Loneliness - A Video-Game-Like Experience

Loneliness is a very short experiment, described by the developer as "Not-a-Game" made by flash... It's an intriguing experience.

I first saw Loneliness around three years ago then forgot about it, But while I was researching my #ThinkingWhileGaming post "Are Kinetic Novels Games? What Defines a Video Game?" its name came up... and I decided to play it again as it won't take more than 5 minutes to play.

You Can Play it On Kongregate And It's Main Website Here

---

("Hey, can I Join you guys?")

The game -- interactive experience is really simple... You play as a square... You can move to any direction you want... As you go you'd find other squares... and as you come close to them... They'll go away.

("Go away!! you're not wanted!!")

That's everything... But the intriguing thing is that everyone sees and plays it differently..

I too played it in different ways... Are the squares human? I thought they might be ants in some of my second play... I finished Loneliness on my third play (I thought it was endless in the first two) and the ending left me thinking too...

("God! I'm so Lonely...")

Does this darkness mean night? or does it mean that my characters heart become dark and he can't take it anymore? Can I go back to try meeting these "people" again? what if they refused me another time?

I think many, many people can relate to Loneliness... A feeling that spread in humanity in our age a lot. The feeling that you're not wanted... That no group could accept you. This game might get you depressed if you thought about it.

---

In the main site (link above) the developer posted some of people's comments on the game and I liked James (Extra Credits' writer) comment:

What’s amazing about it is that it undeniably has a narrative, even though it features no words… but what’s more incredible to me is how different that narrative can be for different people… This game not only tries to put us in the emotional state of that crushing loneliness… but it lets us explore it, and this to me is the unique power games have.

• James Portnow

You can see Extra Credits Video about the game here.

For once I decided to only put a link not the actual video here.

---

And that's my take on this short game interactive experience.

What do you think?

All images are screenshots from the game.