a landscape painting I played

Anyone who says games aren’t art can shut up right now, because I just played an impressionist landscape painting.

It’s called Proteus. I think I probably got it in one Humble Bundle or another; it was just sitting in my Steam library when I decided to futz around while doing my laundry. The initial start was rocky – I encountered a bug where it takes several minutes to boot, with no loading screen – but once I got past that, it was magical.

I wandered around chasing frogs and scaring chickens. I stood on a lonely mountaintop surrounded by what might have been gods. I listened to the music made by passing standing stones in sequence, which was a part of the slowly-changing symphony of the world. I sat under a tree just beneath the cloudline, watching a shower of rain pass by.

At times I began to feel a little lonely. I could have enjoyed a companion, who wandered around with their own agenda. Someone to throw a ball back and forth with, to chase across the terrain. Maybe a friendly fox who comes and goes as she pleases? That would feel about right, to me.

But the loneliness passed, and I was swept away by the low-res beauty of this little toy world in motion.

I didn’t decide to take screenshots until late in my session, and Proteus has a way of very decidedly letting you know that you have finished your viewing for the day.

I stood before a magic picture, and wandered through the serene world it showed for about an hour. Why is this not a genre of game? Landscape painting. Hell, get something like this running on a Raspberry Pi, put it on a flat-screen, and hang it from the wall.

It cost me like $10. Even if I never play it again I think it was well worth it. People who make games, I urge you: Learn from this. Clone it. Turn it into a genre.