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# Brass, Flesh and a Genius Grant [Podcast]
- URL: https://www.killscreen.com/podcast/brass-flesh-and-a-genius-grant-podcast/
- Published: 2026-10-08T22:10:34.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-08T22:10:34.000Z
- Description: Danny Snelson and I follow Murlo's solo game, a cartridge milled for a grandmother and a MacArthur that names a game, to ask who gets to be the genius.
- Author: Jamin Warren
- Tags: Podcast, Murlo, Something Beautiful, Currently Making, Luddites, point-and-click, rhythm game, electronic music, body horror, Manchester

I open with a fan who has rebuilt [*P.T.* from its own PS4 code](https://www.killscreen.com/p-t-is-being-rebuilt-for-pc-from-its-own-ps4-code/), which raises the question under the whole hour: when a game can disappear, who is responsible for keeping it? [Danny Snelson](https://dss-edit.com/?ref=killscreen.com) calls in from New York with a ZipDeck in tow, and we take a detour through Zach Cregger's *Resident Evil*, which Danny calls a faithful betrayal.

The A story is my interview with [Murlo](https://www.killscreen.com/murlo-something-beautiful-interview/), the Manchester producer Chris Pell, who left a decade of DJing to build *Something Beautiful* alone, a point-and-click rhythm game with an album inside it and jukeboxes made of flesh. I play three clips from our conversation: why he left performance, what a good interaction feels like, and the lineage he claims, from William Blake and Goya to the Luddites. Danny reads Blake as a printmaker who controlled every stage of production and finds a model there for the solo developer. Then two quick ones that rhyme with Murlo's sense of touch: Sahej Rahal's [*Atithi*](https://www.killscreen.com/a-brass-plate-is-the-controller-in-sahej-rahals-atithi/), which you play by dragging your hands across brass, and Berrysoft's [*CORPSE FARM*](https://www.killscreen.com/the-crop-is-flesh-in-berrysofts-corpse-farm/), where the crop is flesh.

In the news, Zhou Yichen is pressing [*GRANDMA*](https://www.killscreen.com/zhou-yichens-grandma-is-coming-to-a-metal-cartridge/) onto 5,000 metal Game Boy cartridges because a story this permanent should not live in plastic, and Danny checks whether metal actually outlasts plastic. It does not. Walaber's [*Reason and Rhyme*](https://www.killscreen.com/walabers-reason-and-rhyme-is-co-op-for-exactly-two/) is built for exactly two players, and Unrelated Studio's [*Lofsöng*](https://www.killscreen.com/a-nuclear-warning-is-the-level-design-in-lofsong/) turns the problem of marking a nuclear waste site into level design.

Then Joseph DeLappe and Biome Collective's [game about Guantánamo](https://www.killscreen.com/a-game-about-guantanamo-is-being-built-with-its-survivor/), made with Mansoor Adayfi, who was held there for 14 years without charge. We close on [Christine Sun Kim's MacArthur](https://www.killscreen.com/christine-sun-kims-macarthur-brings-games-one-step-closer/), whose citation names a work you play. I have been waiting for that since 2014\. Danny asks what the word genius does to work made by many hands.

## Links

- [Murlo Builds a World You Can Play](https://www.killscreen.com/murlo-something-beautiful-interview/), my feature on *Something Beautiful*
- [P.T. is being rebuilt for PC from its own PS4 code](https://www.killscreen.com/p-t-is-being-rebuilt-for-pc-from-its-own-ps4-code/)
- [Scoring Fear: The Composers Behind Weapons and Dead Space](https://www.killscreen.com/cross-conversations-horror-ryan-holladay-jason-graves/)
- [Vadim Nickel on sound design](https://www.killscreen.com/sound-design-is-the-most-ignored-art-form-in-games-one-researcher-is-changing-that/)
- [Bennett Foddy's Games Taste Like Gasoline](https://www.killscreen.com/bennett-foddy-baby-steps-interview/)
- [Sahej Rahal's Atithi interrupts our sense of touch](https://www.killscreen.com/a-brass-plate-is-the-controller-in-sahej-rahals-atithi/)
- [The crop is flesh in Berrysoft's CORPSE FARM](https://www.killscreen.com/the-crop-is-flesh-in-berrysofts-corpse-farm/)
- [Zhou Yichen's GRANDMA is coming to a metal cartridge](https://www.killscreen.com/zhou-yichens-grandma-is-coming-to-a-metal-cartridge/)
- [GRANDMA on Kickstarter](https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/pbtailsplanet/grandma-turn-someone-you-love-into-a-pixel-that-never-fades?ref=killscreen.com)
- [Walaber's Reason and Rhyme is co-op for exactly two](https://www.killscreen.com/walabers-reason-and-rhyme-is-co-op-for-exactly-two/)
- [Lofsöng hides a nuclear warning](https://www.killscreen.com/a-nuclear-warning-is-the-level-design-in-lofsong/)
- [A game about Guantánamo is being built with its survivor](https://www.killscreen.com/a-game-about-guantanamo-is-being-built-with-its-survivor/)
- [Christine Sun Kim's MacArthur brings games one step closer](https://www.killscreen.com/christine-sun-kims-macarthur-brings-games-one-step-closer/)
- [Christine Sun Kim, MacArthur Fellow](https://www.macfound.org/fellows/class-of-2026/christine-sun-kim?ref=killscreen.com)
- [Christine Sun Kim, Up and Away, Hyundai Artlab](https://artlab.hyundai.com/commissions/christine-kim-up-and-away-game?ref=killscreen.com)
- [Kill Screen in 2014: Will a game designer ever win a MacArthur "genius" grant?](https://www.killscreen.com/will-game-designer-ever-win-macarthur-genius-grant/)
- [The Killscreen Horror Collection](https://www.killscreen.com/horror-collection/)
- [Danny Snelson](https://dss-edit.com/?ref=killscreen.com)

*Hosted by Jamin Warren with Danny Snelson. Music by* [*Nick Sylvester*](https://www.instagram.com/nicksylvester/?ref=killscreen.com)*.*