LIKELIKE's year closed with a party for Future? No Thanks!
Paolo Pedercini's Molleindustria cast an ecosocialist Pittsburgh from a volunteer theater's regulars, then brought it back to the neighborhood.
On Friday, Oct. 2, LIKELIKE, the neo-arcade Paolo Pedercini directs at 205 N. Evaline St. in Pittsburgh's Garfield neighborhood, opened from 7 to 11 PM for one night during the Unblurred gallery crawl. The occasion was a late release party for Future? No Thanks!, the Molleindustria game that had been on Steam since Sept. 4. The announcement billed it as the last LIKELIKE event of the year and promised merch and a chance to meet the local cast.
The opening of the announcement trailer for Future? No Thanks!, silent here. The full trailer with sound is on Steam.
Future? No Thanks! is an open-world comedy set in an ecosocialist Pittsburgh in 2045, where Harvey Huffstone, a grumpy elder, works through a bucket list before a self-scheduled euthanasia. The credits list more than 40 voice performers, drawn, LIKELIKE says, from the community around Glitterbox Theater, a volunteer-run venue in Homestead. Tenley Schmida directed the voices and performed the motion capture, Dave English plays Harvey, and Glitterbox co-founder Teresa "Tree" Martuccio has a part. The same page dates the work: made "between January 7, 2021 and July 9, 2026 in Pittsburgh, PA."
Getting there was rough. Valve held the game in review past its July 22 launch over what Molleindustria described as "dozens of untextured polygons," then gave it an adults-only rating that the Pedercini called "the most humiliating and surreal experience in 20+ years of game making." The rating came down in late August.
Scenes from Future? No Thanks! Images: Molleindustria via Steam
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