The sequel to the sequel to Snake just dropped

Snakists is a game by Pippin Barr, author of many small and wonderful ludic experiments. The most pertinent of which, in this case, is Snakisms. That one takes the can-I-borrow-your-Nokia-for-a-minute-mate ’em up and explores a smattering of experimental design tunnels based on different schools of thoughts. ‘Pessimism’, for example, forces you to contend with a prized gobblin’ dot placed permanently outside the confines of your snakely entrapment box, ‘Asceticism’ kills you as soon as you eat a dot, and so on.

Snakists takes this concept and applies it to concepts ending with ‘ist’. Deist, purist, sadist, and so on, for a total of 20 different tail-wriggling tales. I enjoy them for how they both celebrate Snake and also employ its relative simplicity as a neutral palette on which to mix colourful synthesis of languages both human and game.

For example, ‘alarmist’ is funny to play because it shouts at you whenever you get even mildly close to a wall. But it also stands as a sharply apt metaphor for the self-fulfilling prophecy that is constant anxiety. The closer you get to wall, the more the screen is obscured by the word ‘CAREFUL!’, until you can see so little you are all but guaranteed to die. The message is clear: get out of your own way. If you spend all your time worrying about tripping over, your legs will seize up and you will eat shit post haste.

Another favourite here is ‘tourist’, which is effectively just regular snake played over an image of a nice building. I appreciate its non judgemental attitude, leaving me to consider the implications of tourism on my own time, perhaps outside a nice cafe. Perhaps I’ll scout around a bit and see where and what the locals are having, or perhaps I’ll get really annoyed because this coastal Spanish town can’t get my fried egg and chips the way I like it, as is the English way.

Much to think about. Many dots to consume.