The name of the game in 2008: Innovation

Well, 2008 is over now, and we can officially make judgments from our 20/20 hindsight.

One of the biggest (baddest?) buzzwords of the year was innovation. Game critics debated the merits of innovation – specifically, whether developers deserve credit for delivering truly new experiences, even if they contain flaws. Developers and publishers touted innovation and new IPs as the greatest new thing, and the best thing for the industry (especially if their game happened to fit into that category). And perhaps most important of all, gamers themselves discussed innovative game design, trying to decide if we’d rather have new (and maybe rough around the edges) or the familiar (and maybe polished and near-perfected).

So much of this debate centered on Mirror’s Edge – Dice’ speedy platformer/action title that made waves this fall. The game got mixed reviews all over the board – reviewers praised the slick aesthetic and the innovative game design – but they tended to hate some of the arbitrarily difficult jumps and terrible combat. Sales weren’t super, but the title sparked a huge debate among game journalists.

Leigh Alexander certainly spent a great deal of time debating the merits of the game’s “newness” at her Sexy VideogameLand Blog – and she came down decidedly in favor of encouraging experimentation and new techniques, even if the results aren’t always perfect. From her blog:

“When a title attempts to explore uncharted areas, it risks stumbling into areas that have been neglected for a good reason — because they don’t work as well. But when we fault them for trying, without recognizing that the game might have done a few new things well, or when we treat creativity or an attempt at inventiveness as a design flaw, we’re sending the industry some problematic mixed messages. We demand innovation and invention, and then we crucify any attempts in that direction.”

I’m firmly entrenched on Alexander’s side. Without evolution and experimentation, videogames will just stagnate and developers will continue to iterate on tired themes. Sure, our industry is already guilty of this (let’s call it the “me-too” syndrome), which makes it all the more important to highlight titles that do new things. As much as I love good franchises, I’d like to see interesting new concepts and funky new mechanics in my games.

Another title that sparked debate about innovation in games was the critically acclaimed Braid, a platformer with narrative sophistication and clever puzzles that certainly twisted gamers’ expectations on their heads.

While it may be a stretch to call the game “revolutionary” as the core mechanics of the gameplay were fairly familiar (as a 2D platformer/puzzler), the wonderfully deep story and time-bending mechanic certainly brought new things to the proverbial table, and gamers of all persuasions were floored (in a good or a bad way) by how tight and in fact, poignant, the entire experience was.

An article about innovation in games would be remiss without a mention of Wii Fit, Nintendo’s enormously successful exercise game. With clever marketing and a truly original product, Nintendo was able to play up on the strengths of Wii Sports (fully immersive controls and simple, sporty gameplay) and make a full-flung fitness simulator. It’s rare in the videogame world in that it represents something truly new – and amazingly successful at that. Every soccer mom in America has one – or wants one.

Certainly, “fitness games” have existed before – remember Track and Field on the NES – with the power pad? But Wii Fit is the first mainstream, popular product that actually tracks results, uses legitimate exercise techniques (Yoga especially) and uses a sophisticated, accurate peripheral to make the magic happen. It’s innovative, all right – whether you think it’s a proper “game” or not.

The granddaddy of innovation in 2008 was surely LittlebigPlanet. Media Molecule’s grand experiment in democratizing game design by giving ordinary gamers the tools and the templates for creating their own levels and sharing them across the globe was – and continues to be – truly revolutionary. This is a title that will continue to make headlines well into the next year – and likely beyond.

Many other games made waves in 2008 – but so many of them fell in the footsteps of other great experiences. Left 4 Dead gets an honorable mention for what it does with online play and it’s damn near genius AI director, and PataPon and PixelJunk Eden both brought cool, interesting gameplay concepts and aesthetics to the mix.

Innovation is a crappy buzzword, after all. It should be a fairly common concept – one that all developers need to have respect for, even if their design philosophy doesn’t embrace it fully. With all art forms – and popular entertainment, there is a need to move things forward, to experiment with new ideas and new styles. Videogames are no different – and even if relatively few games can honestly be called innovative – we need to understand and appreciate their importance.

Read [Sexy VideogameLand] Read [gamertell]