Where I will list ists that I might actually use. These should at a minimum be visually prototyped, ideally for-real prototyped.
Later…
Haha, you’re so funny younger me. This is older me saying there is no way in fuck I’m going to visually prototype all these. I’m just going to pick the ones I think are funny and that I could do.
“a person who campaigns to bring about political or social change.”
There has to be an option here, but one would also have to be careful that it isn’t just a flip idea about activism… it would need to actually do the work in some way. Like, can you make a Snake about Palestine? But also: is the game activist, is the Snake in the game an activist, is the player an activist by playing the game, …?
Of those the game itself being activist makes the most sense to me? Could it be about settlers in Gaza? A gradual impingement on the Snake’s world by walls representing settlers?
Ask Kevin? (Asked.)
“someone who is considered to be exaggerating a danger and so causing needless worry or panic.”
The game panics as you get closer to walls. Increasing screen shake and messages strobing all over the place. I really like that. I guess it would be for the body too. I think this would be pretty fun to make.
So an animist believes that things have souls, including inanimate objects (so I suppose the walls would have souls too). My main design though in ists was to have it so that on “dying” both the snake and apple would have a soul (a lowered-alpha copy) leave their body and go upwards. Funny to think of that happening on the tick actually.
I do like this image a lot… I’m not sure how much I think it really captures what an Animist believes in though so I’ll have to look further. I’d like to shoehorn this idea in there somewhere anyway.
“a person who commits arson.” which is to say illegally sets things on fire…
What would be set on fire? The walls? The floor? What are the consequences of setting things on fire? The snake dies in its own fire? How does the fire start? Maybe there are too many questions going on there…
At the very least the obvious snake paints with body, probably in the sense of a paint duration based on the apple (=paint can). Of course I also literally did this in Art Game and in that case it was about strategic dying to create the artwork.
Definitely an opportunity to have an ending screen with a framed picture at the very least. There’s some argument to mirror Art Game? There’s a debate there anyway.
“A behaviorist is someone who advocates or practices behaviorism, a theory that human and animal behavior is based on conditioning (mental training and the influence of habit), rather than being explained by thoughts and feelings.”
Just “eat apple” over and over? Crossed out each time?
Actually this would be funnier if it escalates? “Eat an apple.” “Eat another apple.” “Eat 10 apples.” “Score 200 points.” “Score 1000 points.” “Eat all the apples.” (Or something like that, so that it’s conceivably the player would see it all up to the final one which is impossible to fulfill…? Or you could add “die” at the end, which would be funny in a different direction. And then “You tried.” or “A job well done” at the ending.)
“to assist jointly”
Have two sets of input for the same snake?
At its simplest interpretation let’s say this involves two snakes, both controlled by the player, and thus both needing to coexist in the play space. Could involve some kind of “manners” around the apples as well, but I think mostly it would just be a nightmare not smacking into a wall.
If one Snake dies does the other carry on, or would it be proof they couldn’t … coexist?
(This wouldn’t work on mobile because of the controls necessary.)
“a person who conforms to accepted behavior or established practices.”
Map out where the Snake is meant to go as a path and if they diverge they die (they need to be a conformist). Actually kind of horrible to imagine relative to the apples though? Maybe we could just map out a convoluted non-overlapping path that covers the whole space and eventually you’d hit your own tail? Could acknowledge anybody who pulls that off? How would you indicate the full path? Or just the next part of the path?
A person who makes copies is fun. If the Snake is a person who makes copies (well they kind of already copy units of their own body in a sense) then what would they copy? Themselves? The apple? The walls? Not many options!
The apple would of course lead to madness… so maybe that’s fun.
I mean it’s pretty fun to think about the Cosmic destiny of the Snake… but less clear how we might represent that… immortality, control over nature, space exploration… considered as “stages” there might be something there? Like you collect apples to upgrade; first you get “immortality”? So walls no longer do anything (have admittedly already done that in SNAKISMS); then control over nature means you can maybe spawn an apple any time? Change the length of your body? (Mobile controls for this sound almost impossible) Then you can go to Space… maybe a starfield appears and you head up out of the screen to end the game?
I’m only including this because there’s such a funny relationship between cubism and Snake. To some extent it feels like it makes it impossible, but I should read more (than an AI summary) about Cubism to remind me of its nature.
The idea that you could see different parts of the snake and thus, perhaps, its face (which I’m imagining is facing “forward” in the direction of movement) is very funny though maybe not funny enough.
I don’t currently know what this would be (how Dada), but I feel like it has to be in here (though as I think about it I’m now wondering if there’s an “art movements” version of Snake to consider).
At heart (see the notes lower down and also read more about Dada) it would be about absurdism and rejection of the warlike/capitalist/individualist/etc.ist nature of Snake (and videogames). That could amount to just insanity visually, could be messing with the code in uncontrolled ways (though we all know that will just crash the program - which is worth entertaining?), could be teleporting snake, random score, sound-track, collaging in photographs, … hard to say for now, but the spirit of it would be RESISTING SNAKE’S OWN FORM IN ITS FORM I SUPPOSE
Or… if we go more absurdism then it’s a bit looser and less political. “intentionally ridiculous or bizarre; surreal.”
“a person who expects or is excessively ready to accept failure.”
I like the idea that the snake dies 2-4 squares before it actually hits a wall. “Let’s face it, you would have hit the wall.”
Because the definition I read specifically presents this as believe in a non-interventionist god (hi Nick Cave) I wonder if there’s some juice to just having this be a Snake with no controls that moves across the screen (logically) and then hits the wall (dies).
Menu-only game. You select this item, the menu-snake eats it, and then it’s gone and you just choose something else. That is funny.
Snake body demists the screen (only where it can reach though, so you might have the comedy of all the other stuff being blurred (ideally we have blur)). And that’s it. Mist builds back up maybe over time so it’s a constant battle of it being hard to see…
I love the thought of the Snake having a diary. Either pooping it out as it moves around (which would be quite a fun and strange reading experience? Maybe impossible as well…) // Or prompting the player to write diary entries at specific moments, maybe after they die? Die-ary ahaha, no.
Two Snakes enter, one Snake leaves? And that’s it? Some of the more formal ideas around duels with seconds and pistols and dawn? Oh you could have to show up at dawn, that would be pretty funny.
This might actually be better for the sword fight than epeeist.
This is in the school (I think) of versions where you just present Snake as is and are sort of pointing out that Snake already adheres to some value. The Snake is in some sense egoistic, only cares about itself and its apples…
I dunno. It’s pretty dry. Also “purist” already does it.
The player writes an elegy for the Snake after it dies. Brilliant, but dependent on player buy-in which is tough.
In competition with at least one version of “diarist”.
As a bluesky/similar post? Or as a text file that saves to the computer? Or just ephemeral?
Hmmm, maybe the game could quiz you about whether you’re GOOD ENOUGH to control the snake and play? Qualifications check? How would we ask for proof? A quiz about your depth of Snake knowledge. Could actually get into a pretty fun and stupid gamerbro gamergate mockery session actually…
Putting aside that this is a horrible looking word and not common enough to feel relatable it is a) still pretty easy to understand its meaning if you know what an epee is and b) pretty alluring as a design challenge - Snakes and Swords.
My immediate vision is two snakes each with a thin grey line sticking out of their face and pointed in the direction of movement. And you’d need to score a hit on the opponent’s head… somehow. Because body simply wouldn’t make sense? Or would it?? I don’t even know. Easy to try both.
It just seems like one of those things that could be secretly fun and worth prototyping. BUT what about the fact of AI? There’s no WAY I’m going to write a Snake-based sword-fighting AI. And making it multiplayer feels ridiculous… or rather it would be impossible on mobile but doable with WASD and ARROWS on desktop?
So not out of the realms of possibilty but some strikes against it.
See: Duelist as a better linguistic fit.
“1. one who indulges in eroticism. 2. art, literature. one who uses erotic imagery in art or literature.”
Sexy sounds when you eat an apply, maybe an orgasm sound when you hit a wall? Randomize male/female voice?
Sexy breathing throughout?
In competition with onanist…
“a person who seeks distraction and relief from unpleasant realities, especially in the form of entertainment or fantasy.”
A kind of double distraction? Snake as an escapist outlet. And then an escapist outlet for the Snake itself from the boring task of eating the apples? With the ultimate thing being to exit the level altogether?
“an entertainer specializing in escaping from the confinement of such things as ropes, handcuffs, and chains.”
I don’t really think this works but it deserves more thought so here it is. The idea of a version of snake that switches between multiple “faddish” ideas of design or aesthetics or… something. That it’s kind of unable to make up its mind about its nature is quite fun…
In terms of it being a word it’s about a “small mongrel dog” apparently, which doesn’t fit, but if we took it to be the singer then a “snake cover” of her song 1234 could make a ton of sense? Copyright a problem. Could I write to Feist and ask if I could cover her song as a game? One syllable/beat per tick? I can imagine some irregular movement patterns that could be really funny to see? (Though this mirrors what I thought early on for Tub(a)ist as well)
As in Mario Odyssey’s desert boss. A huge enemy made of wall pieces that moves around (this is also sounding a hell of a lot like my Shadow of the Colossus desnake), or maybe just its fists? And you’re trying to get across to the side of punch it with your head - in the eye, most obviously? Which would of course have to be an apple?
Maybe there’s stuff around K.O.s and health and so on for the Snake?
The idea would be the game “foists” another snake on you (that you control) and that causes your play to be significantly harder.
There are a lot of -ists that have nothing to do with SNAKISMS which is both really funny and kind of stupid. Maybe stupid funny though? As the words get longer they’ll get ISMier though I suppose?
The idea of a total distillation of Snake even more than it already is. A presentation of the game that’s like “I get the gist”. Which could also be temporal, like you eat one apple, another appear, and then it ends saying “you get the gist”.
This almost functions as a meta-joke about the whole Snake series (and my work in general), that you engage enough to “get it” and probably move on. Gist games. Hehe.
Just because heists are so game-like it would be fun to at least try to do this? Snake “breaks into” somewhere (how?? Eats the apple door?) Then in a confined space eats a bunch of green apples (money???) and then escapes… somehow? And little police walls come to chase you with sirens blaring???
I like the snake forming a spiral and it telling you to go eat an apple?
The idea of a specific movement in poetry. “An “imagist” is a poet or writer who adheres to or advocates for the poetic movement of Imagism, which emphasizes clear, concise language and the precise presentation of images to convey ideas and emotions”
Here the core idea would be a text-only presentation of the game, with the “poetry” being generated by the actual current state of Snake. I suppose it would be more or less unplayable, but funny to try to play? Something about the distant sent of the apple. Something about an approaching wall. Etc. It’s pretty appealing conceptually. Keeping the audio would be a great part of it too, knowing the underlying simulation continues on, but having to interpret it through poetry. Pretty good.
I’m imagining a quiz setup where the snake eats an apple to answer (like red apple versus blue apple for A or B); and then the questions are about laws pertaining to snakes…? Hehe.
Visually I can imagine a series of snakes on rows (maybe starting next to bullet points actually) so that they look like a list. I think that’s enough of a gag already, but it would need some more development I suppose… unclear what the end game is there?
Oh it could also be a to-do list where you are striking out the items, that’s not terrible… though eating and striking-out may be a little far apart?
In competition with checklist.
“noun. an artist whose specialty is small, discrete works. a person who makes, collects, or specializes in miniature objects: a miniaturist with a collection of dollhouses.”
A tiny zoomed out snake
Just the ol’ fog of war applied to Snake. Probably want a more interesting terrain for that, though that starts to feel arbitrary? It’s a tough combo having continual movement with a mist. How to make it look nice? Or do I not bother?
Most basically leaving a pale blue trail because the snake is moist. But I dunno if that has much to recommend it?
It’s kind of pitch perfect to do this again. Doubling down on narcissism is what a narcissist should do. I wonder if it’s worth including a bluesky posting option as well as email? Both? Tell them to enable popups?
I made a pink snake but snakes are probably already nude? I’m wondering about the idea of the snake shedding its skin as a “more nude” snake? Constantly shedding its skin… kind of funny and is a sort of mechanic too, builds walls… or… well do you die if you hit a snake skin?
“deliberately preventing the facts or full details of something from becoming known.”
“the practice of deliberately impeding or delaying the course of legal, legislative, or other procedures.”
Could place a wall in the direction they’re going at a certain point… or make wals around the apple in an inconvenient way (within reason…)
I’m not really convinced, but some kind of poetry-writing mechanics folded into Snake is not totally hateable… maybe just multiple-choice apples that construct a poem? And the poem is an ode to snakes or apples or walls? Ehehehe, okay that’s not terrible.
Masturbation x Snake. Masturbating a Snake like it’s a penis? Yes yes yes.
It dies for the orgasm? But this is very similar to eroticist…
It’s an eye test while you play. “Which makes the game easier to see? A or B? A or B?” and some kind of blur filter/thing? It’s a great idea… I wonder if it can work.
Early technical tests suggest: no? Maybe? Probably not?
A palm-reader. Strikes me as fun to try. Something about the Snake being on a palm and following the lines leading to a fortune? Maybe there’s be another fortune telling opportunity though?
They aren’t allowed to stop? Or they somehow persist through death? Or the game persists as a layer on top over everything else once you start it would be funny too? Just there forever? These are all GOOD IDEAS.
I do like it when there’s an implication (like the game staying on screen) beyond the rules of the game, but rather the rules of the “application”?
People who believe all space contains matter. So the whole world of the game it walls and you die instantly. Nice and easy? Maybe it’s a stupid one, but also who gives a shit?
A single-celled organism. The base joke of the snake being a single tile is okay, but maybe if I read more about these organisms there’s more to it?
Just regular snake. I like this one. It’s fun. And especially if I’m including dictionary definitions, e.g. “a person who insists on absolute adherence to traditional rules or structures, especially in language or style.”
Most obvious starting point is that the snake resists the player’s attempt to control it. Not pure fatalism (as in SNAKISMS) but more a push and pull with the player’s input.
Person kind of managing the church, keeping the candles lit. That as a reference to the Madrid game is kind of nice. You “eat” the candles to light them up again, then they dwindle and go out?
Maybe it’s too thin. The idea of a layout like a birdseye of a church is kind of nice? Pews. Lots of stuff to crash into?
The player would be the sadist right? How? We encourage them to be by scoring points for killing the snake, not for eating the apple. Smash them against the wall, themselves, over and over, for points. GAME OVER if you let them eat the apple?
The idea that there are very few apples and you have to survive on that? Maybe your body shrinks over time as well?
Snake over the top of famous locations. Good.
Move to the tones of a tuba with that classic oompah rhythm that would change up the tick timing. Funny but also gameplay relevant.
See also: Feist.
A possibly more clear version of alist? Twist the tiles and deal with the visual result? The tiles could “do the twist” while you play? Layer upon layer of bad jokes? Don’t hate it… come on baby, let’s do the twist?
Clacking with each keypress. Snake moves on clack. Probably auto-snake so you’re just driving its movement/the tick. Could pick funny texts to type I suppose?
Oooohhhh… or the whole screen could be mapped to letters and you type the letter adjacent to the head to go to that direction! That would be a weird feeling thing because a lot of the time it would not be about typing a sentence unless you were moving left to right? Might end up being weirdly wrong…
Can try both.
Another one (while thinking about pollist in ists doc) would be to have a QWERT or just ALPHA layout so that eating a letter types it. Either to type something you want or to type something you’re assigned (and the subsequent knots you’d tie yourself into… quite fun… a backspace key would be hilarious too…)
What is the Utopian endpoint for Snake?
The clearest fit (to me) for a musical toy. The snake as a bow.