It would be grossly unfair to criticise the medium of video games as creatively narrow-minded, based purely on the blockbusters that dominate the charts.
To do so would be to turn a blind eye to the variation and spirit of experimentalism that thrive at the fringes of gaming culture beyond the realm of the cliche-riddled military shooter. Out there, indie studios push the boundaries of what a game can be and solo developers reimagine seasoned genre conventions.
It's also where many games are most accessible, as you can play for free in a normal web browser without the need to download anything, on almost any computer that can connect to the internet.
Take, for example, the enchanting, newly released piece of interactive fiction The Play by Deirdra Kiai. As the director of a play beset by misfortune, you must use a series of links to make sure a dress rehearsal over-run marred by disaster and personality clashes reaches its conclusion.
In a similar vein, narrative adventure The Binary by BloomEngine explores ideas of minimalism in storytelling and takes you on a journey through history as you strive to keep the passage of time on track. It is slick, cool and aloof in equal measure.
Finally, Rebuild 2 by Sarah Northway takes on more familiar gaming conventions and creates something original and vividly fun from the component parts. In mixing a city management strategy template with a zombie outbreak/survival theme, Rebuild 2 shows there's plenty of potential left in the eternally popular "god game" genre.
