Freeware Game Pick: Opera Omnia (increpare)
Increpare's games are usually pretty interesting, but Opera Omnia really impressed me. In this game you play a state historian who is charged by his politician friend to come up with convenient theories about migration in the past (of their people and "the others").
The gameplay may be a bit hard to "get" at first. Basically, you have to think backwards: if people were in this city during a plague, and if plagues reduce population, that means that they had to have had a lot of people in order to survive that plague: thus, plagues actually increase population if you work backwards in time.
The challenge of each level is that you're given something to prove -- such as prove that 300,000 people lived in this city a long time ago -- and you adjust migration patterns that will show how 300,000 people could have lived in that city a long time ago.
Again, it's hard to "get", and a lot of the people I've recommended the game to had a hard time wrapping their mind around the concept, but if you do manage to do it you'll find it a clever gameplay mechanic and some interesting challenges unlike most other games. There's also a pretty well-written story over the span of its 20 levels.
Comments
Love this.
Posted by: matias | February 28, 2009 1:28 AM
I remember seeing this on tigsource. I'll be sure to check it out one of these days.
Posted by: gunswordfist | February 28, 2009 3:13 AM
Increpare is a doing something quite important with his games. He doesn't put much work into usability/understandability, but his games are always worth the effort required.
Posted by: Benzido | February 28, 2009 5:22 AM
Wow, looks like we're having an increpare frenzy over here :)
Posted by: Michael Rose | February 28, 2009 6:41 AM
Next time someone asks about indie gaming doing interesting things, I'm linking to this instead of Jason Rohrer!
Posted by: Dom Camus | February 28, 2009 10:57 AM
I cannot for the life of me figure a way past Ch. 16.
Posted by: Ratoslov | February 28, 2009 11:13 AM
the guy is a racist/nazi and it clearly shows in his games
just look at some of his previous games or his rendition of luther kings speech
http://www.maths.tcd.ie/~icecube/2009/01/kristallnacht/
http://www.maths.tcd.ie/~icecube/page/5/
http://www.maths.tcd.ie/~icecube/2004/07/i-have-a-dream-2/
Posted by: dammskog | February 28, 2009 11:25 AM
For lvl 16:
All at Present:
Link one after the other Ofj'jdi - M'dres - Smo'rya - Neitos - Uneora.
And Smo'rya - Neutoe - Ca'ldus
Posted by: BigBossSNK | February 28, 2009 4:11 PM
I found lv 16 pretty simple, the real tricky one is lv 18.
I really don't think those three links are evidence that he's racist -- in fact if you play this game there are some pretty heavy anti-racist pro-tolerance messages (since you spend a lot of time working to unjustly reduce the political power of "the others").
Posted by: Paul Eres | February 28, 2009 4:13 PM
I've met Stephen in real life and he's one of the nicest chaps I've ever met.
Posted by: Alex May | March 1, 2009 12:10 AM
Yeah - it shouldn't even need to be said. "dammskog" is trolling.
Posted by: Terry | March 1, 2009 12:33 AM
I did think twice about even posting yeah :)
Posted by: Alex May | March 1, 2009 12:58 AM
Wow, that was a very haunting and disturbing game, especially Chapter 20, where you see how the historian's work was used to plan the usage of nuclear weapons / weaponized plague / intentional drought / whatever was used to artificially cause the famine. I wonder if the game was based on any particular real-world region, like Kosovo, Israel or Iran? I seriously hope that modern social sciences no longer work like this, and that we have today successfully marginalized those who say that certain cultures or races are superior.
Posted by: ssfsx17 | March 1, 2009 7:03 AM
The author really needs to get a mirror for this game. I just tried to download it and it stalls after about 30% of the game has been received.
Is there anywhere else I can get a copy of this game?
Posted by: Isxek | March 1, 2009 11:17 AM
http://www.mediafire.com/file/idcynwzdlz2/operaomniawin.zip
Posted by: Tim | March 1, 2009 2:01 PM
The game is incredibly interesting, but I think the play mechanics would have been a little easier to understand if the visuals were less abstract.
Posted by: Anonymous | March 1, 2009 9:18 PM
Thanks so much, Tim!
Posted by: Isxek | March 2, 2009 1:28 AM