game aesthetics
Why P.T. Anderson Gets Away With "Retro" But Games Don't
Why do filmmakers using vintage VistaVision get praised for aesthetic choice while pixel-art games get labeled "retro"? The difference reveals everything.
analog
interactive art
Nick Murray: The intimacy and expanse of interactive narrative
Game designer Nick Murray crafts intimate interactive experiences that bridge poetry, music, and digital art to examine the complex emotions of life mediated by technology.
News
Sylvio’s bringing its ghostly screeches to consoles this Friday the 13th
Can you hear it? The moans in the static. Yes, it’s unmistakable. It’s saying the esoteric, analog-horror game Sylvio is ghosting its way to PlayStation 4 and Xbox One this week, on Friday the 13th to be precise. Weird message to pick up on an oscilloscope, that. It’s not quite the original version
News
Small Radios Big Televisions finds the beauty in machine glitches
Small Radios Big Televisions, a game about the joys of broken analog tech, is coming to PlayStation 4 and PC on November 8th. Mostly, it wants you to collect cassettes and play them in a tape recorder: special attention is given to the tape sliding into the tray, the chik of it being locked in, the
Feature
Brendon Chung and his love for big dumb plastic switches
This article is part of Issue 8.5, a digital zine available to Kill Screen’s print subscribers. Read more about it here and get a copy yourself by subscribing to our soon-to-be-relaunched print magazine. /// The midpoint of Daft Punk’s 2013 album Random Access Memories is marked by an effusive, spra
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Sylvio 2 and the ghostly terror of analog technology
Sylvio was a humble ghost-hunting horror game in the foggy, abstract lineage of Silent Hill. It also boasted an indelible protagonist in soft-spoken Juliette Waters. Her resolve through all manner of supernatural phenomena makes you, the player, feel a bit better about the screaming ink-black blobs
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A road-trip game about the fiddly art of vehicle maintenance
Hac (pronounced “Hajj”) is a videogame about the worst parts of driving. Washing the mud out of the grill; changing the battery; losing the keys in the space between the door and your seat; packing suitcases and sleeping bags into a trunk that’s way too small. More than anything else, it’s concerned
News
The analog wonderland of Small Radios Big Televisions is coming to PS4
Small Radios Big Televisions looks like it’s going to supply a some pretty magnificent worlds to get lost in. The upcoming game, currently in development by the Canadian one-man team FIRE FACE, promises heavy doses of tape-distorted visuals, warbly oscillators, and fun with analog media (or at least
News
The uncompromising Alien: Isolation just got uncompromising-er
There are two things to know about Alien: Isolation, the Creative Assembly horror game from earlier this year based on the long-running Alien series of films. The first thing to know is that it is really, really, really good-looking. The gone-to-shit space station you explore is bafflingly dense and
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Vektor thinks mega-cities aren’t all that rad after all
Future-hell in the year 199X.