4:32
Jesper Juul, probably best known for his awesome game research, created a game called 4:32. You should go check it out, because it’s pretty sweet (bit hard to get running though, but totally worth it).
The game is a response to 4 Minutes and 33 Seconds of Uniqueness. 4:32 continues to explore what John Cage’s 4:33 would be as a game. I would call it a prequel to 4 Minutes and 33 Seconds of Uniqueness.
The game reminds me a bit of the Experimental Gameplay Project 2.0 game called Troy (it’s the very last game on this page).
Anyway I think Jesper’s game is really sweet and I was honored to see that he had created a response to one of my games. It’s always interesting to see other people tackle the same problem and see their solutions. With that I highly recommend that you go and play his game.
February 2nd, 2010 at 10:31 pm
• “Sorry. This game requires a Firefox browser! Get Firefox.”
Damn, okay, I got FF… and:
• “Sorry, but this page requires the Unity Web Player. Get Unity.”
Sorry, I’n not curious, what will I need to get next. Bye.
February 2nd, 2010 at 11:20 pm
Awesome !
How far do you go for a game? Really impressive.
February 3rd, 2010 at 4:44 pm
>< omg
after installing 3 plugins and changing language settings 4:32 asks me to change my desktop reslution, I mean wtf?
February 4th, 2010 at 4:44 am
Piqued my interest, though realised what was happening + stopped before installing Silverlight on my new setup. Sure its clever but its not “in the spirit” of 4′33″ or Jesper interprets it wrong [ again ] as his ‘game’ is a totally reductive experience.
Cage is saying that there’s a richness out there and that much of that comes without [ or despite ] our control, given the context of the surrounding environment. And that’s a wonderful thing because it makes me pay attention to things around me some more. Whereas this is more just being a smart-arse without giving anything back.
-
What made you game 4′33″ good was that it made you aware of the world outside and the connections between people that we almost never pay attention to. In a really minimal way it managed to bring some humanity back into an extremely simple game, and there were great stories from people realising that another person was on at the same time or changing their timing to accommodate the game. This kind of reflection in the player-loop is what’s important.
– Chuan
February 4th, 2010 at 2:31 pm
@Chuan:
Yeah, my original idea was to try to do a game that wouldn’t require any user input. The thing I realized after making the game that it’s impossible to do a game that doesn’t have any user input. The only input from a player in 4′33″ is launching the application. What Jesper did was show that the actual launching of the application can be a game as well. Hence the name 4′32″ (I think).
I didn’t expect 4′33″ to be interesting or deep as a game, but it just happened (to some extent) by accident. I think Jesper idea was similar. Try it out if it works at all.
February 6th, 2010 at 4:05 pm
after changing your resolution to 800×600 you have to uninstall flash^^
proof: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/1632334/lol.png
February 6th, 2010 at 7:32 pm
That’s where I stopped, bored and upset I wouldn’t be able to try this game until one minute later, I fathomed I had been playing the game since the beginning…
Well, I like the philosophico-experimental idea behind this but I don’t think the author should’ve asked the player to uninstall stuff from his computer, for (s)he could encounter some problems afterwards…
I’d have preferred the author just asked to install stuff we don’t particularly need and that are easy to discard. I mean, for the purpose of this experiment, it would’ve been perfectly sufficient, imo.
February 11th, 2010 at 1:51 am
Troy is a masterpiece.
I get the concept behind 4:32 very soon, but Troy really blown my mind.
February 15th, 2010 at 10:18 pm
How far do you go for a game?
February 16th, 2010 at 9:54 pm
[...] Petri Purho also blogged about it here. [...]
February 19th, 2010 at 8:35 pm
Nothing like a bit of conceptual gameplay mindfuck to alter your perspectives! I was thinking ‘this game had better be good’ before I got to ‘change your resolution to 800×600′ and then it suddenly clicked. Genius
March 12th, 2010 at 9:14 pm
I hit the same place Bob did, just above. When it said, “enable Spanish,” was thrown off, but kept plugging away. Then, when it sai 800×600, I thought, “Are you effin kidding me!?” that was immediately followed by, “and there is the game…”
So, has anyone actually gone through everything to finish it (is there a finish?)?
April 6th, 2010 at 4:37 pm
April 16th, 2010 at 8:46 am
How far do you go for a game?
May 11th, 2010 at 3:11 am
Jaja so funny… you have complete the game… lol
June 3rd, 2010 at 5:13 am
after installing 3 plugins and changing language settings 4:32 asks me to change my desktop reslution, I mean wtf