A video game feels unusual when it makes a distinctive choice about its rules, goals, presentation, or the way those elements work together. “Experimental” is a useful description of that approach, not a formal genre or a synonym for procedural generation. To understand what makes a game stand out, identify the design choice and explain what it changes for the player.
What makes a game unusual?
Unusualness is about a game’s design, not simply whether its visuals look strange. A familiar-looking game can be unusual because of the actions it asks players to perform; a visually striking game may use conventional rules. The useful question is: what does this game ask the player to do, notice, or understand that a more familiar design would not?
Experimental design describes work that challenges conventions in search of new ideas. The Game Developers Conference (GDC) says its Experimental Gameplay session showcases games that “defy conventions and traditions in search of new genres and ideas” (GDC’s Experimental Gameplay session description). That is a direction for design, not a checklist every game must satisfy.
Five ways to describe an unusual design
Mechanics: What does the player do?
Look for an unfamiliar action, rule, or interaction, then ask how fully the game explores it. In GDC’s description of Steve Swink’s session on experimental design, the premise is to “find a unique, promising game mechanic and explore it as thoroughly as possible” (GDC session description). A novel mechanic matters most when the game develops its possibilities rather than using it as a brief novelty.
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Goals and knowledge: What is the player trying to figure out?
Some games make inference and discovery central to play. A player may need to build knowledge, draw conclusions, and use those conclusions to find more information, rather than focus mainly on defeating an opponent or improving a score. The IEEE paper “Procedural Generation and Information Games” discusses this kind of information-centered play. When describing a game, be specific about what the player is meant to learn or infer.
Presentation: How does the game reach the player?
Art, sound, interface, and physical controls can change how an experience feels, even when the rules are not wholly new. A Nintendo interview about Pikmin’s development describes artistic inspiration from films such as Fantastic Planet, as well as experimentation with visual expression. This illustrates how creative references and visual experiments can contribute to a game’s distinctive identity.
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Integration: Do the parts support the same idea?
A game’s unusual quality can come from how its mechanics, progression, and presentation reinforce one another. Game designer Steve Swink discusses studying the smaller design decisions and progression in games including Braid, Portal, and World of Goo (GDC session description). The lesson for analysis is to look beyond a striking surface feature: ask how the game’s choices fit together over time.
Trade-offs: What does the design ask of the player?
A game may give up familiar convenience or clarity to make room for uncertainty, interpretation, or discovery. Whether that trade-off works depends on the particular game and player. Describe the concrete effect—such as needing to experiment with a rule or tolerate an unclear goal—instead of treating strangeness as automatically good or bad.
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Examples show variety, not one shared formula
GDC’s Experimental Gameplay session names Katamari Damacy, flOw, Braid, Portal, and Storyteller. The list demonstrates that experimental work can take different forms; it does not establish that all five games are unusual for the same reason. A useful comparison identifies the design decision in each game rather than assigning them a single “weirdness” label.
Swink’s discussion of Braid, Portal, and World of Goo also suggests a practical way to study unusual games: pay attention to progression and small decisions, not just to what first appears unconventional. Ask what the player learns, how new possibilities are introduced, and whether each stage develops the central idea.
Procedural generation is a tool, not a definition
Procedural content generation (PCG) means that some game content is created algorithmically. Developers may use it to produce content at scale, reduce repetitive production work, or introduce unpredictability. None of those uses makes a game experimental by itself.
The IEEE paper “Procedural Generation and Information Games” cautions that PCG does not guarantee replayability: some games with generated content may not invite repeated play, while games with fixed content can. The value of generation depends on how it serves the game’s systems and the player’s experience.
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Spelunky is a useful example of a technique tied to a particular aim. The paper describes designer Derek Yu’s intent to use procedural content to reduce reliance on rote learning in platform games by making levels unpredictable. The point is not that randomness is inherently better; it is that variation can support a specific design goal.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.How to compare two unusual games
There is no established universal scale for how unusual a game is. For a clearer comparison, use these questions instead:
- What departs from convention? Name the mechanic, goal, presentation choice, or combination.
- How legible is the idea? Explain whether players can understand what the game invites them to do. There is no universal measure of learnability established by the sources cited here.
- How integrated is the design? Consider whether mechanics, progression, and presentation reinforce the same central idea.
- What does the choice change? Describe its effect on discovery, repetition, player knowledge, or interaction. Do not assume generated variation automatically creates replayability.
- What trade-off does it make? State what the design asks of the player and what experience that choice may enable, treating the effect as specific to the game.
These questions are a practical way to describe games, not a standardized academic taxonomy. No reliable topic-wide statistic establishes how many games are experimental or how often experimental design succeeds.
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