It’s not uncommon for games to have a visual style which is not directly related to their gameplay. In these three games, instead, graphics and gameplay entangles to create beautiful, aesthetic driven experiences.

Memory of a Broken Dimension | Ezra Hanson-White | itch.io | website | steam

If there’s a game which is pushing the concept of aesthetic to the limit, that’s for sure Memory of a Broken Dimension. The game seems coming out of a corrupted VHS tape, with compression artefacts are all around you. So much effort has been channel into the making of this game that it’s not hard to understand why it was one of the IGF finalists for Excellence in Visual Arts. On top of that, Memory of a Broken Dimension cleverly mixes 3D environments with DOS-like shells. While at GDC, I met Ezra and player the game for few minutes. It’s not just visually stunning: it’s also very innovative. Part of the game plays on the concept of perspective. Is hard to tell more about Memory of a Broken Dimension because not much has been revealed. While waiting for the game to come out, you can play a prototype version on itch.io.

Beyond Eyes is an intriguing game developed by Sherida under the name of Tiger & Squid. Which I guess explains why she’s wearing a tiger hat in her Twitter picture. The world of Beyond Eyes unfolds in front of Rae, a blind girl who’s wandering in an endless, white canvas. The most intriguing aspect of the game is surely it’s aesthetic. The game is a feast of shaders, where everything around Rae appears like ink on a water paint. I think the choice to associate blindness with white, rather than black, will really change the players’ perception of Rae’s disability.

Feist | Bits & Beasts | twitter | website

I know what you’re going to say: Feist looks dangerously similar to LIMBO. Yes, there are some very strong similarities… but to be perfectly honest Feist was one of IGF finalists in the Excellence in Visual Art in 2009. The year before LIMBO came out. Feist has been in development for a very long time, and that’s sort of understandable given the fact that there are only two guys in Bits & Beasts. Even if its aesthetic doesn’t look that new nowadays, the game seems very solid.