This month, we finally got to see Viovis' absolute masterpiece, Purposedly Protected (or Produced) Dynamic Visualties II, after a good 2.5 years. In my opinion, it's a piece of art by Viovis himself, whom I prefer to refer to as an poetic artist, instead of a programmer. It just lost the GOTM race to Chuck's Los Refritos 9, but in celebration of the fact that we finally got to see PPDVII, I have made its predecessor, PPDV, Classic Game of the Month.
PPDV, also known as Purposedly Produced/Protected Dynamic Visualties, was released a few years. Back then, he already released some artistical games that defined a new genre, but PPDV was his biggest work to date. With PPDV, Viovis showed he is a true artist and a master of trippiness. And it's the trippiness that made Viovis' style unique.
What is PPDV like? It's mainly a weird, but intersting story told by using art boards and pieces of text. There is no real gameplay -- it's looking, and being amazed or tripping or even being confused.
PPDV's art is weird and highly trippy. Some of the art boards may not be good-looking, but towards the end Viovis shows some mighty fine examples of his style.
Instead of drinking a cup of coffee in the morning, try playing PPDV for once. It has about the same effect and as Vork once said about PPDVII, PPDV's sequel, "It's a good cup of coffee".
PPDV may not mean as much to new ZZTers as it does to me and some older ZZTers, but it was a marker in Viovis' history and Viovis has always been one of ZZT's most unique authors and one of the very few who defined his own style and had awards named after him.
It's classic, that's for sure. However, it is not sure whether or not you'll like it. Some people will love it, others might find it too strange for comfort. It's still something that needs to be in a complete ZZT collection and I recommend you to try it out.
