Experimental Games being given away free with t-shirts at Target

Greg sez,

The Experimental Gameplay project began at Carnegie Mellon, but has since been opened to everyone; the basic rule is that games must be developed in 7 days or less, by a single person, and be based on a single theme. They tend to be rough, but highly creative, and may are a free download. Some have gone on to become Independent Games Festival nominees.

In perhaps the strangest co-marketing effort in games I've seen, something called EGPApparel has taken images from some of the games, made t-shirts out of them, and included a CD with the corresponding game in the tag.

Weirdest of all, Target is apparently carrying them -- some of the strangest and most fiercely "independent" games in creation in one of America's largest retailers? Tres cool.

Link (Thanks, Greg!)

[#1 posted by pahool , March 21, 2008 4:45 PM]

Interesting. I haven't played these games in quite a while. Tower of Goo, Gravity Head and The Crowd are all pretty cool (though the Crowd doesn't really qualify as a game.) I definitely like the crowd shirt...

[#2 posted by Joel Johnson , March 21, 2008 6:54 PM]

http://gadgets.boingboing.net/2008/03/21/target-selling-indie.html

Looks like a really cool project.

[#3 posted by nakedandfamous , March 21, 2008 10:30 PM]

Wow, cosmic. I'm actually wearing one of those shirts right now (top row, second from right). I bought it because I liked the design and actually wasn't aware of the free giveaway until I was taking off the tags at home. I've played the game a few times, and it was enjoyable, but the concept of indie developers selling at Target is pretty sweet. Plus, the shirt just looks cool.

[#4 posted by Antinous , March 21, 2008 10:36 PM]

Spam reported.

[#5 posted by travelina , March 22, 2008 2:21 AM]

See, capitalism CAN work!

Check out the tantalizing World of Goo preview here: http://2dboy.com/games.php

[#6 posted by dougcoleman , March 22, 2008 2:33 PM]

These are great, but I can't find them in my local Target stores (Portland, Or.). A search of both Target and EGPApparel websites turned up nothing also.

[#7 posted by blerg , March 22, 2008 2:57 PM]

Sounds pretty cool, but none of the games have mac versions, which is not cool at all.

[#8 posted by GlenBlank , March 22, 2008 3:20 PM]

The games "must be developed in 7 days or less, by a single person", and you're whining because there's no Mac version?

What an amazing sense of entitlement you have.

[#9 posted by blerg , March 22, 2008 4:45 PM]

Eesh, sorry! I went poking around the experimental games site and then came back to comment. Somewhere in between, it escaped my mind that they're developed in such a short time. Previous "whiny" comment retracted.

[#10 posted by Antinous , March 22, 2008 5:04 PM]

Apologizing is hot. I wish that it would really catch on.