspeakable and "kill gameplay". The End Of Gameplay will be an exploratory 2D platformer according to the tags on its Steam page but anyone who has played the work of creator Droqen might predict those labels to prove looser than a toddler's shoelace. Enjoyers of obscure and poetic wanderings in minimalist spaces will probably be happy with the trailer below.
The creator describes it as "like Starseed Pilgrim, but only all the parts that nobody told me they cared about". This is a strong pitch but in what direction I cannot tell. Starseed Pilgrim was a mysterious blockbuilding platformer released back in the hellsands of 2013, in which you had to plant various seeds and discover their effects to go... somewhere? I never quite got it, to be honest. But that's okay, I'm not alone.
"I think of Starseed Pilgrim as a game that is enjoyed, mostly, by indie game devs, and this new game is even more down that rabbithole," said Droqen in an announcement post on Steam. "You can tell from the title, it is about gameplay, it is something. If you want to kill gameplay too or you just want to bathe in the blood of its ending or you just want to watch in horror, maybe this game of a poem will be for you."
We at RPS regularly and viciously kill the word "gameplay" every time it appears, like a relentless weed in our garden of text (I am strongly restraining myself right now). But that's just a word, the visible tuft of a greater problem. The concept of gameplay remains stubborn, its roots spreading deep under the soil of the games industry like a vast and undefinable mycorrhizal network. It is this which Droqen seeks to destroy. This mission is a dangerous folly. I am interested to see how it goes.
"I wanted to release it to as few people as possible," said the dev about the new game, "but then I did that, and then I showed it to a few more people, and then a few more, and I started yelling 'kill gameplay' on Bluesky. It got away from me..."
Sounds like one for Edwin, our resident ludopoet. It's also described as an anthology, continuing a long-running trend of indie creators shoving their short works into one compact package. Terry Cavanagh did this recently with Terry's Other Games and long ago Stephen "thecatamites" Gillmurphy released 50 Short Games. Then there's UFO 50, the combined effort of multiple developers.
While Starseed Pilgrim didn't do it for me, it was admired by Adam (RPS in peace) who was at a loss to describe the seed 'em up's appeal in his review. "What to say about a game that would be better passed from hand to hand at bizarre conventions, residing on an unmarked disc with no readme.txt and no explanation?" he said. "I’d gladly forbid people from trying to explain what they’ve experienced to newcomers because the joy is in the discoveries."
The End Of Gameplay will be released on "the full flower moon in May". That's May 12th according to my googling of witchy moon phases.