

Primrose: subversive puzzle game by indie legend Jason Rohrer - unalone
http://primrose.sourceforge.net/

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crux
It looks pretty enough, but what's so subversive about it? It's not just
another block puzzle game?

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unalone
There were a few elements here that I haven't seen in other block puzzle
games: playing it through, a few things struck me as very unique.

First off, the nature of the gameplay is inherently submissive. That means
that rather than trying to destroy things, you _change_ them. Unlike most
puzzle games, where the goal is to clear the way, in this one you can't _just_
clear things. You're also converting everything around you.

It's also different in that it doesn't force you to speed. In some ways it's
tactical, only the pieces are random, so your careful thought can't extend too
far. The closest thing I can think to compare it to is Solitaire, where you
don't know what's coming up in the deck but by taking your time, you can do
slightly better.

The real subversive thing is how the game ends: once all you have left is
grey, you're essentially in an endgame where you can't help but lose. That was
unexpected, the first time I played, and it strikes me as a bit existentialist
- fascinating for me because I never thought of gameplay mechanics as at all
philosophical, but this one showed me that it's possible even with a block
puzzle game. That also makes the game a bit calmer, and it adds an inherent
limit to how long the game goes on for. That in turn favors the slower, calmer
players, since you _can't_ get a high score without being clever in how you
play.

I don't know if I'd have noticed all that without playing Rohrer's game
_Passage_ first, but after playing _Passage_ some of these things stand out in
pretty sharp relief.

There's also a fascinating Rohrer interview about it, here:
<http://wireless.ign.com/articles/956/956026p1.html>

