Games that mash genres and mediums

At Playlogue, we collectively love: books, comics, anime, movies, theatre, photography, graphic design, typography. And, of course, games.

Our varied interests have often been valuable resources when contributing ideas for campaigns and game design. And there is nothing quite as exciting for us as seeing a game that incorporates different art forms and media to create something new and special.

Such works push us to think deeper about creating unique game experiences and we’ve collected some that have kept us talking in the last few months. We share them with you and hope they may inspire you in your own creative endeavours.

War for Rayuba—battling through comics

Heard of an Original Character Tournament? It’s a competition in which an artist submits a character they have created to combat with another artist’s creation. Typically, the medium of choice is comics, as in War for Rayuba.

In the tournament held earlier this year, hundreds of artists submitted character entries, featuring everything from a multi-armed bug to a Tarot-wielding spell caster.

Here’s how a battle works: You draw a comic showing just how your character beats your opponent’s, using whatever abilities you have devised. Your opponent does likewise. The winning comic is determined based on the criteria of entertainment and craftsmanship.

In trying to create well-drawn and well-conceived works, artists found they were pushed to produce pages of comics they might not have otherwise created.

For more on this tournament, check out this video by People Make Games.

Alice is Missing—texting to solve a mystery

This game has received much hype, even appearing on the news site Vox, and for good reason. It’s unique approach to tabletop RPGs sees players using text messages to interact as characters and to move the story forward.

Alice is Missing revolves around the disappearance of Alice Briarwood in the town of Silent Falls. Each player picks a character, coming up with a background that explains their relationship to Alice and a secret voicemail they had left her before she disappeared.

Players then put their heads together to solve the mystery of Alice’s disappearance, along with some help from prompt cards. Like other tabletop RPGS, the appeal is being able to shape an open narrative. Unlike other RPGs, though, you can play this silently. The words you exchange are isolated to chat boxes.

For more on this game, including an official soundtrack that acts as a timekeeper, go here.

Sara is Missing—“found phone” intrigues

What’s with all these mystery games that have titles revolving around missing women? Beats us. It’s something all of us laughed about, though, while compiling this list of games. 

Sara is Missing, unlike Alice is Missing, is in the “found phone” genre of games whose mechanics mimic a mobile phone interface and require you to go through the contents of a character’s phone.

Sara just happens to be a paranormal researcher. As you look through her messages, emails and photos for clues to her disappearance, you are aided by an AI. You know, like Siri?

With its many touchstones that would be familiar to anyone who has used a mobile phone, the gameplay is intuitive and immersive. Which makes its creepy and voyeuristic undertones all the more pronounced. 

Bonus: If horror makes you squeamish, A Normal Lost Phone, originally developed during a game jam, is a narrative-driven “found phone” game about queerness. The painterly illustrations and chill indie music make this quite a relaxing puzzle game.

Wait for Me—journaling through time

This is another RPG that caught our attention. It’s one for the introspective player.

Following the Wait for Me game book, you will imagine yourself visiting your younger self and writing notes to them in a journal. Revisiting various highlights and tribulations in your life, you get to imagine alternative futures or simply come away with a better appreciation of the decisions that made you who you are today.

The game mechanics are deceptively simple, including word counts that force you to be conscious of the message you would most like to transmit to your younger self in the limited window you are given to the past.

You will also find yourself sticking receipts or other items with dates from the present to convince your past self that you are from the future. How awesome is that?

Yakuza—fight with fists and wits

Gangsters take center stage in Yakuza, a video game series that features a retired gang member trying to navigate life while his difficult past constantly threatens  to drag him back into a criminal underworld. 

This classic beat ‘em up game takes players on an exciting journey through the realistically rendered streets of Kamurocho and Osaka, battling thugs, criminals, and more.  At the same time, this game is also known for its unique blend of different genres, from incorporating traditional tabletop games such as shogi, chess, and mahjong, to classic sports like golfing or darts. 

All these different game mediums are incorporated into the story to provide players a well-rounded experience of life in the city, expanding on the game’s worldbuilding while allowing players to experience something new each time they play.