Jason Rohrer’s art games

Topic: Jason Rohrer’s art games

Student name: Mak Hoi Ying

Student number:60174231

https://th.bing.com/th/id/R.b188f936411f872b22767eec94bb6914?rik=mR6WXdvsrJmePA&riu=http%3a%2f%2fridge-edc-s3-new.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com%2fwp-content%2fuploads%2f2023%2f09%2f12210418%2f154f72b18d36e3.jpg&ehk=qlwUW6UzEwiHc%2b72aFtgF9dO20zmSqH8pPsVy1x7354%3d&risl=&pid=ImgRaw&r=0

Jason Rohrer is an American independent game designer born in 1977, best known for creating “art games.” His works, such as Passage and Gravitation, use simple interactive mechanics to explore themes of life, death, and emotion.

Passage

In Passage, I witnessed the main character meeting a partner and walking through life together. Over time, their appearances changed—one grew white hair, the other became bald. Later, the partner passed away, leaving the character to continue alone until he eventually died as well. This experience made me feel the fragility of life and the value of companionship. As art, the game does not rely on player choice to create meaning; instead, it uses the inevitability of aging and death to symbolize life itself. The lack of choice becomes the design’s strength, turning inevitability into a poetic metaphor. The player’s role is not to alter the outcome but to experience and reflect on time, loss, and companionship.

One Hour One Life

https://cdn.akamai.steamstatic.com/steam/apps/595690/capsule_616x353.jpg?t=1632317872

When I played One Hour One Life, I started as a baby dependent on my mother, gradually grew up, learned to gather food, craft tools, and help build a village. Within just one hour, I experienced birth, growth, cooperation, aging, and eventually death. This design made me feel the limits of life and realize how even small actions can affect the whole community. As art, the game is not just about survival but turns “one life per hour” into a form of performance art: death is inevitable, but cooperation leaves traces, allowing civilization to continue. It made me reflect on the relationship between the individual and the collective, with cooperation becoming the central theme of the work.

Gravitation

https://hcsoftware.sourceforge.net/gravitation/screen.png

In Gravitation, the character jumped higher and the world looked brighter when inspired, but moved slowly and the world darkened when depressed. Collecting stars to feed the hearth symbolized creative energy. As art, it uses simple mechanics to show inspiration and decline, turning emotions into visible form.

https://worldarchitecture.org/cdnimgfiles/extuploadb/2016gameworldsjasonrohrer.jpg

After playing these games, the three that impressed me most are Passage, One Hour One Life, and Gravitation. In Passage, I witnessed the character and partner grow old and eventually die, which made me feel the value of companionship and reflect on the inevitability of life. In One Hour One Life, I lived a whole life in just one hour, from baby to elder, and realized through cooperation in building a village that individual actions shape the community, turning the game into an allegory of civilization. In Gravitation, I experienced emotional highs and lows, where the hearth’s fire symbolized creative energy and the world’s brightness or darkness reflected inspiration and decline, making me think about the instability of creativity. Taken together, these three games show how Rohrer uses games as an artistic medium to explore personal life, collective civilization, and the emotions of creation.