relating to or denoting drugs such as lsd that produce hallucinations and “expand consciousness”
denoting or having intense, vivid colors or swirling abstract patterns
denoting an apparent distortion of time and space
seemingly impossible interconnectedness between all matter
i made definitions number 3 and 4 up but they would totally make a game kind of psychedelic. if a game has 3 and 4 but it doesn’t make sense to call them psychedelic then they probably aren’t psychedelic but you get it. also if a game has none of this but is still psychedelic then it is.
there’s psychedelic level design and movement that can exist without the visuals. examples of that would be stuff like bubsy 3d, sonic heroes, jet set radio future, etc. moving across superstructures with complete ease is psychedelic. or maybe im fool
NiGHTS Into Dreams (1995/2008)
LSD: Dream Emulator (1998)
Bubsy 3D (1996) (and Bubsy 3D: Bubsy Visits the James Turrell Retrospective)
AENTITY is about never clearing image retention, playing on never clearing the draw buffer // I think the reach of the author’s statement exceeds its grasp
Mirror Drop is absolutely built on visual processing confusion in a world of infinite perfect mirrors // my review was, ‘better than Yayoi Kusama’s Infinity Rooms’
PANORAMICAL builds off a visual sense of ‘falling forward’, which always tugs against my body. It’s more a music visualizer toy than anything
LUNE is the best VR experience I’ve had, cabbibo’s illustration of the birth and death of the universe and a warm blanket. In VR it exposes the potential of fully immersive and nonrealistic rendering:
ALSO DYAD OF COURSE. tim rogers told me i wrote the best review of dyad, im embarassed to post it but if someone wants to see it i can link
this level is called GIRAFFES GIRAFFES FROM OUTER SPACE its based on: jeff minter’s space giraffe, the band giraffes? giraffes! BUT ALSO (this is the one i missed until i was in shawn mcgrath’s house, holding his hedgehog and making fun of him for having a personalized liscense plate that read h4x0r) based on the childrens book giraffes? giraffes! which was the first thing he bought for his then unborn son
shawn rules and he edited the game in front of my eyes, i was like MORE COLOR and he added more color it was great
its in my favorite genre of games, RAINBOW DEATH TUBES
each level has a different goal/theme… some levels you have to reach the end, some levels you have to go as far as you can before you die, some levels you gotta collect weird power ups ETC ETC
theres also BONUS EXPERT LEVELS wher ehtey fucking take away your ability to see shit so you have to go all on sound
man i havent played this game in forever so my memory of it is kinda hazy. i dont have the ps3 i got my early copy on and my laptop doesnt run it super well… BUT IT RUNS ON MY LAPTOP? which is amazing
also the game is 1337 mb and they had to add junk to it to make the file that big
its a game where you go in a tiny tent and drink tea and chant and your chants make COOL VISUALS also the developer was usually on psychadelics when he showed the game
I wish DYAD didn’t stop the music when you got hit, it’s such a mood-killer in an otherwise incredible experience
actually I should nominate Journey in honor of Grandpa the 17-BIT developer who lived in GRANDPA’S LOUNGE and played Journey every day for two years until 3 in the morning, on psychedelics
i really like how much you get punished for fucking up, it made me good at the game
i keep thinking im done and then i come up with another game
i dunno if this counts as psychedelic, but its definitely one of the best examples of insanity in games (not like theres much competition). apparently they consulted lots of people for it
my best friend who killed herself was schitzo affective and it reminds me of her a lot
