Squid of Man

Odd one, this.

On the one hand, it's a soothing, relaxing "interactive screensaver" that is...well, it's a complete knock-off of that big deer-god thing from the end of Princess Mononoke. And a big deer-god-thing simulator is a niche genre i've been wanting to explore for a while now.

On the other hand...I think it's a gay dating site. The official introduction to the game is as follows:

"You are a stag, a male deer. So are the other players. "

Right then. Odd, but in the the interests of fair play, you may continue.

"You meet each other in an endless forest on the internet. "

O-kay. Um...

"The setting is idyllic, the atmosphere peaceful. You communicate with one another through sounds and body language."

Did I mention it was made in Belgium? And has the words "lovely" and "pretty" on it's main news page?

I leave the final judgement on it's sexual orientation (can games have a sexual orientation? Is Gears of War a man? The Sims a woman? Devil May Cry a.....woman?) to you, dear reader, but what I can tell you is this thing is pretty bloody good.

It's a nice enough screen-saver on it's own (if a bit hefty at around 50mb), but as a piece of "interactive communication" it's quite interesting. No 14 year-old loud-mouth Americans here, no chatting, no screaming, no "l33t skillz". Just...lots of deers. Male deers. Nodding a lot.

Which is new, and different, and definitely worth a look. You can grab it here.