Alien Garden
Encyclopedia
Alien Garden was one of the first non-game
"software toys" released. It was designed in 1982 by Bernie DeKoven
and programmed by virtual reality
pioneer, Jaron Lanier
, and it was designed with an emphasis on the need for experimentation.
Gameplay consists of a side-scrolling world covered in 24 different kinds of crystalline flowers resembling gypsum flowers. The player controls an embryo
nic animal as it grows, survives and reproduces through 20 generations. Difficulty is introduced through the lack of instructions in the game. As such, the player must employ trial and error techniques to determine which flowers are edible, which flowers shrink or grow when you sting them, and which flowers are fatal or explosive when touched. The player may use either the organism's tail, stinger, or wings to bump or otherwise make contact with them. To maintain the challenge, the behaviour of the flowers changes every time you start the game. To increase the challenge, the score is repeated all along the left and right sides of the scrolling screen. As the score increases, the animal avatar is forced to travel more and more closely to the sometimes deadly crystal flowers.
With a heavy emphasis on the artistic aspects of computer-generated simulation, Alien Garden was described by its creators as an art game
. At a time when the art game genre had not yet been recognized as even emergent, Alien Garden ranks among the very earliest art games. Indeed its release predates Lanier's more famous art game, Moondust
(often characterized as the first true art game), by a year.
Non-game
Non-games define a class of software that lies on the border between video games, toys and applications. The original term non-game game was coined by Nintendo president Satoru Iwata. The main difference between non-games and traditional video games is the apparent lack of goals, objectives and...
"software toys" released. It was designed in 1982 by Bernie DeKoven
Bernie DeKoven
Bernard Louis "Bernie" De Koven is an American game designer, author, lecturer and fun theorist. He is most notable for his book The Well Played Game, for his contributions to the New Games Foundation, his pioneering work in computer game design, and for his long-running web site, .-Career:In...
and programmed by virtual reality
Virtual reality
Virtual reality , also known as virtuality, is a term that applies to computer-simulated environments that can simulate physical presence in places in the real world, as well as in imaginary worlds...
pioneer, Jaron Lanier
Jaron Lanier
Jaron Zepel Lanier is an American computer scientist, best known for popularizing the term virtual reality .A pioneer in the field of VR, Lanier and Thomas G. Zimmerman left Atari in 1985 to found VPL Research, Inc., the first company to sell VR goggles and gloves...
, and it was designed with an emphasis on the need for experimentation.
Gameplay consists of a side-scrolling world covered in 24 different kinds of crystalline flowers resembling gypsum flowers. The player controls an embryo
Embryo
An embryo is a multicellular diploid eukaryote in its earliest stage of development, from the time of first cell division until birth, hatching, or germination...
nic animal as it grows, survives and reproduces through 20 generations. Difficulty is introduced through the lack of instructions in the game. As such, the player must employ trial and error techniques to determine which flowers are edible, which flowers shrink or grow when you sting them, and which flowers are fatal or explosive when touched. The player may use either the organism's tail, stinger, or wings to bump or otherwise make contact with them. To maintain the challenge, the behaviour of the flowers changes every time you start the game. To increase the challenge, the score is repeated all along the left and right sides of the scrolling screen. As the score increases, the animal avatar is forced to travel more and more closely to the sometimes deadly crystal flowers.
With a heavy emphasis on the artistic aspects of computer-generated simulation, Alien Garden was described by its creators as an art game
Art game
An art game or arthouse game is a video game that is designed in such a way as to emphasize art or whose structure is intended to produce some kind of reaction in its audience. Art games typically go out of their way to have a unique, unconventional look, often standing out for aesthetic beauty or...
. At a time when the art game genre had not yet been recognized as even emergent, Alien Garden ranks among the very earliest art games. Indeed its release predates Lanier's more famous art game, Moondust
Moondust (video game)
Moondust is a 1983 generative music video game created for the Commodore 64 by virtual reality pioneer, Jaron Lanier. Moondust was programmed in 6502 assembly in 1982, and is widely considered the first art video game.-Summary:...
(often characterized as the first true art game), by a year.