Hyper Light Drifter seems to say that if we can’t come to terms with and find peace with the certainty of death, then we can at least acknowledge its presence. The game’s incredible difficulty means that death will become familiar to players, contributing to what Boen Wang perceptively describes as a tone of “melancholy resignation.” The drifter’s brisk … Continue reading Opened World: Fragility
The Awesome Adventures of Captain Spirit, a short prelude to Life is Strange’s sequel, follows the same strategy of centralizing pensive, acoustic indie tracks to aid in our processing of complex character emotions and to create spaces for characters to reflect themselves. In particular, the game takes Sufjan Stevens’s “Death with Dignity” as its primary musical … Continue reading Opened World: Death with Dignity
Journeying as passengers on a boat, characters find themselves at rest and quietly contemplative, though a state of tension underlies this entire act. Shannon worries for Conway, who seems resigned to his indebtedness to the Consolidated Power Company; Johnny waxes poetic about the uncertain road ahead, imagining what his future looks like with Junebug; Ezra … Continue reading Opened World: Kentucky Route Zero Act IV
Interview by Miguel Penabella Originally conducted over two days: March 23, 2018 and April 3, 2018 Edits and introduction written May 21, 2018 Nathalie Lawhead, sometimes known by the pseudonym and Twitter handle alienmelon, boasts a vivid body of work that often frustrates the categories of what it means to be a game and our … Continue reading Player Two: An Interview with Nathalie Lawhead
In an interview with scriptwriter Jake Elliott on the dialogue mechanics of the game, Alex Wiltshire differentiates Kentucky Route Zero from other classic adventure games like those of LucasArts, in which dialogue options typically double back on themselves so that players can explore all possible options. And unlike the world-altering choices of BioWare titles, Kentucky Route Zero avoids foreclosing “good” or … Continue reading Opened World: Kentucky Route Zero Act III
Scenography builds mood and meaning into the theatrical production via choices in stage design that accentuates human performance above all else. This emphasis on performance through scenography informs the architectural spaces of Cardboard Computer’s episodic game Kentucky Route Zero too. Point-and-click adventure games like it often mimic the perspective of the theatergoer viewing a proscenium. They … Continue reading The Scenographic South
[Kentucky Route Zero] Act II’s first scene in the Bureau of Reclaimed Spaces similarly collapses the real and unreal, the past and the present. Shannon, Conway, and his dog arrive at the foot of this six-story concrete office block, which sits inside a massive cathedral alongside a river. Hermit crabs, a docked boat, and a … Continue reading Opened World: Kentucky Route Zero Act II
Excerpt on A Road that May Lead Nowhere Ian MacLarty’s A Road that May Lead Nowhere is a driving game that borrows from a legacy of walker games such as the similarly low-polygon, pastel-colored Proteus. The game features no objective other than to drive down an endless road without destination or other vehicles. As such, the game compels players … Continue reading 2017 in Games: Words on A Road that May Lead Nowhere, The Norwood Suite, & Something Something Soup Something
While the world economy accelerates and adapts to the 24/7 demands of global capitalism, these small rural towns remain inflexible, clinging to the desperate, state-sponsored myth of coal jobs returning even as employment opportunities evaporate with automation, outsourcing, and renewable energy sources. The permanent residents of Kentucky Route Zero are few, but Elkhorn Mine stubbornly stays rooted in … Continue reading Opened World: Kentucky Route Zero Act I
The school is a place of constant surveillance, and a public announcement informs passersby that Bai requests the reporting of students who may be “pro-Communist or show signs of treachery.” Detention links the broad function of surveillance as a policing tool to the simple act of individual observation by foregrounding the affective dimensions of watching and being … Continue reading Opened World: The Horror of History
Invalid Memory 