Resource centre for ZX Spectrum games
using Manic Miner and Jet Set Willy game engines
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Message: 4446
Author: Alexandra
Date: 11/09/2004
Subject: JSW styles
It's felly kviet in heah. You kvud almost heah a pin dehrop!
I was thinking that there are 3 styles of JSW game, and they coincide
with musical styles:
1 - Classical. Trying to describe real places, a la JSW, and Adban's
games (amongst others, though he seems to be the most skillful and
consistent in this area). Can also incorporate a bit of surreality
(indoor trees, hell) but is generally coherent.
2 - Synthetic. Not trying to describe real places, or describing very
unreal places ;). Synthetic games/rooms are sort of like playable
abstract art. They can and should be pleasing to the eye but lack the
discipline and restraint of classical, whilst gaining more freedom.
3 - Glitch. Glitch is the style of malfunctioning computers, both in
music and JSW. Filsoft's JSW Again is very much in the glitch style
(when I first saw it it reminded me of a computer crash or some other
kind of transfer error in the digital domain). Placements can be
seemingly random but often conceal hidden design (such as quirky
features).
Note that not all authors/games/rooms adhere to one style solidly.
For example, We Pretty comes across to me as a fusion of classic and
glitch styles, whereas my own Strangel is more in the realms of
synthetic/glitch. On the other hand JSW:RR is purely classical. Manic
Miner I would class as synthetic/classical, but leaning slightly more
to the synthetic side.
The terms are relative and most (but not all) games have all three
elements in them. I'm thinking this is probably nothing new to some
people but I thought it was interesting and worth writing down.
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