Kill Screen Magazine's Blog, page 217

Lara Croft Go reminds us that Lara sometimes raids tombs

It just doesn’t want us to actually explore them

Mushroom 11���s new trailer demonstrates growth through destruction

It’s amazing how far Mushroom 11 has come from its original 2012 prototype.

The theme of that year's Global Game Jam was an image of the Ouroboros, a serpent eating its own tail. Creators Itay Keren and Julia Keren-Detar took this concept of cyclicality and gave it new life in Mushroom 11, which put you in control of a constantly regenerating blob that must shed parts of itself to move forward.

In that first prototype, the only obstacle was moving from platform to platform, but Mushroom 11 as it is today, over three years later and set to launch on October 15th, is so much more. It looks great, it sounds great, and it plays even greater.

Check out its launch trailer below.

In Mushroom 11, the only way to make progress is to destroy yourself, and it’s amazing how many different ways there are to do it. Everything from movement to puzzle solving to fighting bosses requires a careful trimming of your own amorphous self to advance. Split in two to reach a button and the door it opens at the same time. Shape yourself just right to latch onto moving machinery, launch yourself out of the water, or climb a cliff.

Within seconds of playing Mushroom 11, all of this makes sense. Problems arise and the shape of the solution forms in your head just as fluidly and naturally as the movements needed to pull it off.

See more of Mushroom 11 on its Steam page.

A platformer in which you don���t move the character

Cerulean Moon has an idea of how to fix the touchscreen platformer

Green Room is a merciless, punk-as-sh*t siege movie

We're at Fantastic Fest this week and are bringing you impressions of our favorite films shown at the event. For all of our hot, hot takes, head over here.

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"I like murder," Green Room director Jeremy Saulnier confessed in a post-screening Q&A. This comes as no surprise.

You might know Saulnier's 2013 film Blue Ruin. If not, imagine a revenge movie where the protagonist does literally everything wrong. I wasn't hot on that movie: it just didn't click with me.

But Green Room? Green Room tore my face off. It's a ferocious action flick about a punk band who stumble on a murder (there it is!) and have to fight for their lives against a horde of white supremacists led by a restrained, imposing Patrick Stewart.

The film is beautifully crafted. It's the first film Saulnier hasn't shot himself, instead enlisting DP Sean Porter (Kumiko, the Treasure Hunter). Porter does an amazing job. It's shot on digital and given an ethereal, earthy color treatment; shots are framed with purpose and put together with care. And the soundtrack! Jesus Christ, the soundtrack. It's stacked with 80s hardcore and a bevy of hesher favorites from Midnight to Napalm Death. Slayer's "War Machine" plays under a pivotal scene. The film understands the culture it's portraying down to the 20-eye Docs, which lets it smartly fold in subtext to the action.

The Ain't Rights antagonize their fascist audience early on with a cover of "Nazi Punks Fuck Off," which sets up an ideological conflict between them and their attackers. The band wields hardcore's throat-shredding intensity in service of left-wing politics ("music is for effect," they say); the skinhead audience they're fucking with (one character stresses they're not neo-Nazis, specifically) holds "racial advocacy workshops" on the venue's off days.

Pure bliss

Saulnier said his intent with the film was not to go highbrow after the success of Blue Ruin. If the guy next to me recoiling, covering his eyes, and gasping in his seat is any indication, Saulnier's got nothing to worry about. This is a hideously violent movie: knife wounds, dog bites, shotgun blasts, and a gutting-by-box cutter are given nauseatingly effective effects treatment. Between the gore, the smart script, and the music it's pure bliss from start to finish.

As for an "emotional arc?" Keep an eye on that wandering dog.

Download an artist's psychedelic trip by stepping into Ixian Gate

With the invention of the internet and smartphones, many people now have the ability to pull a knowledge box out of their pocket and look at almost any great work of art at a moment's notice. Remarkably convenient as this is, there’s still something to be said for going to a museum in person. 

When viewing a painting with one's own eyes, it can be easier to gain an appreciation for the scale and texture of the work, qualities which might not translate as easily to a JPEG. But still, museums always carry with them a sense of distance, as patrons are encouraged to step back from artworks and give them proper space. This produces a sort of sterile environment which can make it difficult to fully immerse oneself in the art being displayed. What if all those boundaries were removed, and by simply strapping on a headset, you were able to step into the world of the artwork itself?

This is exactly what virtual reality project Ixian Gate hopes to accomplish. A collaboration between geometric illustrator Jess Johnson and video maker Simon Ward, Ixian Gate hopes to translate the surreal 2D landscapes of Johnson’s paintings into full 3D worlds which exhibit attendees can then view through an Oculus Rift.

step into the world of the artwork itself 

"With this technology, I don't have to tell someone what my psychedelic drug experience is," Johnson told The Creator’s Project when they interviewed her about the project in July. "I can put the headset on them and download that experience into their brain."

From what I've seen of Ixian Gate in the trailer, I wouldn't mind getting the number of Johnson's dealer, if you know what I'm saying. Aside from that, at less than a minute long, its psychedelic imagery at times feels like the next evolution of the kaleidoscope and at others a horrifying spice overdose, complete with giant worms.

Check out Ixian Gate for yourself when it opens at Melbourne’s National Gallery Victoria as part of Johnson’s Worm Haus exhibit this December.

The Art Ludique museum in Paris agrees that videogames are, indeed, art

French museum Art Ludique Museum presents "the art of videogames"

France just put on the first big international exhibition dedicated to videogame art

Pippin Barr alludes to the creative possibilities of games by breaking Breakout

The possibility and fragility of videogames.

Here is the old Bernie Sanders videogame that we aren't ready to forget

Melancholia is meant to be seen on the largest screen possible. Reruns of Law and Order SVU are meant to be seen on your laptop. Puppy gifs are meant to be seen on your phone. (OK, that’s a lie. Puppy gifs are meant to be seen anywhere and everywhere.) From each according to its content, to each according to its screen. 

a sentient dad joke who can play his part in memes 

The optimal context for Bernie Sanders’ content is the Internet Archive’s “Way Back Machine,” a digital place in which everything takes on the quality of recent history. By virtue of the internet's relative recency in our lives, everything in this archive is both of this past and yet very much of this era. Bernie, as the senator from Vermont and presidential candidate that seems to always be called, is the sort of dinosaur who has aged particularly well online, a sentient dad joke who can play his part in memes more nonchalantly than try-hards like Jeb Bush or Hilary Clinton.

As such, behold the videogame Bernie Sanders posted on his website while running for reelection in 2006. It’s a doozy.

No, your eyes are not deceiving you. This is indeed a game in which Bernie Sanders is strapped into a vintage plane and must fly through a storm of mudslingers, right-wingers, moneyed special interest, and fat cats. Literally. And yes, Sanders fights off his opponents with facts. Those facts, printed on rolled-up scrolls, look an awful lot like holy documents or the constitution. In a parallel, Republican universe, those scrolls would indeed be holy documents or the constitution. But this is Bernieland, so they are facts—whatever those are. 

Can a game be more 2006 than one in which the left thinks it can prevail on facts? FACTS!!! In 2006, Jon Stewart was still on the air and his shtick had more to do with fact checking than representing his audience’s valiant exhaustion. In 2006, being right about Iraq was a badge of honour for many on the left, Sanders included. Leftist righteousness in 2006 was all about facts. All of which is to say that Sanders’ little side-scroller is more 2006 than High School Musical, Paris Hilton’s debut single* “Stars Are Blind,” and D4L’s “Laffy Taffy.”

The mechanics of Sanders’ game have aged in much the same manner as the man himself. On the one hand, Sanders’ narrative is still all about fending off private interests, Republicans, and fat cats. Indeed, Sanders’ appeal is that he’s always stood for basically the same things. (This doctrinal inflexibility can also be his main drawback. The game, like much of his rhetoric, is about class and money, leaving other sources of inequality by the wayside.) That the version of the game preserved by the Internet Archive looks dated only serves to reinforce Sanders’ bona fides. He appears to have always been like this, and therein lies his appeal.

this is all a horrible idea. 

But the world—and America—has changed since 2006. “We believe in facts,” is still a liberal mantra, but the conviction that facts can prevail has taken a beating. Nine more years of banging your head against a wall will do that to almost anyone. In those years, the landscape that a lone crusader like Sanders’ videogame avatar must traverse has also changed. The fat cats are still around, but post-Citizens United, the sky might be too crowded for air traffic control to let a plane like Bernie’s take off.

Therein lies the appeal of Bernie Sanders’ game and of his candidacy. If you’re just doing the math—calculating probabilities, looking at meteorology to avoid a storm of literal and metaphorical fat cats, worrying about the marginal voter and the marginal voter alone—this is all a horrible idea. It really shouldn’t work and probably won’t. But isn’t it romantic to imagine that a candidate who has been doing this forever—a candidate whose internet archive backs up that claim—could prevail anyhow? Bernie Sanders’ videogame is simplistic, antiquated, and loveable. His presidential campaign should rerelease it immediately.

How Middle Eastern game makers can counteract Western misconceptions

Understanding Islamic culture through locally made games.

Kill 'em with kindness and love in Undertale, an RPG unlike most others

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Undertale (PC, Mac) 
BY Toby Fox

You might say Undertale is unique due to its passive battle system. Certainly, allowing you to choose whether to flirt or fight with every monster you encounter is unconventional for an RPG. But what makes Undertale a truly notable title is how it makes metaphors out of mechanics. Most videogames give you a sword, creatures to kill, and a reward for doing so. There's not a lot of room for interpretation. Undertale, mimicking real life, renders conflict a puzzle to be finessed and solved through mediation skills. Rather than skipping through dialogue, you listen intently to your opponent, since the secret to defeating them without force is often masked by some allegorical sentiment. You must defeat your opponent not by manipulating their strengths and weaknesses, but instead by mitigating their wants and desires. It's a world bursting with not only humor, but poetry: a love letter to what videogames can be when they think outside the box.

Perfect for: Flirts, good-hearted bunny monsters, those who missed out on earthbound

Playtime: About seven hours