Passage is a lifetime in five minutes
by Scott Jon Siegel 
{ Dec 11th 2007 at 11:30PM }
With these constraints, Jason Rohrer designed Passage, a tiny game that has been making tiny waves in our tiny community.
There's not much to say about Passage. The game is available for Mac, PC, and Linux, and lasts exactly five minutes. In short, there's no excuse not to play it.
[Via Raph Koster]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Mark @ Dec 11th 2007 11:38PM
Since when did Joystiq start reporting on neat little indie games? Not that I'm complaining.
After you play through Passage once, you'll be confused. At that point, go read the author's explanation on his website, and then play it a few more times. It's actually really interesting and kind of sad, too. Give it a try.
Yeef @ Dec 12th 2007 1:47AM
Joystiq seems to just lurk on NeoGAF, wait a few hours, then post the 'breaking news' they found there.
RDX @ Dec 11th 2007 11:44PM
It's the music that sets the mood. If not for it, I don't think people would react that much.
packersrock15 @ Dec 11th 2007 11:50PM
WTF?! Everytime I try and open it, it just minimizes itself.
samfish @ Dec 11th 2007 11:53PM
Kind of fitting that that was 5 minutes of my life that I'll never get back.
Gavin @ Dec 12th 2007 12:26AM
Walking right while an Atari styled pair of people grow old doesn't do a damn thing for me either. I could care less what people are reading into this...it is just dull. The "Video Game As Art" crowd needs to get laid in real life, then they'll see stuff like this for what it is: trivial fluff.
Erratics @ Dec 12th 2007 4:55AM
The game does not just go right. It's "infinite" (i.e. has places you can never get to). You just missed all of the fun in life; kind of like how you missed all the fun in that game.
It's cute actually.
[and the game is fun and interesting, but it aint THAT deep]
Sensai @ Dec 11th 2007 11:56PM
Not much to say about Passage? Then you have no idea what in the hell you're talking about. An incredibly INCREDIBLY deep piece of art that should be played by everyone.
Anyways, I played a long while ago when it came up on Kotaku.
teenagertc @ Dec 12th 2007 12:00AM
Do I sense a hint of pretention? I don't want to sound like Robert Ebert, but it was a five minute game...And we are all glad to hear that you know about other gaming sites...please leave your name and address so you can get your prize for being the first to play it on Kotaku and mention it on Joystiq.
teenagertc @ Dec 12th 2007 12:00AM
*Roger
Shignami @ Dec 12th 2007 1:54AM
I thought so too, I played through it a couple times and it tugged at my heart a bit.
Theres a lot of things to think about here, like how the progression through time never stops, how you can easily miss the depth of your little world on your path that you choose, how most of the treasure is just moths, (i think all of you don't get the girl)
Theres a lot more than a 5 minute Atari grade game here.
colin @ Dec 12th 2007 2:30AM
teenagertc,
is your avatar from are you afraid of the dark?
if so, you = winner
teenagertc @ Dec 12th 2007 8:20PM
No, it is Chris Turk from the TV show , "Scrubs".
Tiger of PTS @ Dec 12th 2007 12:21AM
That was crazy.
Man.
geeky @ Dec 12th 2007 12:28AM
I like it.
Thats all.
aDub @ Dec 12th 2007 3:19AM
I enjoyed my first play through of Passage - definitely wait to read what Jason Rohrer wrote explaining the game until after you give it a shot yourself. I am going to it again right now.
colin @ Dec 12th 2007 2:48AM
where can i find this?
Cheezeman3000 @ Dec 12th 2007 12:59AM
Anyone who says this game is worthless really isn't mature enough to understand the concepts it portrays. I got chills the first time I completed it.
corey @ Dec 12th 2007 1:39AM
That really affected me. I don't want to ruin anything, but the most moving part for me was, towards the end, I looked back and saw that the right side of screen looked like the left side of the screen at the beginning of the game. I was embarrassed that I had been so focused on moving forward that I didn't notice this until the very end. Great little allegory
Ed @ Dec 12th 2007 1:14AM
That was the most depressing five minutes of my life. Thanks for ruining my day joystiq.
Billy @ Dec 12th 2007 1:39AM
How the fuck do you quit out? Alt-F4 and escape key both failed. I had to control alt delete that shit.
PS: I agree with most people that this is stupid. Wow, look it's so deep, oh my god they grow old and die ooohh..... whatever :P Yuo guys are lame.
Eto @ Dec 12th 2007 2:46AM
Hit 'F'.
ColossalHat @ Dec 12th 2007 2:13AM
The only thing I like about this game is the nostalgia it gives me. It reminds me of a ton of old atari and commodore 64 games. You know, back in the day when all you needed were a couple bucks, a basic knowledge of coding, and an idea to get a game published.
The game I miss most....Caveman Ugh-lympics.
Booxatron @ Dec 12th 2007 11:55AM
Caveman Ugh-lympics! God that brings back memories! I'm pretty sure I still have the 5-1/4 floppys for that game buried somewhere, I'll have to dig those up.
Josh @ Dec 12th 2007 2:28AM
Content aside, I feel this hardly qualifies as a game. Holding the right arrow down isn't exactly playing.
Tiger of PTS @ Dec 12th 2007 2:34AM
"Content aside, I feel this hardly qualifies as a game. Holding the right arrow down isn't exactly playing."
That's exactly the point, my friend.
That's exactly the point.
JodyAnthony (Good Eats Defense Force) @ Dec 12th 2007 8:28AM
you can go down.
colin @ Dec 12th 2007 2:46AM
i agree, this is not so much a "game", but the artistic value of this is greater than any "game" you have played this year ...
the brilliance:
early on, you aren't sure that your character is changing and you walk backwards a while to see if you can go back and notice the change. nothing happens, you stay the same.
when your girl dies, and you try to go backwards to see it again, she stays dead.
you are powerless against change. just an observer, passing by. no matter how hard you try to step back, you can't.
... plus more
this is pretty powerful in its symbolism. if you don't think so, you will understand later.
Ghen @ Dec 12th 2007 9:21AM
but its still not a game.
eMag @ Dec 12th 2007 10:02AM
Neither is Final Fantasy VII.
tlozwarlock @ Dec 12th 2007 3:30AM
I modified the gameart so that the tombstones looked like lollipops.
And for those of you remarking that going right doesn't make a game...try pressing down.
Inigo Montoya @ Dec 12th 2007 1:12PM
I think you have touched on half the problem. I originally tried pressing up, and nothing happened, so I thought I could only go left and right. All I did was go left and right, then I hear talk about treasure, I'm like huh?
My only issue with it, is that having the girl only made it more difficult to navigate the obstacles. This just ruins the mood of the thing for me, but it could easily be offset if things were tweaked so she could make it easier to navigate obstacles in a different way, or made it so that the treasures you did get to were more likely to be good ones.
As it is now, she's basically just dead weight.
tlozwarlock @ Dec 12th 2007 1:41PM
Go down immediately at the start of the game and then start traveling right. You won't meet the girl, thus you can navigate and explore faster/easier. There is a plethora of choice in this 400k game.
ThornedVenom @ Dec 12th 2007 3:41AM
Low-budget game maybe, but excellent art nonetheless.
It's so simple, but it really makes you think about it. Colin's comment was dead on.
colin @ Dec 12th 2007 4:54AM
Thanks!
colin @ Dec 12th 2007 5:39AM
wow, i just realized that you can go down. but if you go down, you start getting preoccupied with snagging treasure. your points go up, but you die alone. and some of the treasure is just a bunch of flies.
also of note, in the beginning, the future is a blur, later on, your past becomes the blur.
if you just walk straight across, you make it to the end, if you go treasure hunting, you don't. you die in the middle of the screen.
and also your character walks slower after your partner dies.
man, i wish i had a class that i could discuss this in. this is a lot deeper than i initially thought.
Kn1ves @ Dec 12th 2007 5:27AM
Uhm.. that took way longer than 5 minutes, I was exploring.
Kn1ves @ Dec 12th 2007 5:30AM
863 was my final score
Princess Skittles @ Dec 12th 2007 8:18AM
This is the best example of "Video Games as Art" I have seen in a very long time.
To all the people out there complaining about this being shit and then jumping into another game of Call of Duty 7 (or whatever they're up to now), you're the reason video games, after over twenty years of evolution, still have trouble being taken as anything more than a nerdy pastime for thirteen year old social deprived boys. I applaud you for your efforts to keep the stereotype alive. Enjoy your murder games.
JodyAnthony (Good Eats Defense Force) @ Dec 12th 2007 8:29AM
+1
samfish @ Dec 12th 2007 9:29AM
I understood exactly what it was trying to convey on my first play through and still thought it was lame.
We're really not exactly talking about deep, un-thought of symbolism here. Really surprises me how many people are claiming to be deeply moved by this. I had a eureka moment when I realized what exactly was going on, but was I MOVED by this?
Hell no. If you pay even the slightest bit of attention to the art world, you've seen this purpose before.
Maybe I'm just jaded.
That said, it's miles beyond anything on the Wii, PS3 or 360 in terms of intellectual motivation...which is just sad.
Am @ Dec 12th 2007 1:39PM
So people live, love and die. Great symbolism? Sorry. Not.
Mr Slavio @ Dec 12th 2007 1:54PM
Ico was better.
Kooper113 @ Dec 12th 2007 8:03PM
Something I thought was very interesting was the fact that the girl will give you more points, but she becomes an obsticle to getting treasures or going a certain path...
Think about it, if you get a girlfriend/wife you instantly close yourself to some options in life, some things you will never obtain because they are with you. This is reflected in the game.
Amazing.