Gish
Physically able tar saves the world!
By Russell D. Carroll [March 6, 2004]


As one of the return groups presenting at the IGF, I already know a little bit about Chronic Logic.  I met Josiah Pisciotta last year at the Independent Games Festival (IGF) when they were showing off their Audience winner Bridge Building Simulation Pontifex II. The games by Chronic Logic are some of the most recognizable in Independent games.  Each of their current titles has a heavy focus on physics.  Pontifex II made players bridge builders, who would create a bridge, and then send vehicles across it.  If you build a physically sound model, the cars make it, if not, you can watch from a first person perspective as the car drives into the river.  They also released a great puzzle game called Triptych that made you line up blocks, but only after smashing them into the ground and into each other.  Perhaps the most amazing thing about the company is their uncanny ability to put physics into a game and make the game much more intriguing and fun while doing so.

This year there are two games on tap from the brilliance at the studio, and Gish, is one of the finalists at the IGF.  Gish is a fantastic game, featuring a main hero that is a Tar blob.  This game may end up being my personal favorite from this year's batch of IGF finalists, and the movement of the character is a big reason why, as Josiah said, "I think the most innovative feature is the character movement, all of the characters including Gish are physically modeled, which creates a lot of gameplay possibilities."  Some of those possibilities are just amazing to see as Gish reacts like tar would over the different landscapes, sometimes oozing, sometimes sticking to objects and moving them over his body like a conveyor belt. 

I certainly love the game and could go on about it for hours, but you don't often have the chance to ask the developer what they think about the game. Putting Josiah on the spot, I asked him what he though people would appreciate in the game.  "Most people seem to appreciate seeing things they've never seen in a game before, also a game that focuses on gameplay instead of graphics," said Josiah.

Not to say that Gish skimps at all on the graphics, the adventure / platform presentation of the game is well-drawn.  Graphics of Independent games are routinely criticized.  However, with this year's games, there has certainly been an overall improvement in regards to the quality of the graphics of the finalist games at the IGF.  Some of this is definitely due to the the large budgets that were present in some of the games, notably Savage.  Considering that point, Josiah offered his definition of an independent game, "most people define independent games as anyone who isn't owned or funded by a publisher, but I believe that true independent games are ones that aren't dependent on large amounts of funding and eventual profits, and therefore willing to take a risk."

Risk-taking is certainly a big part of Indie game development.  There are really two types of risks that developers take, financial, and innovative.  However, there are other challenges that face indie developers, as Josiah noted, "Money is always a difficulty, but I think the biggest challenge is having the determination and discipline to actually finish a game."  Beyond those points, the whole industry of independent games is changing as mainstream gaming creates ever larger groups of people who are intrigued by independent games, and developers who want to take their own shot at making an indie. "I think there will be a bigger market for original games once more people realize there are alternatives to published games. Also a lot of the people who thought they could make a puzzle game and get rich will realize they were wrong," said Josiah.

Though Chronic Logic might not have gotten rich with their puzzle game, I think that Gish will be a great financial boon for them, which will hopefully keep their brilliant physics-related games coming out for a long time.  However, when I asked Josiah about the future he simply said, "the future is an abstract concept which humans are incapable of fully comprehending."  Hopefully that means that we cannot even imagine the wondrous games that await us from Chronic Logic.  Certainly Gish is a game that is difficult to fully comprehend without playing it, and it is a great experience for those who get a chance to play it.