Passage (video game)
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''Passage'' is a 2007 experimental
video game Video games, also known as computer games, are electronic games that involves interaction with a user interface or input device such as a joystick, controller, keyboard, or motion sensing device to generate visual feedback. This fee ...
developed by
Jason Rohrer Jason Rohrer (born November 14, 1977) is an American computer programmer, writer, musician, and game designer. He publishes most of his software into the public domain (Public domain software) and charges for commercial platform distributed ve ...
. Since its release it has become a significant entry in the burgeoning debate of
video games as an art form The concept of video games as a form of art is a commonly debated topic within the entertainment industry. Though video games have been afforded legal protection as creative works by the Supreme Court of the United States, the philosophical pr ...
. Rohrer himself has been an outspoken proponent of advancing the artistic integrity of the medium. In the game, the player spends five minutes experiencing a character's entire lifetime, with results that many commentators have described as emotionally powerful. Rohrer has described the title as a "
memento mori ''Memento mori'' (Latin for 'remember that you ave todie'side-scroller '' A side-scrolling video game (alternatively side-scroller), is a game viewed from a side-view camera angle where the screen follows the player as they move left or right. The jump from single-screen or flip-screen graphics to scrolling graphics ...
in which players control a male
avatar Avatar (, ; ), is a concept within Hinduism that in Sanskrit literally means "descent". It signifies the material appearance or incarnation of a powerful deity, goddess or spirit on Earth. The relative verb to "alight, to make one's appearanc ...
that can move from left to right as time progresses. There are no instructions. The environment is a two-dimensional maze with treasure chests scattered throughout, some in relatively hard to reach places. Points are earned for collecting these chests. After a short time, the player will encounter a female character who will marry the protagonist if touched; this choice, however, will increase the difficulty of navigating the maze, as the female will begin to accompany the player and restrict certain avenues of movement. In the beginning of the game the player is positioned near the left side of the screen, thereby limiting his ability to see backward (the environment to the left of the player), with a long and narrow expanse of environment available to the right. As the game progresses, the avatar's relative position on the screen gradually shifts to the right, with less visibility to the right and more visibility to the left. The speed of the player also slows as time progresses, and the representation of both the avatar and the wife visibly age. The lack of any victory conditions coupled with the inevitability of death have led some to question whether ''Passage'' is in fact a
game A game is a structured form of play (activity), play, usually undertaken for enjoyment, entertainment or fun, and sometimes used as an educational tool. Many games are also considered to be work (such as professional players of spectator s ...
at all, or whether the word "game" is a sufficient label for it.


Plot

The game is devoid of a traditional plot, instead allowing the player's choices to author an abstract representation of a life. The protagonist may choose to maximize his life as a treasure hunter by remaining alone, or choose to marry for companionship, which will last until his wife's eventual death. Regardless of the choices the player makes, the fixed length of the game and the aging of the protagonist ensures death for the player character as well.


Themes

''Passage'' was intended as an abstract metaphor for the human condition. Rohrer has stated that repeated playthroughs help emphasize the finite nature of the experience.


Development

''Passage'' was made for Kokoromi's Gamma 256 event, a curated show at the 2007
Montreal International Games Summit The Montreal International Games Summit (MIGS), also known as Le Sommet International du jeu de Montréal (SIJM), is a conference on Video game, video games. The first summit was held in 2004 and usually takes place in November at Le Palais des Co ...
. The size constraints for Gamma 256 led Rohrer to present the game in a blocky 100x16 pixel resolution. No entrants were allowed to exceed 256x256. Games were also limited to five minutes in length. Rohrer created all of the content, including the music, and the
pixel art Pixel art () is a form of digital art drawn with graphics software, graphical software where images are built using pixels as the only building block. It is widely associated with the low-resolution graphics from 8-bit and 16-bit era computers a ...
, which was made using the free software mtPaint. The final game was 2 megabytes large. The visual presentation of the main character is loosely based on Rohrer himself, with the female character modeled on his wife Lauren. Rohrer has stated that the themes of ''Passage'' were influenced by the death of an elderly neighbor, as well as his own changing life circumstances after starting a family of his own. In 2007 Rohrer released the game's
source code In computing, source code, or simply code, is any collection of code, with or without comments, written using a human-readable programming language, usually as plain text. The source code of a program is specially designed to facilitate the wo ...
and assets into the
public domain The public domain (PD) consists of all the creative work A creative work is a manifestation of creative effort including fine artwork (sculpture, paintings, drawing, sketching, performance art), dance, writing (literature), filmmaking, ...
, while asking for voluntary donations (
Donationware Donationware is a licensing model that supplies fully operational unrestricted software to the user and requests an optional donation be paid to the programmer or a third-party beneficiary (usually a non-profit). The amount of the donation may also ...
) and selling the game on the
iOS iOS (formerly iPhone OS) is a mobile operating system created and developed by Apple Inc. exclusively for its hardware. It is the operating system that powers many of the company's mobile devices, including the iPhone; the term also includes ...
appstore for $0.99.Passage
on itunes.apple.com


Exhibitions

At the 2007 Montreal International Games Summit, ''Passage'' was one of eight submitted entrants that were screened at Kokoromi's Gamma 256 show, a competition that asked designers to create a game in 70 days that used as low a
resolution Resolution(s) may refer to: Common meanings * Resolution (debate), the statement which is debated in policy debate * Resolution (law), a written motion adopted by a deliberative body * New Year's resolution, a commitment that an individual mak ...
and as unusual an aspect ratio as possible. In 2012, curator
Paola Antonelli Paola Antonelli (born 1963 in Sassari, Sardinia, Italy) is an Italian author, editor, architect, and curator. She is currently the Senior Curator of the Department of Architecture & Design as well as the Director of R&D at the Museum of Modern ...
of
New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...
's
Museum of Modern Art The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues. It plays a major role in developing and collecting modern art, and is often identified as one of ...
selected ''Passage'' as one of the first 14
video games Video games, also known as computer games, are electronic games that involves interaction with a user interface or input device such as a joystick, game controller, controller, computer keyboard, keyboard, or motion sensing device to gener ...
to be added to its permanent collection. In March 2013 the exhibition opened in the Philip Johnson Galleries.


References

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External links

*
Passage
'
Passage source codeplay it online
(3rd party port) *
Passage
' in MoMA's collection 2007 video games Indie video games Art games Windows games MacOS games Linux games Side-scrolling video games Single-player video games Video games developed in the United States Commercial video games with freely available source code Public-domain software with source code Freeware Open-source video games Video games about death Video games about old age