There are times when I wonder if games really deserve all that "games are art clamor. But I've been temporarily cured.

http://www.experimentalgameplay.com/game.php?112375

This game is what it is like to play a jazz solo. I don't mean it reminds of it or there is a loose connection, its a interactive graphical representation of a jazz solo, specifically in the style of John Coltrane.

You have to find connections by way of color or shape, creating a "line," which can be jazz lingo to describe a string of notes a soloist creates. Finding the common colors or shapes as you move about represents how one must find common and passing tones between chord changes. The way the shapes recede up out of the screen represents how the soloist must play these notes and make these lines all in consideration of time.

If you start making alot of short patterns or not playing at all, your meter runs out, like in a jam session you sit down if you don't play well. And if your rocking out, the meter fills, you keep playing. The way you flirt with the edge of the screen chasing down a pattern is like how you try to play notes that don't quite fit in the beat.

The pairing of this games structure with Coltrane's "Impressions" is flawless. The quick tempo and scroll rate of shapes encourages abstract playing and melodies on Coltrane's part and strange zigzags on the part of the gamer.

As a struggling jazzer, I feel that this thing encapsulates the process and perfomance of jazz.

This game needs to be reviewed.

This post was nigh-incomprehensible, I had to get these thoughts down before I went to bed. Sorry, world.

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