| The Marriage | |
|---|---|
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| Designer(s) | Rod Humble |
| Platform(s) | Microsoft Windows |
| Release | March 2007 |
| Genre(s) | Art game |
| Mode(s) | Single-player |
The Marriage is an experimental art game created by Rod Humble and released for Microsoft Windows in March 2007. Humble set out to explore the forms of artistic expression unique to video games, leading him to express his feelings associated with marriage by relying primarily on game mechanics rather than on traditional storytelling, audio, or video elements. The game uses only simple colored shapes that the player interacts with using a mouse. The player's actions cause pink and blue squares to increase or decrease in both size and opacity, representing the balance of personal needs in a relationship.
The game received praise for its innovative concept and design, as well as criticism for its heavy reliance on Humble's accompanying written explanations, and for its depiction of simplistic gender roles. As a game that self-consciously embraces its medium, it attracted attention from fellow game designers and games studies scholars, who have used it to develop concepts like the relationship between art and games or between simulation and metaphor. It is credited with beginning a movement of games designed with a focus on creating meaning through game mechanics.