Last week, I found out about a little gem of a game called Canabalt. Canabalt is simply stunning. The game is a short experience, but every detail is polished to perfection. Levels are randomly generated, so you can play through quite a few times without worrying about repetitive levels. The sound design, which was done by Danny B, is perfectly tuned to the experience. Take a look at the background while your jumping from building to building, you won’t be disappointed with the atmosphere.

In Canabalt there is just one control necessary, jump. The game was made for the Experimental Gameplay Project’s ‘bare minimum theme’, but I feel like it reflects what games should be as a whole. Not only is Canabalt engaging, it fits it’s audience perfectly. Usually, one doesn’t have all that much time to play internet games. When you only have a few precious minutes to spare, games like Canabalt can completely engross you and take you over leaving a great memory. I would even argue that smaller bite-size experiences like this offer more long-term value, because their memory is not tainted by hours of map/level memorization. When you play the game, you just remember how darn cool it was.

My hat is off to Adam Atomic, you’ve made us rethink game design and we cannot thank you enough for the great memory we’ll keep of Canabalt. If you like the game us much as us, let Adam know by sending him a donation. Donations can be given easily from the game by clicking a little button in the bottom left hand side of the game window.