The game you most associate with Terry Cavanagh probably depends on your age. For me, it’s Super Hexagon. Why? Mostly because it came out my last year in college and provided an excellent alternative to working on the things I was supposed to be working on. To this day, I can’t think of the game without imagining my college library, because that’s largely where I played it as a “break” from studying that often went longer than the studying itself.
Perhaps you’re more familiar with Dicey Dungeons, though. Or, for the real connoisseurs, the nigh unpronounceable VVVVVV. If you haven’t played any of these three Cavanagh games yet, I have good news for you: Your reading journey has come to an end. You should play at least one, if not all three, of those great games. Then, perhaps, Terry’s Other Games will be for you. Depending on your taste in annotated bibliographies.
Terry’s Other Games presents an anthology of ideas, each somewhere between fully and half-baked. Each is accompanied by a bit of text from Cavanagh explaining some facet of what he was going for with the game at the time. All of what is presented here has been offered up for free at some point by Cavanagh, either on his website or as part of a game jam. The package is an effort at preservation (some of those versions no longer run on modern hardware), but what I took away from it as a player was something more akin to reading George Saunders’ A Swim in a Pond in the Rain.
The full title of A Swim in a Pond in the Rain is in fact A Swim in a Pond in the Rain: In Which Four Russians Give a Master Class on Writing, Reading, and Life. For those who haven’t had the pleasure, the entire book is George Saunders, one of our preeminent living American humorists (at least to my mind), talking through his thoughts on writing by explaining why he loves four particular stories by Chekhov, Turgenev, Tolstoy, and Gogol. You, as reader, read these four stories as part of reading the book, but what you’re there for (what I’m there for, at least) is the commentary on the stories themselves, telling you why Saunders thinks they’re interesting, gleaning insight into his writing process, even as you might, ahem, find a few of the stories a little boring.
Something similar is afoot in Terry’s Other Games. Much like with Saunders’ effusive prose on the Russian masters, I don’t think there’s much here to be gained by anyone who isn’t already a fan. However, for those who are fans, and for those who are interested not just in the playing of games, but in the creation of them and the artistry, what we have here is a bit like opening somebody’s notebook and getting to peer inside.
You’ll find games that are more or less winners. Tiny Heist (one of the games you could, if you want, play for free at this very moment) is great fun as a procedurally generated gem stealing simulator. It seems to have an odd sense of humor in how it builds out its worlds, which Cavanagh comments on in his notes in-game, saying it “still feels a little magical” to him, like “a game with the ghost of another game living inside of it.” Then there’s Naya’s Quest, an isometric puzzle game where the floor as it seems is not the floor as it is. You have to toggle a scanner on and off to reveal what is really happening beneath your feet, judging depth from a peculiar perspective drawn straight out of the 8-bit era. At first, I found its controls clunky and its concept obtuse, but then I found myself drawn in. I think I have to agree with Cavanagh, who writes that, after tinkering with this one for years, he thinks he “eventually figured out a way to let the player in on the fun.”
In a way, playing Terry’s Other Games is a bit like playing a nonfiction UFO 50. What you’re experiencing here is not one single thing, but many, and in your mind you are telling yourself a story about their creator. The similarities end there, though, as each game has wildly different aspirations, despite their somewhat similar presentations. For example, while some may complain that certain games in UFO 50 are not as fun as the others, I am here to tell you that there are games in Terry’s Other Games that are not only not as fun as the others, they are not fun. Before you think me a harsh critic, please know that the games I’m referring to are collected within a subsection of the game called “Terry’s Trainwrecks.” At least I was warned! Radio Silence is a game so auditorily abrasive that my dog got up to leave the room. The, uh, memorably titled memrrtiks, suashem is so visually aggressive that Cavanah’s only note is: “I think I was just trying to make something a bit horrible with this one.”
Still, in the end, I walked away charmed by Terry’s Other Games. The gameplay time on offer here isn’t long, but for those who have an interest in seeing an artist’s process develop over the years, what’s on offer here is a generous opening up of the ups and downs of creativity. Hell, Cavanagh lets us see a game he created as a teenager. I’d sooner be dead than show you something I wrote before the age of 25, and here Cavanagh lets us see an honestly pretty rad little game in The Hunt.
Again, you need to already be a fan to want to play Terry’s Other Games. But if you are, like me, you’ll leave feeling grateful to have this kind of access to someone’s process. It takes equal parts confidence and humility to show off works in progress. Now we just have to hope his next commercial title isn’t too far off.
Terry’s Other Games was released Feb. 13 on Windows PC. The game was reviewed using a code provided by Cavanagh. Vox Media has affiliate partnerships. These do not influence editorial content, though Vox Media may earn commissions for products purchased via affiliate links. You can find additional information about viraltrendingcontent’s ethics policy here.
