Limited Edition Download - Art Game for $200 Each, After 20 Sold, Artist will Destroy Original Code

WASHINGTON - July 12, 2013 - PRLog -- The games as art debate just got a little more interesting. Game designer and American University professor Lindsay Grace released You, A very Meaningful Game in mobile app stores for $200. He claims the price reflects a modest cost for art.  The idea is simple.  If games are art, why not price and sell them as such. The game will be sold to 20 people and then deleted from the mobile stores and all original source code will be destroyed. The games are offered as limited editions, a tactic that is common to the art world. Just as artist may offer limited edition prints or paintings, You, a Very meaningful Game is being offered in limited quantities.  

The game itself is a lampoon of meaning. Players control You, a character that must find its place on each of the 20 levels. The designer, artist, has a brief essay on the literary references and design philosophy around the game. Much like an artists statement, buyers are not just getting a mobile app, they are buying a piece of the artist’s collected works. Whether this work will appreciate in value is unknown. What is clear is that this is a novel idea that is sure to bring about questions around the value of games as art.

You, A Very Meaningful Game is part of Lindsay Grace’s Critical Gameplay collection which has been shown at art and academic venues in Europe, Asia, North, and South America. Other games in the collection have been awarded at the Games for Change Festival, Artscape and others. You, A Very Meaningful Game is currently for sale on Google Play. It is under review on Apple's App Store.

If you can’t afford the $200 price tag to own this almost one of kind work, you can watch the video on you tube or play one of the other Critical Gameplay games.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZkzyUcwXOWE