Two types of games (probably more though ;)

#1

Hello,
I’ve been looking at a lot of gmless one-pagers, and I can see different sorts :

  • games where you set character projects and frame scenes to confront them.
    There’s more improv in them. I think that comes from the “american freeform” movement ?

  • games where a mini-game serves both as a relaxation from creative effort and as a resolution mechanic, with narrative elements going in and out, mixed or altered. Simple narrative processors, like a over/under roll, or more complex, like a pbta Move.

  • games with an oracle, the heart of most solo games.

I don’t mean to be exhaustive, divisive or anything. I just would like to follow up on this observation : which theories touch upon these differences and how ?

#2

Hey DeReel,

Can you give one or two examples for the first two type of games in the list? One Page Solo Engine would seem to fit the last one and the second one.

#3

For the first type, things like
King is dead https://bullypulpitgames.com/games/free-games/free-game-downloads/ (not technically 1 page, but short enough)
Maybe Follow his shoe
https://meaton124.itch.io/follow-his-shoe

For the second type,
Lasers and Feelings for instance http://www.onesevendesign.com/laserfeelings/

The solo engine is clearly 3.

2 is largely dominant.

It’s hard to explain what I mean with the 1 I guess, and it’s rarer, so I have trouble finding them again. Picture this : the game creates a bubble structure, and players are free within each bubble scene. Like For the Queen or Fall of magic. Only in 1 page. Sometimes they have a resoultion mechanic for the whole story, or to acknowledge how each scene went, or to mitigate PvP. But the scenes are the heart of the game.

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