I played a few games for this lab and invested more time on some than others. Two of those games were Canabalt and This Is the Only Level. They are the same in that they are both 2d platformers, but their genres differ.
After doing a quick search, I learned that Canabalt took part in popularizing the infinite runner genre. I forget that “infinite runner” is a genre at all. The story of the game is not entirely clear, but what is clear is that the protagonist is running from something. You can see the destruction going on all around them as they jump from building to building, avoiding (or purposely running into) boxes that will slow them down. It doesn’t look like the goal is to reach a specific destinitation, but rather to run as far as you can without making a mistake and falling to your death.
This Is the Only Level is just one level that you play over and over again, but each time with it’s own twist. What sets it apart from Canabalt, aside from visual aesthetics, is that you do have a desitination to reach. You have to find ways to open the door that will let you through to your destination. Ultimately, it’s a puzzle game that requires thinking outside outside the box. When I watched someone else play, I didn’t realize it was a puzzle game, so I wondered why they were struggling so much. I fully understood when I played for myself; the controls weren’t what I thought they would be! I think this is a game that you need to pay close attention to and actively think about while Canabalt, on the other hand, lets you be a little more mindless — at least that was the case for me.
Hatoful Boyfriend was another game I played; it falls under the otome, or dating sim genre. I’ve played quite a few of these games, and this one was really different from the usual. Rather than featuring humans, you are trying to strengthen your relationship with pigeons. It’s a very strange concept, but this is why it caught people’s attention — along with the fact that it has great artwork and uses images of real pigeons!