PLAYED
WEATHER MACHINE
As dreary as Cleethorps in February
Designer: Vital Lacerda | Publisher: Eagle Gryphon Games
The reason games are said to be designed rather than composed, written or created is that they have an intrinsic utility. Magritte can paint The Son of Man with no thought as to whether the poor bloke can see with that apple in front of his face. Games are different, they are machines and machines must function to have value, therefore they’re designed. Good games though, not only have a machine that works but the user’s interaction with that machine is mediated by an interface. An interface that ameliorates the raw complexity of the machine and allows our limited cognition to manipulate it. Like a key that starts a car. Most people, when confronted with the naked componentry of an engine, will have no idea what to do. It’s the same with games, without a simplifying user interface most players will become bogged down in simply making the machine run rather than having fun with it. Games are not an engineering degree, so if this is true about the game, it fails. Weather Machine fails.