Fl0w: Game? not a game? in-between? Let me Break it Down for You

Fl0w Home Screen

“A game is a rule-based formal system with a variable and quantifiable outcome, where different outcomes are assigned different values, the player exerts effort in order to influence the outcome, the player feels attached to the outcome, and the consequences of the activity are optional and negotiable.” (Juul 2003)

Based on this statement, I feel as though if it were up to Juul, Fl0w would be a borderline case. But first, let me give you a little background on Fl0w; In Flow, the player guides a small, multi-segmented worm- or snake-like creature through an aquatic environment. There are no menus or guidelines; the game begins immediately. The ‘game’ world, which is viewed from a top-down perspective, consists of two-dimensional planes stacked vertically upon each other. A blurred version of the layer below appears in the background of each plane. Planes contain organisms of varying sizes; the player’s creature automatically attempts to consume them when they are nearby. The majority of these creatures are non-confrontational, and are composed of cells that increase the number of segments in the player’s creature when eaten. All planes, except for the highest and lowest, contain two specially colored organisms that move the player’s creature up or down one plane when touched.

Certain planes feature aggressive, multi-segmented creatures that perish when all of their segments are eaten by the player’s creature; however, they can eat segments of the player’s creature to regrow their own. These creatures release many cells upon death, which can restore the health of the player’s creature, temporarily increase the size of its mouth, or cause it to sprout decorative protrusions. Players are not required to eat these or any other organisms; they may travel to higher or lower planes at any time. Being defeated by aggressive creatures does not result in death, but causes the player’s creature to float to a higher plane. In the flash version, the player can replay the ‘game’ with a jellyfish-like organism by defeating an aggressive creature on the bottom plane. If the player reaches the bottom again, the creature there is their original worm-like creature, and defeating it starts the game over as that organism.

Here is a link to the gameplay: (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fYNyB_pcGWk)

A fl0w Enemy Creature in Action

Now, the reason why Fl0w would be placed as a borderline game is because it fits in some of the ‘game’ categories on the flow chart. Yes, the rules are fixed, but there are no negotiable consequences. You are just thrown into the game, learning the consequences as you go (I wouldn’t consider that negotiable). And what may be consequences for the stage 1 creature, may not be the same for the stage 4 or 5. There are also no real quantifiable outcomes. You can eat as many of the smaller organisms as you please and your tail will continue to grow and grow. Once you get down to the final stage, there is no point system that says you have the highest or lowest score. As a matter of a fact, you do not have to collect any of the organisms to make it to the final stage. You can just solely collect one of the specially colored ones (the red one) on each stage and you will have completed the mission of the creature. Value assigned to to possible outcomes, nah. Valorization of the outcome is in play because completing all stages and advancing as a different type of creature is much better than being stuck as the same one. But the player does invest effort in order to achieve a desired outcome. It takes a considerable amount of effort to navigate successfully through each stage. There is player attached outcome because, just like most ‘games’, you are happy once you have successfully completed the mission of the game. You are also pissed off if you keep trying to complete a level but one of the enemy organisms keeps attacking you.

In order to be considered a game (according to Juul), all these things must come in to play. Therefore, this would be considered a borderline game, and I couldn’t agree more. Katie Salen and Eric Zimmerman would also agree with Juul and I given that there is no quantifiable outcome. But when it all comes down to it, no one has a true definition of ‘Game’. There are many people that propose a game definition, but who’s to say that any of them are right or wrong. I personally think that it should be up to the person playing the game. How they feel when they play, what does that particular game do that other games don’t that makes them consider it a game or not. Something with a story is a game, something where the main player has humanistic characters is a game, and something with an object as the main character is not. Who knows.