[alt text: a pair of posts by strudel-fatpaws on tumblr. The first post says, “who was the guy who said every indie game is named either ‘empoisoned’ or ‘swumbles big jumble’. i swear this is a real thing someone said”. The second post says, “gonna start sorting my steam library like this”. Included with the second post is a screenshot of a Steam library, in which games are sorted into two categories titled “Empoisoned” and “Swumbles Big Jumble”. Under the “Empoisoned” category, the games listed are: “Antichamber”, “Balatro”, “Pseudoregalia”, “ULTRAKILL”, and “Wobbledogs”. Under the “Swumbles Big Jumble” category, the games listed are: “The Binding of Isaac Rebirth”, “Orbo’s Odyssey”, “Patrick’s Parabox”, “the Gnorp Apologue”, and “Will You Snail?”.]
I appreciate the name strudel-fatpaws
Was it Yahtzee? Sounds like something he would come up with.
you might be right?
Y axis: Empoisoned or Swumble’s Big Jumble X axis: Menus or Parkour
I think we are moving past the outdated genre system and finally finding a way to classify games properly
???
In trms of the vibe that the title gives off, I guess. First category is a fairly serious-sounding, usually 1 word title, and the second category seems to be a grab-bag of silly titles and titles where the first word is “______'s”
Oh ok ty
Idgi – is it saying that every game is either named “X” or “Y’s X”?
“Wobbledogs” definitely has more of a Swumble’s Big Jumble energy though
big agree tbh
I feel like this isn’t exclusive to indie games.
Empoisoned games: Forespoken, Bloodborne, Metal Gear Rising RevenganceSwumbles Big Jumble games: Assassin’s Creed (plus subtitle), John Madden Football (and other similarly titled sports games), any legend of zelda game.
The Swumbles Big Jumble naming scheme can probably be traced to ZX Spectrum games coded by 15-year-olds in northern England in 1983 or so
Even earlier, Colossal Cave Adventure from 1975 is the earliest one I can think of.
Likewise Dungeon from the same year might be the earliest Empoisoned
EDIT: Nah, Pong predates Dungeon.
One of the first arcade games (1971) was Computer Space. Kinda feels halfway between the two, so that’s fun.
EDIT 2: Think I found the earliest Jumble’s Big Bumble: Hunt The Wumpus, first distributed in May of 1973
