thecatamites' text as texture

[droqen]

"Nobody reads the text in videogames!" said thecatamites (find talk/timestamp) link

text as texture.

I want plausible deniability, accidental reading, nonlinear exposure to writing, permission to miss and ignore details. text that goes by too quickly to be caught (enter the void credits sequence).

[droqen]

This is reading play. "What do i end up reading? what will i miss? what can i miss?"

This is writing play too. i don't know what pieces someone will read... i think writing is always like that, actually. you never know what phrase will snag any reader's attention. Reading is not a straight line, it's a jagged line with hills and valleys of attention and repetition.

am i the only one who goes back to a sentence i liked to reread it, or skips a word or sentence i think i might not understand if it's not particularly interesting or necessary?

[droqen]

No-one can read videogame text anyway; it's not actually text, it's like a texture.

[droqen]

JohnLee Cooper's
And Other Stories

* I find it stressful when I see a lot of text and assume I have to read it all. And Other Stories is the singular game that made me feel the most free to miss things; if something can break through that level of stress then I feel way better. I love the feeling.

[droqen]

This is all to say: of course I really truly want to make more games that exercise text as texture. Starseed Pilgrim does it. I think a lot of the text in YRKKEY'S PARADISE is a little too 'locky', although a lot of it is quite easy and unnecessary and incidental-skippable (my favourites are the NPCs in 2-1 who speak to you while you're using them to solve a little climbing puzzle). The text in HANDMADEDEATHLABYRINTH issue 0 is straight up too locky.

[droqen]

In MMORPGs, text and reading is one window of many. Chatting with friends happens alongside the action, not in its own game-locking mode. Dark Souls has a similar feeling: the game isn't waiting for me to finish reading; it's up to me to find a time to read when it's comfortable for me.

Hmm.

I could characterize this as "indifference" but I'd rather not.