Kill Screen Magazine's Blog, page 218

Digital Parents Just Don���t Understand

Since the time of Arthurian legend the cultural narrative of the Teen Chosen to Save the World has been about as close to a universal theme as it gets

Discover the secret life of dogs in upcoming game Home Free

Meet Dax.

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Since I've known him, he's always been a really happy guy. But Dax started a good portion of his young life without me. All I know is that, at about five months of age, he was surrendered at the local ACCT with a clipped ear, grossly emaciated, dehydrated, and covered in his own excrement. A few days after Christmas, New Life Animal Rescue picked him up— all 12.5 pounds of him— and nursed him back to health. The woman who took him in said that, by the way he looked at her in the car on the way home, she could tell Dax "knew he was rescued." And by that she meant Dax knew he could stop feeling alone, lost, and afraid.

I don't know if Dax was really thinking that as he left the pound—or, for that matter, what he was feeling those first five months of his life. Today, I think Dax feels so comfortable in his environment, he pretty much assumes I'm the guest.

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Dax is a good dude. I know that for a fact. But I often wonder who he is without me (and all my anthropomorphizing). Who is this four-legged creature when he is devoid of my companionship, when he is just a dog and not my dog?

We often have a hard time thinking about dogs outside of a human context. And I don't bring Dax's story up as a harrowing tale about my or the rescue organization's "generosity" (to reiterate: I am not the dog parent from that Amy Schumer skit). I bring it up as a demonstration of just how unavoidably affected dog's are by human existence. I bring Dax's story up as a demonstration of just how uninviting we've made our world for the animals we've evolved to become entirely dependent on us. It's a human-eat-human world out there, and for the millions of dogs and cats left homeless each year in the U.S. alone, they know how rough it can get.

how unavoidably affected dog's are by human existence 

For the longest time, I've wanted to experience just a little of what my doofus dog (who can't walk up the stairs without tripping) must've experienced when he thought he had to fend for himself in a human world. And for New York-based designer Kevin Cancienne, that's exactly what inspired his dog-em-up game Home Free, which just launched a Kickstarter today.

In Home Free, you play as a dog let loose on a procedurally generated city full of humans, food, playgrounds, and other dogs. As the Kickstarter video demonstrates, you are inexplicably left without your human in this unruly world, which means you must forage for shelter, scraps, and friends wherever you can find them.

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In a past interview with Kill Screen, Cancienne explained that, to him, one of the biggest appeals about exploring the life of a stray dog was just "how alienating it can all be. As a dog, the city wasn't made for you. You're the wrong shape and the wrong size and there are tons of places you're not welcome and you don't quite understand how it's all supposed to work."

It's up to you as the player to figure out how to survive in a world where you're ability to communicate with the dominant species basically comes down to begging or stealing. A few are willing to help. But mostly, humans prove to be either afraid, annoyed, or angered by your presence. Other dogs aren't much better, either, out of the need to defend their own territory or out of a more basic mistrust of others. But, as the Kickstarter campaign says, things can go better given the right circumstances. After all, "A sniff, a chase, and a romp through a park is all it takes to seal a friendship."

You might remember Home Free from its earlier days as the local multiplayer known as Dog Park, which premiered last year at NYU's No Quarter show. Added as a bonus mode to Home Free, the dog park mode proves a much more laid back experience, where your friends can know the joys of human-free doggie playtime.

Cancienne says this portion of the game was “inspired by the non-zero-sum dynamics dogs show in play.” Without a points system or a scoreboard to keep track of who's winning or losing, the canine play style proves much more freeing than your typical videogame. Because, “when it comes to play, the dog’s only goal is to keep on having more fun." So, understandably, you're only struggle in dog park mode (besides wrasslin', barkin', and wagglin') is to get one more tug of war out of your best doggie friend.

"you don't quite understand how it's all supposed to work." 

Though, if you're a dog owner, you know that no matter how good the simulator is, no human could ever live up to the stamina for enjoyment, love, and fun the average dog has. I guess for that, we'll have to wait until Home Free is playable on the Oculus or something.

You can support Home Free on Kickstarter here. Also, be sure to follow Cancienne on Twitter for daily dog GIFs and vines to brighten your day.

Darling is a stunning psychohorror chamber piece

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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Mickey Keating's Darling is a lovingly-crafted Polanski mixtape. If the idea of “Repulsion, but also The Tenant” gets your juices flowing, stop reading here and find a way to watch it.

Indie stalwart Lauren Ashley Carter (Jug Face, The Woman) gives an incredible performance as a woman (only called “Darling” in the film) beset both by trauma and supernatural assault; she’s withdrawn, awkward, savage, enraged, and terrifying by turns. It’s really her show: other actors pop in and out but Carter dominates the majority of the film.

Darling is the new caretaker of a luxe New York apartment, and slowly finds herself coming under the spell of a mysteriously locked room upstairs. To say any more about the story would literally constitute a full plot synopsis. Keating and company (special mention goes to editor Valerie Krulfeifer) conjure an atmosphere of bleak dread, punctuated by ruthless, liberally-deployed jump scares and made beautiful by luminescent black-and-white cinematography, assaultive sound design, and a sort of addled, hazy jazz score that on several occasions lurches into grindcore.

such confident abandon 

This is the type of movie—tone-heavy, stylish, minimal—that is really, really difficult to get right. Darling knows that. That’s why it’s a cool 78 minutes. There’s not enough time for its tricks to wear thin. It doesn’t go anywhere unexpected, and in fact takes a few turns that irked me in other recent horror movies: but it executes with such white-knuckle style, such confident abandon, that it’s mesmerizing. Everyone involved in this thing gives it their fucking all, and the result is one of the best movies I've seen in a long time, festival or no festival.

Get ready to unlock Pavilion's beautiful architectural puzzles later this year

Pavilion doesn’t explain itself. The kind souls at Visiontrick Media have left that to scribes and, as was announced today, owners of PC, Mac, and Linux computers by the end of the year.

Let’s give it a try, shall we? (The new trailer below should help.)

Pavilion is a puzzle. What isn’t? As was previously mentioned, the game does not come with instructions; it just drops you into its puzzle and lets you figure things out. And why wouldn’t you want to figure these things out? Pavilion is a fascinating mix of architectural styles, as if every spooky corner of the world had fallen through a black hole and wound up in some alternate universe. Floating on islands in the gameworld are huts and secret rooms and columns and they all shouldn’t really be going together but, well, here they are. There are also stairs…so many stairs.

Where do the stairs go? Well, that’s kind of the point, isn’t it? Pavilion mixes the mechanics of a maze, the stairlike structure of Monument Valley, and the unfolding nature of Tengami. You have to learn as you go, but at a certain point learning and discovery are really the same thing.

learning and discovery are really the same thing 

There are locks in Pavilion, some of which are even literal. For the most part, however, Pavilion is a metaphorical lock, the kind of space that can be opened up but only if you follow a specific sequence and take the time to understand how it works. In this case, you are the key. You don’t know it yet, because if you knew you were the key, everything would just click into place. But that is what you are, and you’ll just have to learn on the job. 

Behind the new technology that makes gaming more accessible

Video games have not traditionally played well with visual impairments, but that could be ending.

The gaudy, meme-filled Dark Souls II mod that the internet loves to hate

Meme Souls in full-swing.

Sleep your way through the layered worlds of Dream

An amusing—if flawed—game about grief and self-exploration.

Imber grants us a glimpse of its subtle domestic horrors

There isn’t a lot that happens in this short video of Imber, but that’s a good thing; it makes the ending that much weirder and left me wanting to know more.

Imber, like Allison Road, seems to be concerned with exploring the horror of a familiar space. The video depicts your character waking up in a small home and exploring the various living areas before an odd noise draws them back out into the main room.

the right kind of weird 

The sound is strange. It’s hard to pinpoint exactly what it sounds like and because it’s a video, the source is unknown. Even stranger, though, is the sight back in the main room: raised arms sprouting shoulder-deep from the hardwood floor, caught in slow-motion waves as if they’re trying to grasp a cliff’s edge.

As the character’s heart starts audibly beating faster (an irritating effect, in my opinion), they venture out to investigate the arms, which results in them being smacked to the ground with a sound effect that’s almost comical.

According to a post on the Unreal Engine forums, Imber has only been in development for a few months, so some of the awkward things in this video are understandable. Even at this early stage, though, it has potential. It nails down the right kind of weird that I love in horror games and the graphics are lovely too. An update would be very welcome.

If P.T. is taking over Slender as the new go-to horror game for developers to emulate, I probably wouldn’t complain. There was a subtlety and uncanniness to P.T.’s horror that’s unparalleled in the poorly aging Slender formula of 1. collect objects while trying to 2. outrun scary thing. If P.T. gives us more things like Imber and Allison Road, I welcome the shift in inspirations.

You can see more screenshots of Imber on its developer’s Twitter.

Jotun's gorgeous hand-drawn Viking woman action is out now

Only Vikings that die a valiant death in the eyes of the Gods can enter Valhalla. Thora is not one of them. The just released action-adventure game Jotun follows Thora in her quest to impress the Gods following an inglorious demise.

What stands out immediately about Jotun is its hand-drawn art, which is on full display in its launch trailer below.

Its range of environments, from grassy woods and ancient mines to mythical planes among the stars, capture the cartoonish, but epic majesty of Disney adventures, and its music works just as well to ground the gallant nature of Thora’s quest.

Jotun is rooted in Norse mythology, a tradition that medieval fantasy games often borrow from, but rarely base themselves on in full. The Banner Saga, for instance, is another gorgeous hand-drawn game inspired by Vikings, but with its own original mythos to draw from. Jotun, however, features characters and concepts pulled directly from Norse legends. The team has written about these influences more extensively on their blog.

You can buy Jotun now on Steam.

The Stanley Parable creator announces The Beginner's Guide for October 1st

Whatever it was that Davey Wreden put out after The Stanley Parable it was bound to be met with critical and expecting eyes. You can't make a game that deconstructs the notion of player choice with such gall and humor and avoid having your next creation heavily examined by everyone that plays it. Such is the pressure on Wreden as he announces The Beginner's Guide today. 

He's dealing with that pressure by keeping information on the game tightly locked down. As such, I have played The Beginner's Guide but cannot tell you anything about that experience. Instead, I have a list of things I can reveal to you, and it is a small one. This is what you get: "Davey Wreden, writer of The Stanley Parable, will be launching his new game The Beginner's Guide on October 1, 2015. A teaser website can be found at thebeginnersgui.de."

Are you satisfied with that? 

Don't worry, there is a little more. Have a chew on this while wondering how on Earth you could follow up something like The Stanley Parable: "The Beginner's Guide is a narrative, first-person video game that will be available on Windows and Mac." Are you satisfied with that? I'm not. I wish I could discuss the game a whole lot more but am being asked kindly to refrain and keep it bottled up until this Thursday. Luckily, that's only a couple of days away. 

Oh wait, I lied, there is a little more. Yes, you get screenshots. A few of them in fact. Take a look at the one above, then move your eyes to the ones below. Enjoy that while you can because that really is all you're getting. For now...