Flower: A Locative Game
There are many artistic games on the market. One of the first games I remember hearing about that fits that criteria is a game called Journey by Annapurna Interactive. A few years before that game released they made another game that was artistic in nature (literally), called Flower. This game is about controlling the wind to collect flower petals and is very atmospheric. I played through the first level and a little bit into the second level in about an hour and a half.
I would consider this game to be locative media. As stated by Flanagan (year) “Locative games offer an ambiguous or ambient game experience” (pg. 197). When playing Flower I noticed I wasn't distracted by complex controls or scenery. The only thing that took my attention away from the game was how difficult it can be to navigate, but if you consider that you are playing as the wind and the wind is usually characterized as unruly and chaotic in media, I think it fits well. I noticed a few times where I would simply move a long with the music or make fun shapes with the wind, It felt more like I was experiencing the game rather than playing it.
Flanagan, M. (2009). Artists’ Locative Games. In Critical Play — Radical Game Design (pp. 197–198). Mit Press.
