S1E1 Play Journal:
The first game I played for this episode is Critters for Sale by Sonoshee.
The project is a mesmerizing, memetic and unsettling collection of point-and-click short stories exploring the occult. I’ve not encountered anything in this project explicitly sexual, but there is this overarching eerily sexy feeling to the game’s world.
The stories are titled; Snake, Goat, Monkey, Dragon, and Spider. I started with Goat for obvious reasons. (Rohil is the goat.) In the Goat story, I spent my time wandering through the harsh deserts with MC Ride of Death Grips.
Now, I listen to some Death Grips, but I would pick literally anyone else to be stuck in the desert with… if we made a list of bands most likely to eat a man in a desert, Death Grips is at least in the top 20.
As the story’s name would suggest, MC Ride and I are also accompanied by a goat, who’s clearly on team Satan. I’m very loving towards animals, but this goat stares at me, not even attempting to hide its murderous intent. Eventually, after a few poor choices on my end, the goat kills MC Ride and then does the stabby-stab on me as well. Game over, but I’m compelled to check out the other endings.
In the Snake story, I hit up a Berghain-ass nightclub and meet Michael Jackson. Memechael Jackson breaks it down for a bit before I’m introduced to a floating entity called the 2nd Noid Man. I’m not entirely sure what happened next, though I believe I unlocked all world knowledge? … Bless.
Critters for Sale repurposes and recontextualizes pop-culture images by warping animations, creating an unearthly and magnetic game atmosphere you can’t help but lose yourself within. The UI and story imagery come together as a perfectly cohesive, chthonic aesthetic.
One of my recent favorites.
If you need some beats to study/relax to, Lofi Room by Bearmask Studios is for you, and you can play it in your browser. The homey setting and Scott McCloud-kindred art invoke the feeling of web-comic book panels.
It’s a fun vibe, arranging some skeletal beats and exploring the room’s complex interactivity. Find the instruments hidden around the room, and enjoy some casual rhythm play as each lo-fi track comes together. You can create your own beats in-game too.
I’m most excited to see how the instruments and recording capabilities progress. If you’re into making music, and you’re spending a fair bit of your time in DAWs — the idea of more animated, gamified music production tools is super exciting to me. We need to make creative tools more playful. That’s where my mind’s at when I play games like Lofi Room.
Play Critters for Sale and Lofi Room.
Want me to check out your game or feature your character in the show intro? HMU.
