I’ve recently fallen down a rabbit hole of fake video games. Not fake like fraud, but fake like art; games that don’t exist to play, but do exist to tell their stories. I’m super into it but finding more is kinda difficult, so here we are!

What fake games do you like? Why do you like them? Pictures, links, videos, whatever.

I really enjoyed Petscop (video 1/25 linked) and Valle Verde (video 1 linked, Spanish with subtitles), both series are let’s play style, exploring fake games to tell their stories. Petscop is much more narratively involved, and tells a great story (you’ll probably want an explainer video afterwards… it’s involved) while Valle Verde is more ghost-in-the-machine horror.

I found this rabbit hole through this video, from Super Eyepatch Wolf about fake video games, why they are made and how they “work” as an art form. Their content is weirdly enjoyable to me, and pleasingly entirely too long. Plus they have their own fake video game.

Edit for clarity: Fake video games is a super broad category. Pictures with gameplay hud that implies a video game, videos of gameplay or cutscenes styled after games count (even those weird live action “games” people record for TikTok count), books or stories that describe gameplay for games that don’t exist count, even soundtracks modeled after game sound tracks count. So if it’s a game or part of a game that doesn’t exist, it counts!

  • andros_rex@lemmy.world
    24·
    26 days ago

    The Giant’s Drink from Ender’s Game always seemed really compelling to me. The emergent gameplay reacted to your state of mind and serving as some sort of arcane test of your mind.

    • Pronell@lemmy.world
      13·
      26 days ago

      Ooh, good answer!

      Those books were so important to my teenage self. Such a shame Card himself is such a whackjob.

  • Apeman42@lemmy.worldEnglish
    15·
    25 days ago

    If Sugar Rush looked as good as it does in Wreck-It Ralph, I think it’d be a fantastic kart racer.

    Also Roy from Rick and Morty. Holy shit, a game that could compress time would be fucking insane, even as mundane as it is.

    • Apathy Tree@lemmy.dbzer0.comOPEnglish
      1·
      25 days ago

      Oh man yes actual time dilation as a core mechanic of the game sounds awesome. Disorienting as hell, but awesome.

      I bet a game like that could be used for therapy, too, like in a big way… let people live out where their life is headed, or the life of someone they’d target for hate crimes or whatever. Let them struggle. Maybe they’d come out wanting to make some changes. That’d be cool af. I’d totally playtest that. Repeatedly. And end up like time-frozen Jessica after she wakes up 😜

  • MagicShel@lemmy.zipEnglish
    12·
    25 days ago

    Greetings, Starfighter. You have been recruited by the Star League to defend the Frontier against Xur and the Ko-Dan Armada

    If only because I would love to be recruited into space for beating a video game.

    By far my favorite movie about a video game that doesn’t exist.

  • taiyang@lemmy.world
    10·
    25 days ago

    Aight, if there are no wrong answers I wanna mention a real old one I’ve had a soft spot for since childhood: The Dreamcast-like music video Californication by Red Hot Chili Peppers.

    There aren’t a ton of examples from pre-social media, I wonder if there are any others that people can think of that’re even older?

    Edit: Actually reading a few there are some from the 90s, like Simpsons. I forgot all about them, lol.

    • burntbacon@discuss.tchncs.de
      3·
      25 days ago

      Those have always been a weird thing to me. Like, yeah, I definitely enjoy simulating the fantasy life, but there’s something to the being life or death, and being stuck in it, that makes those actually work. If it wasn’t a forced thing, they’d just be generic and boring. The recent one, shangri-la frontier, kind of fails to engage me (I mean to say, I enjoy it, but verisimilitude is broken) simply because it’s so forward about the main character(s) having plot armor, and it partly has to be so forward about it because the characters aren’t stuck in the world, so there’s no explaining away things like sword art online did by having all the characters be ‘equal’ in terms of time played.

  • happysplinter@lemmy.world
    7·
    26 days ago

    Not a video game, but I’d love to play Cones of Dunshire from Parks and Rec. That and the video game that was in Big.

  • DaMummy@lemmy.world
    6·
    26 days ago

    Holy crap, I’m jealous of you for being able to get into something like that. I think I actually understand what you’re talking about, but I can’t even read a book without my mind wondering off.

    • Apathy Tree@lemmy.dbzer0.comOPEnglish
      6·
      26 days ago

      Oh man, I get into everything, especially if someone presents it to me with enthusiasm. I love learning about new stuff, and super bonus if it alters my perceptions or broadens my horizons :)

      • DaMummy@lemmy.world
        2·
        26 days ago

        Heh. Enthusiasm. I remember that one. Long time ago. These days, I’m just jaded and cynical.

  • Pronell@lemmy.world
    5·
    26 days ago

    I really liked the game from the movie Her, where you’re constantly being insulted by a little alien who is your guide.

    • palordrolap@fedia.io
      2·
      25 days ago

      There’s a version of the game out there that someone made after the fact (well after; we’re talking 2020), but I couldn’t get it to accept my commands. Not even the ones it suggests in the intro screen. I’d post a link, but it might be someone’s idea of a sick joke.