Thirty Flights of Loving

[ThunderPeel2001]

Yay, Steam updated the game with a Mac Version and I got to play it this morning! (There's no Big Blum Mode, alas I guess I'll never experience that backer benefit.)

I didn't understand a single thing that happened.

I guess I'm a spy? Then I betray my team? Then I rescue the team member I didn't sleep with? Then I sort of escape, but it gets abstract so it's probably a fantasy and really I got gunned down by the cops? And there's no actual spying that happens?

Who knows. It's a neat experiment in story-telling, but not much more than that.

[Vegas]

Yeah I thought this game was better at nailing down a vibe than an actual plot. Maybe I wasn't paying attention? I played it a couple times, once with the commentary, and all I got from it was "some shit goes down, isn't this cool." Still neat, but idunno. I hate it when plots are puzzles.

[Orv]

If anyone tells you they know what TFoL is about, they are lying. This includes Brandon Chung.

[tabacco]

Who knows. It's a neat experiment in story-telling, but not much more than that.

So I guess you didn't think it was a game? Your other posts about it left me a little unclear still.

[ThunderPeel2001]

So I guess you didn't think it was a game? Your other posts about it left me a little unclear still.

It isn't a game, and I don't think it even means to be.

[MrHoatzin]

Aw man, the mac version doesn't have a Goldbloom mode, boo.

[subbes]

mac users constantly slighted

[deptchargeeng]

I got this yesterday (the dev commentary and GB inclusion left me with no other option). What a wonderful little thing! I felt remarkably invested in the love interest. Maybe it's just the fact that I'm away from my girlfriend right now and especially sensitive to anything remotely soppy. The rooftop scene was just perfect though. I'm sure most people can relate to the experience of talking to somebody at just the right time as to change your lives. Also those little moments of happiness and ease that punctuate our lives are really what matter to us. I've never had that exact felling evoked for me by any medium other than literature before (I think Ian McEwan really writes around those perfect little moments and the darkness in his novels is really just a strongly contrasting background for them).

This! Even with the craziness of the game world and the boxy, simplistic-looking characters, that whole sequence felt incredibly "I've lived this before" familiar, from the way time starts speeding up the moment the dancing (and drinking) begin, to the goofy drunken stumble down the stairs, to the girl on the bed and (in my playthrough at least) me electing to subtly eat an orange to get rid of Abel's liqour breath before joining her on the bed . That dejavu feeling is something you don't get often in experiental games, even the very best ones. The editing, the music, and the pacing in both Thirty Flights and Gravity Bone have been so phenomenal. I know I'm late to the party, but I just bought the game today, and like Gravity Bone before it, Thirty Flights of Loving has blown me away(ign.com). It's really amazing what Brendon's done here. I don't think I'm anywhere close to piecing all the little threads of plot together, but I don't think that matters one bit. Just being in that world and spending some time as Citizen Abel is gift enough.

Keep up the awesome work Brendon (may I even call you Brendon?), we need more developers with this strong a sense of style and this amount of knowledge on how to apply it correctly and this solid a grasp of the medium they work in. I know it'll be very different, but I'm incredibly excited for quadtrilateral cowboy and whatever else may come out of Blendo Game's fun factory.

Wow, what a splooge-fest. It's so rare I'm this excited and impressed by a game, and I found this thread right after finishing it, so I guess this is my brain just spilling out a bunch of its excitement when I would normally think it to myself and just exclaim it to my computer a few times. Good stuff.

P.S. Remo, what a score. I've never heard you go all out on something and the tone and mood your soundtrack set, not to mention the general competence of production and uniqueness of sound, just...wow. As a film score buff who is repeatedly disappointed by or ambivalent to a lot of game soundtracks due to the dearth of artists allowed to go outside a few select genres, the fear of trying anything new or unsafe, the general lack of any diegetic music (beyond the occasional radio lying around playing one of the programmer's garage band on a 15-second loop), and a whole bunch of other things, I was hugely impressed. More music please. I think a huge amount of us would pay decent money if you made a digital EP, however small. I know as Idle Thumbs fans we can tend to just poop ourselves and drool all over whatever one of you guys are working on next, but purely as an amateur (really, really, really amateur) pianist and avid fan of film scores and music in general, I was really quite genuinely impressed. If the scorist was some dude I'd never heard of, he'd be getting the exact same words of praise I'm giving you. Seriously, hurrah on the job well done.

Edit: Wow, I'm so used to typing on my iThings, I've forgotten how to write quickly without autocorrect mopping up the mess. Spelling (but not grammar) fixed.

[brkl]

I tend to just forget it's Chris's score. It fits the game so well, I don't have the chance to even think "Hey, Chris did a great job with the music!" Instead I'm just in the zone.

[Chris]

P.S. Remo, what a score. I've never heard you go all out on something and the tone and mood your soundtrack set, not to mention the general competence of production and uniqueness of sound, just...wow. As a film score buff who is repeatedly disappointed by or ambivalent to a lot of game soundtracks due to the dearth of artists allowed to go outside a few select genres, the fear of trying anything new or unsafe, the general lack of any diegetic music (beyond the occasional radio lying around playing one of the programmer's garage band on a 15-second loop), and a whole bunch of other things, I was hugely impressed. More music please. I think a huge amount of us would pay decent money if you made a digital EP, however small. I know as Idle Thumbs fans we can tend to just poop ourselves and drool all over whatever one of you guys are working on next, but purely as an amateur (really, really, really amateur) pianist and avid fan of film scores and music in general, I was really quite genuinely impressed. If the scorist was some dude I'd never heard of, he'd be getting the exact same words of praise I'm giving you. Seriously, hurrah on the job well done.

Thanks so much! That means a lot.

[JonCole]

Turns out Thirty Flights was David Jaffe's GOTY, cool beans -

[SGP]

I didn't play this game until recently and it really blew me away. I fantasized a CD of this game in a jewel case being slapped across dearest Ebert's reconstructed face (or perhaps gently placed on his butter-stained lap) to show what can be done with interactive media.

I bought 4 copies on Steam to gift to my friends who play a few mainstream titles but have no idea what other games are out there. I can only hope that they take the time to play it, as I'm sure they will enjoy it as well.

[Colourful Stuff]

Who else is ranking Thirst Flights as a GotY? It sits so singularly in my mind. Playing it feels like a kind of milestone, hitting at just the right time for me, judging its enduring significance for others is difficult.

[brkl]

EDIT: Wrong thread.

[TychoCelchuuu]

This isn't the GOTY thread

But in the GOTY thread I did say that Thirty Flights of Loving was one of the games that I couldn't possibly fail to name GOTY which is why I can't choose just one. So yes, this game rocks.

[brkl]

Reading thread titles is too much to expect from me.

[Colourful Stuff]

I'm willing to proclaim high and low my love for Thirty Flights, don't pigeonhole my affection!

[tabacco]

I didn't play this game until recently and it really blew me away.

-- IGN.com

[ThunderPeel2001]

Aside from the fact that it's a (barely interactive) story, and not a game, I totally agree!

(Did I mention I don't believe this is a game?)

[Roderick]

It's an Experience^tm.

[Colourful Stuff]

Aside from the fact that it's a (barely interactive) story, and not a game, I totally agree!

(Did I mention I don't believe this is a game?)

It is a game if Brendan Chung says it is a game; Duchamp.

More seriously I don't really care whether or not it is a game, but I'd argue that it is because you can click on the geese (or not, if you like).

[tabacco]

Plus you can equip all those guns.

[Colourful Stuff]

That is true, many guns can be equipped or not equipped. Also Midnight Hobo can be consumed or not consumed. I give it three 'A's for interactivity.

[Upthrust]

If you can interrupt a narrative to have the protagonist eat oranges for five minutes, it's a game.

[Roderick]

We're forgetting the exquisitely interactive Orange Peels.