N is for nose, neighbors, and neck. Vectorpark
A lot has changed in the last 15 years. The web retired its drug rug, grew up, and got a job. Smartphones arrived, bringing new possibilities and priorities. Everyone became obsessed with making things smart and seamless and intuitive.
Like a monk on a mountain, Patrick Smith seems to have been oblivious to it all. At least that’s the impression you get looking at his work. The strange little interactive things Smith is making today aren’t much different from the strange little interactive things he was making in 2000, when he first started releasing Flash games under the name Vectorpark. And they’ve always felt a little bit… different. Smith’s enigmatic games never explain what they are, or how you’re supposed to play with them. They’re just there, crisp and flat, waiting to reveal themselves—but only if you make the effort.
To his small but enthusiastic band of fans, this exquisitely crafted weirdness is what makes every Vectorpark release a cause for celebration. And Smith’s latest work, an interactive alphabet for the iPad, is yet another welcome breath of fresh weird arriving in decidedly un-weird times.
An Interactive Alphabet Without Barnacles
The new app, out today for the iPad for $4, is called Metamorphabet. It’s an interactive alphabet where each letter transforms into other things that begin with that letter. The first one you get is a big, blocky A. Swipe at it, and it morphs into an arch. Give it another swipe, and it grows antlers. Swipe again and it starts ambling across the screen. (Arch, antlers, ambling—get it?)
F is for foot. Vectorpark
This might not sound incredibly exciting, and Smith is quick to admit that Metamorphabet is one of the more straightforward things he’s done. But as is always the case with his work, the magic is in the details. It’s how the arch jiggles when you touch it, or the way dragging the antlers to the side makes them creak and bend, sending the tiny blue birds alighted there scattering. It’s all the little touches that make each surreal tableau feel so convincingly alive.
Metamorphabet is probably Smith’s least game-like creation yet. Nonetheless, it’s up for the grand prize at next month’s Independent Game Festival. Generic though the concept may be,
Smith made the interactive alphabet that only he could make. Every transformation is both unexpected and perfectly fluid. Like a dream, it’s totally nonsensical, but it makes perfect sense. Getting everything just right took a few years, a process Smith refers to as “getting rid of the barnacles.”
No comments:
Post a Comment