Games, play, and culture. Interviews with the artists who keep coming back to play as their medium. With Jamin Warren. Weekly newsletter ↓
Los Angeles, CA
Joined December 2009
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A childhood home, rebuilt in pixels that only sharpen when you look closely. Hexin Cai's Out of Focus is a free graduation game from the Bartlett. killscreen.com/hexin-cais-ou…
A reviewer praised the scariest scene in Weapons for playing out in total silence, with no music.
There is music there. The whole scene is scored.
Ryan Holladay wrote it, and says being told nobody noticed is the best compliment he has had. He and Jason Graves on building dread.
killscreen.com/podcast/the-s…
Live at 10am PT today: Space and the Body. A cinematographer and two game makers on how you make a space close in. Come ask them something. Search "Killscreen Space and the Body".
Tue 20 Oct, 10am PT: Space and the Body. I'm talking live with Sophie Winqvist (cinematographer, Aniara), Max Friberg (Eclipsium) and Johanna Kasurinen (Mouthwashing) about how you make a space close in. Free and online. Search "Killscreen Space and the Body"
Tomorrow at 10am PT: Space and the Body, with Sophie Winqvist (cinematographer, Aniara), Max Friberg (Eclipsium) and Johanna Kasurinen (Mouthwashing). Free to join. Search "Killscreen Space and the Body".
In 2010 I asked Mark Essen (@messhof) why he made games that are painful to play. He said he used to get sick making them, then got used to it.
Blood Dungeon, out since August, was mostly animated on a $50 tablet in the car.
killscreen.com/mark-essen-me…
Nikima Jagudajev spent six years staging a high school that never existed, then turned it into a video game. At the opening, one of the performers sat down and played herself.
killscreen.com/nikima-jaguda…
Marketers tell developers not to make puzzle games. The reason: streamers don't like being confused on air. That's a bad reason to lose a whole genre.
Episode 36 of the Killscreen podcast, with Danny Snelson: killscreen.com/the-lake-was-…
The Oregon Trail didn't teach a generation history. It taught us how games work. The more you played, the more you were learning the model, not the frontier.
Ep 36, free. $55/yr locked forever, $96 from 31 Dec: killscreen.com/the-lake-was-…
Danny Snelson on episode 36 of the Killscreen podcast: killscreen.com/the-lake-was-…
When a TV character never comes back, you accept it. In games you never do. Maybe you missed something, maybe the devs hid it. Players can't start grieving the choices they made.
killscreen.com/start/?ref=x — $55/yr locked forever, $96 from 31 Dec.
[TUE 13 OCT — cross-post of the Tue 13 Instagram Reel item. Dead 24 Sep due time cleared. X rejects notification scheduling, so this is automatic + draft: the moment you queue it, it WILL self-publish.]
From episode 36 with Danny Snelson: killscreen.com/the-lake-was-…
Holyvoid is a 168-page art book for a game that doesn't exist. Danny Snelson's argument: the game you hallucinate from the book might beat the one they'd have shipped.
Ep 36, free. $55/yr locked forever, $96 from 31 Dec: killscreen.com/the-lake-was-…
Episode 36 of the Killscreen podcast: killscreen.com/the-lake-was-…
Playlist is normally members-only, one game and one essay every Friday. We unlocked one: Trains Don't Stop, our Sept 11 pick.
$55 for the year, locked at that price as long as you stay. It rises to $96 on 31 December.
killscreen.com/trains-dont-s…
Six years. One central move: a caress.
Jonathan Coryn's Player Non Player puts you on an island with four grieving figures and asks you to hold them until you understand how they grieve.
I asked him about mortality as a design material. @corjn
killscreen.com/player-non-pl…
