Review: Thumbnails

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There has always been a debate about whether games are art or not, but in the tardy ’10s and early ’10s some people decided to really insist. Sometimes this resulted in mostly successful experiments such as Citizen Abel: Gravity Bone Or Abysswhile other times we’ve had more unfortunate, pretentious attempts like Path.

It was a truly uncertain time for video games. It seemed like we wanted some permission to take this hobby seriously, so together, as gamers and developers, we tried to prove that video games were something they weren’t. Oh, they are total art. This can be seen in egg throwing and hedge trimming games. But it’s more about using the interactive element to convey that part of yourself. A programmer may try to capture the way he thinks or sees the world by asking you to live it. I’m not sure what Path he was about to say. Don’t do what they tell you?

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We’re largely past that, and at least games that are 100% about the message have a greater purpose. Confidence. He often seems more stern and less pretentious. What makes Thumbnails something like a blast from the past.

Screenshot by Destructoid

I don’t actually say that Thumbnails is pretentious. No, I’m the one being pretentious today. But at least it’s no secret that this is a digital art exhibition. What I mean is that it is merely interactive and that is what it is Very piece. I wouldn’t even call it narrative-focused because the stories are quite abstract. Either you connect with them, maybe you just find them witty, maybe you don’t.

For me, it reminds me of those extra tardy nights when I was bored in front of Teletoon. Nights when my parents were away so I could freely control the TV and in the tardy hours I could watch whatever weird concoctions were on the station.

Teletoon often aired material from the National Film Board of Canada, which was actually an asshole The Simpsons joke back in the day (not when they were still good). Very civilized stuff, but a lot of it was extremely weird. Sometimes it would be something relaxingly fun. Another time it would be a piece of Canada, and the deepest of it would be something from our indigenous cultures. When you’re a teenager at 11 p.m., it doesn’t matter what it was. Any attempt by an animation student to stretch his legs would be like some forbidden fever dream.

That’s it Thumbnails took me back to; a caffeine-free Saturday night at my father’s La-Z-Boy. It’s four miniature chapters that will have you poking at the screen at times. On Switch and mobile you can literally poke the screen, but here I was just poking it with the mouse pointer. Click if you want.

I’m not trying to disrespect you, but the interactivity is very basic Thumbnails. In one chapter, you try to organize a group of little sand creatures into a petite town of sand creatures in an extremely roundabout way. This was definitely the most fun for me because you basically press on places where you think something should happen and then watch something happen. It’s well animated and witty, so that’s something.

There’s one where you swipe the screen to follow the story, and every now and then you have to click on something in the environment to discover a trigger that will let you proceed. I liked this one the least, not because of the lack of interactivity, but because I had no connection with it. As far as I could tell, it was a directionless story that wanted to look like it had something to say but didn’t say anything at all. Or maybe I just didn’t see the message.

As for the other two, I at least understand what they’re trying to say, but I think it’s a lot Thumbnails it fails because it will create a feeling and then do nothing with it. They do not operate this feeling to convey any message. These are miniature, miniature chapters – miniature ones, if you will – so if they want you to just absorb these feelings, there isn’t much time for that. One of the strengths of the artistic side of video games is that by allowing the player to take part in something, you can hold their head under what you’re trying to convey, and when they’re good and humid, hit them with what you want them to say. Thumbnails it neither makes sense nor sinks you in for long.

Miniature people in a sand castle.
Screenshot by Destructoid

But with these last two, I at least felt the atmosphere they were suppressing. One seemed to focus on loneliness and childhood discoveries, while another conveyed a sense of tension and fear. I’ve found that I can usually pick up on subtext, even in games that don’t prioritize graphics, so I’m not deaf to what’s going on in the game. Thumbnails. Most often I have two problems. First, I don’t think it takes advantage of the benefits of an interactive medium to convey ideas. Number two: I don’t connect with the ideas that are here.

This makes it arduous to review a game like this because its effectiveness varies from person to person and I can’t tell you what you’ll feel. You may see your reflection in one or all of the games here. I can say that from both an interactive and narrative point of view Thumbnails lack. Compared to other games that I would praise for their contribution and approach to the art form, this one wouldn’t be high on the list, but I wouldn’t throw it away wholesale either.


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