OR: Last couple of questions. You mentioned that the games will be playable again next year. Next year is a leap year. Is there a game that will be set up for February 29th, 2020?
RI: I mean, that’s a very good question. Let’s just say that a few [days] before Meditations came out, I did a tweet lamenting the existence of leap years, because they are really hard to program around. That’s all I’m going to say about that. Like the rest of Meditations, I want those things to be questions, not answers.
Adriel Wallick (with assets from distillerystudio and grunz) created the Meditations game for January 2nd (above), and Mattias Ditto Dittrich created the Meditations title for January 7th (below).
In January 2nd’s game, the player has to repeatedly click to enlarge the circle to fill out the circular frame. As the player clicks, the color changes from green to a dark brown/red. If the color completely changes, a ‘dong’ sound occurs and the orb shrinks back down and you’re unable to make it grow again. If you fill out the circle entirely, the game is completed.
For January 7th’s title, it is a bit different. As the purple circle/gray square bounces back and forth across the screen, the line in the middle grows larger each time the small object intersects with it. The mouse cursor can be pressed anywhere within the game to help direct the purple circle/grey square in a particular direction. When the line is long enough, the game automatically ends.
OR: Finally, to those people who are seeing Meditations for the first time and are thinking about starting it up, what do you have to say to them?
RI: Make it something that is theirs.
This is – every Meditation is a small moment of thought about how somebody else’s life relates to your life. A moment of empathy for a person, a moment of consideration. It’s not something you have to do every day, it’s not something that must be a part of your day. And if you miss a game, it’s not a crime, you didn’t fail anybody. It’s not upsetting. This is your thing. I would hate for you to think that Meditations is prescriptive. I would invite you to see it as something that is yours. That you choose to do this, you choose to participate in this ritual. And if you choose to do this once a week, that is fine too. If you decide to do it once a month, play one game a month, that’s fine too. If you just really want to play this one game for today, then that’s fine too.
But don’t see Meditations as a structure that is solid.
If you decide to participate, it’s your thing. And if you decide to make this ritual a daily ritual, it’s your thing as well. If you decide to participate and you enjoy one of the games, if you enjoy what it is and you would like to thank the creator, that will be super awesome, and I think a lot of the creators have been very thankful for a lot of the responses they’ve gotten.
A lot of the creators have obviously put a lot of themselves in these games, and knowing that there are people having this conversation about this topic that is dear to them through their game would mean a lot to them. So please do reach out to those developers. Please do follow them on Twitter or whatever they linked in their credits. And go have these little conversations either with the game or the creator.
Make it your own thing.
OR: Thank you.
The Meditations game images used herein were taken by me, but you can check out the individual Meditations developers at the links included beneath each image set. You can also check out a partial list of all the developers in the project here. The Meditations logo is owned by Rami Ismail.
You can download the Meditations launcher for Windows and OSX platforms for free on Meditations’ official website.
What do you think Rami Ismail has planned (if anything) for February 29th, 2020 when Meditations repeats? What would you put in your own Meditations game?
Let us know in the comments below!
