Kill Screen Magazine's Blog, page 251

Dropsy, the clown game, is still decidedly horrifying and loveable

Remember Dropsy, everyone's favorite clown/nightmare fuel? For those who don't remember, Dropsy first began as a good joke on the Something Awful forums in 2004 and quickly spiraled into The Creepy Clown Game That Could, with over a decades worth of tumultuous development history, including: an almost-successful Kickstarter, then an overly-successful Kickstarter, before finally arriving at a publishing deal with Devolver Digital. Dropsy survived it all, his painted red smile unwavering (because it's painted) and bulbous body #ready to do nightmarish clown stuff like hug trees.

The Little Creepy Clown Game That Could 

Dropsy flourished from weird internet thing into weird videogame thing over that decade and is now described as a "non-traditional" take on the classic point-and-click adventure game. Though specific story details still prove elusive, we know the contast between Dropsy's sunny disposition and horrible luck/homicidal appearance remain at the heart of this bizarre joke. After a tragic fire shuts down his family's circus, Dropsy finds himself adrift in a world that misunderstands him. To fill the empty, clown-shaped hole in his life, he takes to "comforting" strangers and painting "smiley faces" on everything from trees to his dog.

Fantastic news, @DropsyTheClown keeps his inventory in his pants. #pants http://t.co/s3yCxAbapT pic.twitter.com/77AvyfSCGf

— Devolver Digital (@devolverdigital) July 16, 2015

Those who watched Dropsy bloom from a mutant clown baby into a bonafide videogame will be happy to hear that creator Jay Tholen announced development would finally reach its conclusion in August. Though there's no set release date yet, he assured Kickstarter backers it'd be announced "soon." In the meantime, Tholen continues to provide a slow drip of GIFs and feature updates to tide fans over. And the more we learn about Dropsy through said GIFs, the more we fall in love with him (though, not all of us).

Here's @DropsyTheClown twerking. [drops mic] http://t.co/s3yCxAbapT pic.twitter.com/Ql779uuOh9

— Devolver Digital (@devolverdigital) July 13, 2015

A tweet from Devolver Digital, for example, showcased Dropsy's twerking skills—skills I'd probably best describe as "severe." While everyone's favorite yellow-toothed clown drops down and gets his eagle on, his ever-faithful puppy companion gazes upon his owner's ample bottom with stony-faced respect. Another update reveals that "Eughh (the cute lil' puppy) can now take a leak on stuff. He prefers fire hydrants, or things vaguely hydrant shaped." And if you're rolling your eyes right now, asking yourself what some stupid virtual clown-puppy's piss could possibly have to do with anything, Tholen also explicitly stated this feature would play an active role in the story.

One beta tester tweeted out praise for another surprisingly useful/useless feature: a dedicated fart button on the save screen, who's sole purpose is to make tooting noises and cheer up potentially frustrated players. It's a thematically relevant function, too, because another GIF demonstrates Dropsy "taking an adventurous dump" in a port-a-potty—a feature I'm sure will either a) be the solution to the final puzzle, or b) serve as another excuse to listen to more fart noises.

"I can't begin to express how excited I am. sADMASkfsdmfksdmfmntyrtydfkmsl," exclaims Tholen at the end of the Kickstarter update. "Seriously, this game is going to blow your clown shoes off."

Unmask corrupt Mexican politics with this surreal art installation

For some, it was only a matter of time before Mexico's most infamous drug lord escaped. After being captured just last February, Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman spent less than 18 months in police custody before it was discovered last weekend that he was no longer in his cell. Instead, prison security discovered a hole that led down into an elaborate tunnel complete with lighting and air conditioning, an engineering feat more likely the result of rampant corruption than the tenacious resourcefulness of one man. For a country at war with its drug cartels, the failure of Mexico’s government to keep Guzman locked up has become symbolic of the growing distrust between the country’s people and their government

In a recent online art installation, the group Vngravity tries to articulate this cynicism by examining it at the highest office. Rather than look at Mexico's worst criminals, it turns its gaze to the people in charge of bringing them to justice, like the country's President, Enrique Peña Nieto. The exhibition, titled Dreamhouse takes place in and around Casa Blanca, a reconstruction of the presidential residence as interpreted by the show’s artists.

"a postcard about illicit luxury"

Unlike Guzman, Peña Nieto did not grow up living in extreme poverty. Instead of working his way up the ranks of Mexico’s criminal underworld, he negotiated his way out of the middleclass and into the top tier politics. Peña Nieto won over Mexico’s voters with his charming looks and polished intelligence, but Dreamhouse asks whether he’s not more of an opportunist parasite than a national savior. Even before Guzman escaped, the spectre of shady land deals and cronyism has tarnished Peña Nieto's legacy in recent years.

Depicting the home of Peña Nieto “had international resonance as a postcard about illicit luxury, thug practices of the elites,” the artists behind the project explained. “But the satiric tone makes it not a local issue, but a global view of squandering.” In Dreamhouse, pop culture references abound, including some subtle nods to Mexican political literature. While the crushed husk of a Peugeot sports car on the front lawn and 50 Cent’s “P.I.M.P.” playing in the background make the installation’s agenda clear, other artifacts sprinkled throughout the compound leave the experience feeling more surreal and ambiguous.

Built using Unity, players explore the Dreamhouse’s 3D space by walking, jumping, and looking. Unlike most digital first-person perspectives, the camera bounces in-sync with the player’s footsteps instead of gliding weightlessly along a fixed-point. The result is a perspective that feels grounded. It’s a small detail, but one that goes a long way toward bridging the space between the audience and the installation, helping the experience of navigating Dreamhouse through an internet browser more closely approximate what it would be like to walk through the exhibit if it existed in real life.

The democratizing of gallery spaces in this way is a core priority not just for this show but the group’s upcoming ones as well. "Vngravity is a project that is trying to redefine how galleries work around the world,” the group explains on its website. Since the spatial and financial constraints of live galleries can limit their reach, Vngravity wants to democratize distribution by focusing on digital art. “We feel this system will give artists more visibility around the world and that it will also open up new perspectives of how a work of art can be sold and purchased.”

Since the "terrain" of the online gallery changes every few months, Dreamhouse will likely only be available to the public until the end of the summer.

In honor of Arkham Knight, we replayed the worst Batman games ever made

The Idiot Adventures of Batman and Robin.

Shrugging Off Mental Illness in Rise of the Tomb Raider

Lara Croft should be allowed to have moments of weakness.

You'll be able to enter the fevered mind of a game developer in One Dreamer

There is currently no shortage of games. Imagine a game, any game—a small game, a weird game, a psychedelic game, whatever—and there are probably twelve versions of it online. This is great. The more the merrier. But as one processes the daily deluge of wonderful little oddities, it’s hard not to wonder what on earth was going through developers’ minds as they made these games.

One Dreamer, which is currently raising funds on Kickstarter, is a game that offers a glimpse into the fevered mind of a fictional game developer named Frank. Said developer divides his time between two levels of consciousness: reality, where he solves puzzles like an amateur sleuth; and a dream state wherein he ventures through an unpredictable environment. “Franks actions and decisions during both states will affect the story's conclusion,” writes One Dreamer’s creator, Gareth Ffoulkes. (Let us not speculate as to how Ffoulkes came to have this idea for a meta-game. Doing so would set off an infinite regress.) 

All games are the product of their creators’ lived experiences. (This, incidentally, is why diversity in the videogame world is so desperately important.) It is, however imperative that videogame journalists not address this dynamic by projecting motivations onto creators. Not all games are the product of Freudian issues or Nyquil, even if it feels like that some day. One Dreamer will therefore offer up the rare opportunity to go into a developer’s mind and see what makes him tick. Short of brain scans, it might currently be the best chance we’ve got. 

Shut up and go stream Advantageous, a feminist sci-fi stunner now on Netflix

A quietly great new sci-fi film is on Netflix. You should watch it. Like, right now.

The infographics world of Metrico is being blown up for bigger screens

Metrico was released in August of last year as a PS Vita exclusive. A puzzle platformer from Dutch studio Digital Dreams, the game is set in a world of moving, living infographics. Colorful pie charts dot the landscape. Jutting line graphs become three dimensional mountains in the backdrop. Bar graphs rise and fall in accordance with your movements.

"we want more people to enjoy the world we created" 

In a genre rife with stylistic sameness, Metrico took an interesting approach, albeit with mixed reception. If there's one thing that it certainly could have used more of, though, it's this: availability! That’s why Dutch Dreams is working on Metrico+, a new version of the game built for PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One, set to launch in Q1 2016.

"The PlayStation Vita is a fantastic platform with a great audience, but we want more people to enjoy the world we created," says lead designer Geert Nellen.

According to Dutch Dreams, Metrico+ will feature revamped visuals, additional worlds, and newly designed puzzles, all built specifically for these new platforms. Much of the original Metrico relied on Vita-specific technology, including touch and motion. It'll be interesting to see how the puzzles rooted in these mechanisms will differ in Metrico+ when it launches next year.

Devastated Dreams will finally give airtime to the terror of becoming a mom

Dadification is out. Momification has only just begun.

Splendor exhibits all the challenges of going from tabletop to tablet

Does a great boardgame make a great videogame? Not necessarily.

Interactive documentary has you use the world as a musical instrument

The world is an infinite musical instrument. This is the prevailing idea across the interactive documentary Soundhunters. And it doesn't mean in the way as I understood it in my college days, drumming out beats onto desk corners with my fingers; it's less deliberate than that. The idea is to listen intently to the everyday sounds around you, record them, and then bring them together to create a musical tapestry from natural noise. "Today, every sound can be recorded, hijacked, manipulated and reinvented into an original musical creation. That is how a soundhunter works," reads the project's documentation.

To demonstrate this, the documentary is split into four, each part following an electronic musician as they head into a city to find a story through the sounds. Ethiopian music producer Mikael Seifu heads into Lagos—Nigeria's most populous city—to discover the role of Pidgin English in its communities. Electronic musician Daedalus explores the German-Turkish cultural identity in Berlin with a 19-year-old who has a passion for boxing. American artist Simonne Jones travels to Sao Paulo, Brazil to meet Guarani Indians who can barely keep their language, land, and culture alive. Lastly, UK musician Luke Vibert heads to New York to find the city's worldly poets and discover how they all express human experiences.

As you can tell by those listed subjects, each documentary ends up being about much more than listening to sounds. It gives insight into identity, cultural struggles, and the busy lives of people who are pressed hard to survive, or to preserve the heritage they carry. The discussions on the importance of language and of folk songs bleed into scrutiny on history and how it has shaped the present day situation. Then there are short snippets that explain why a phrase or sound might be common to hear in a particular area, delving into the significance of it. An outstanding example is the call of the "Pure Water" hawkers in Lagos who try to make a sale from the estimated 112 million Nigerians who don't have access to clean drinking water (turns out that "Pure Water" isn't that pure either).

Why is that sound heard there? 

In each documentary there are a bunch of sounds that you "collect" while watching. At any point you can hit the hashtag button at the top of the screen to see your collection and read why they've been selected in particular, as well as replay them. Once the documentary is finished, you can take these sounds into Soundhunter's CREATE studio to mix them into some surprisingly catchy rhythms. It's not complex to use at all, and that is the whole point, as it's designed so that anyone can remix the car horns and singing voices out in the streets, contributing to a "social and international music experience."

It goes further than this, too. Soundhunters (or the people behind it, at least) invites you to record sounds from your own environment by downloading its app on your smartphone. Anything you record can be taken straight into the CREATE studio just the same as before. Change the tempo, refresh the samples that are used, alter the mood by clicking a symbol that only abstractly suggests what it may represent: play around.

Hopefully, inspired by the documentaries you've watched, you'll be selective in the sounds you pick out when out in the field, smartphone at the ready. You hear the noises you'd typically let go in one ear and out the other, and you pay attention to them, analyzing them for their significance instead of passing them by. Why is that sound heard there? What does it say about your environment? You'll probably never hear the place you inhabit in the same way again. Go to these lengths and you can bring this to your reinvention of the world as heard by you in the music generator. 

You can watch and create with Soundhunters on its website. You can download the Soundhunters app on the App Store.