Kill Screen Magazine's Blog, page 332

Murasaki Baby makes parenting seem impossible

Lending a helping hand.

Hatoful Boyfriend isn’t quite as weird as it thinks

What would it be like to truly love a bird?

Creator of Clock Tower announces "the ultimate J-horror experience"

"There is no terror in the bang, only in the anticipation of it." - Alfred Hitchcock

Hifumi Kouno, creator of the classic 1995 Japanese horror franchise Clock Tower, announced an upcoming spiritual successor to the series, to be developed by a small studio with some very big names, called Nude Maker.

The game's working title, Project Scissors, is a clear reference to the franchise's original villain: a psychopathic nine-year-old boy wielding an enormous pair of scissors that appears to be a deformed attic child of sorts. The series was praised for its emphasis on more subtle psychological scares, relying on the fear of a vulnerable avatar constantly stalked like prey, rather than a gun-toting bad ass a la Dead Space. Kuono says that, moving forward, development of Project Scissors will remain "focused on staying true to the essence of what I created in Clock Tower," which he defines as "edge-of-the-seat suspense and fear of an unknown."

Aside from Kuono, several other Japanese Fathers of Frights are signed up to develop Project Scissors. Silent Hill 1-3 monster designer Masahiro Ito will lend his delightfully grotesque talents. Film director Takashi Shimizu, the man responsible for Ju-On and its American remake The Grudge, is serving as not only a story collaborator, but also directing an upcoming live-action trailer for the game. (Which: ugh, live-action trailers.)

The middle-of-the-ocean setting certainly seems ripe for inescapable suspense. 

The story takes place on a luxury cruise ship, where a series of gruesome murders attacking both passengers and crew members leads you into a mystery-solving adventure to find the culprit. The middle-of-the-ocean setting certainly seems ripe for the inescapable suspense that the original game excelled at. If it mimics its predecessor, players should expect object puzzles that trigger unpredictable encounters with a blood-thirsty villain.

Project Scissors is slated to release on Vita, iOS, and Android. It hopes to deliver the "ultimate J-horror experience" to players, while in the process proving "that the Japanese game industry and its indie spirit is still very much alive and kicking."

First small glimpse of Submerged paints a brother, sister and a mysterious gate

We've been watching Submerged, the new future release from the Australians at Uppercut Games, since it was quietly announced this summer. They posted on their development blog that they are going for a kind of “destroyed beauty,” which we so often see in these games about exploring ramshackle solitary worlds, like Vane and Cylne.

But in the case of Submerged, it's a world that's undergone environmental change. And given the world's focus on climate change and that more than 300,000 people marched on Wall Street to demand changes in our climate policy, the timing couldn't be better.

Uppercut's already released some screenshots, but earlier today, they released a short and enigmatic clip from their forthcoming title. See it below. We'll be keeping an eye on this!

Roadside Assistance Simulator lets you live the thrill of an AAA serviceperson

Nothing beats waiting.

Big Pharma combines pretty pastel color scheme with withering cynicism

British Developer Twice Encircled has announced Big Pharma, a game which puts you in the deeply conflicted shoes of a c-level suit at a pharmaceutical conglomerate. It follows the Tycoon playbook: soft, twee visual design over top a game of space and resource management. As in the canonical Kairosoft and Tycoon games, you'll tirelessly work to minimize some numbers and maximize others, tweaking an optimal profit with nary a thought to the souls you employ.

Big Pharma, obviously, takes it one step further: you're not building railroads or videogames here but pills, which might cure diseases, make people happier, or give them back their hair. (I'm guesstimating here.) At least in its advertising, it takes a cynical slant on the ethics of the industry: 

Side effects may vary: 1 in 10 players may become empathically challenged. 1 in 100 may see disease and suffering solely as a business opportunity. 1 in 1000 players may become megalomaniacal. 1 in 10,000 may become seriously addicted. (So few? Don’t believe everything you read on the label).

In these sentiments and in its title, the game echoes the 2006 book Big Pharma, in which investigative journalist Jacky Law uncovered an industry rife with corruption, collusion, and drugs that straight-up don't work. We've seen other recent games tackle real-world issues with grace and empathy—particularly Papers, Please, but also Prison Architect, The Westport Independent and the work of Nicky Case. Big Pharma aims to follow in these footsteps when it comes out next summer. 

Videogames realize the full daunting potential of brutalism

Singmetosleep follows NaissanceE in mountainous scope and brutalist intimidation.

Oculus keynote answers question if women have a place in virtual worlds

I have seen the future of virtual reality.

A few of you lucky souls will spend this weekend playing Hyper Light Drifter

Heart Machine have announced that their ultra-pretty, color-filled apocalypse Hyper Light Drifter will be getting a preview release this weekend. Kickstarter backers will find a Steam code in their inboxes this Friday, and it'll work until Sunday at midnight. 

In a helpful bit of semantics, they're pointedly not calling this a beta release. "Beta isn't exactly the right term," they note. "Some game features are locked, some have been hidden, others are being refined, and content is always being generated for the world." While the decision to release the game at all at this point is ultimately just a financial one, something in me likes the notion that it's not a "good enough for the world, I guess" beta release but an experience created to be played early. As we learned from P.T., a tightly composed experience can be infinitely more alluring than some big unfinished chunk of game. 

Let's talk about periods with the two badass high schoolers who made Tampon Run

"I jokingly said 'Maybe we can make a game where someone throws tampons at people's faces.'"