Maybe the virtual is synonymous with such space. This is the non-space of post-modern theater, and indeed maybe all games occupy such space. A virtual art gallery in the auxiliary transmedia materials calls attention to the impossibility of the installations-despite the fact that an exhibition did, in fact, happen in real space too. Each time we traverse the titular highway, we find ourselves lost in hyper-dimensional space. Or more to the point, an exploration of the non-space of virtuality. We know the how the story, the game, (and probably the arguments and social critique) must end, we know this plot structure, how the dramatic curve of games should go, but seeing how we get there is really the fun.Īlongside-and perhaps inextricable from-its focus on journey is an exploration of space. To some degree, we know where we’re going: early in the narrative we’re told how it will end, but KRZ insistently calls attention to the process of journey-perhaps another argument about the pleasure experience of stories and games. The narrative seems to be heading into an exploration of debt, class, corporatized healthcare, and technology that I’m interested to see play out, but I don’t yet know how those themes will pay off. Act 3 takes several jabs at Ted Nelson and roasts academia as an institution, an interesting position for a game so aware of its own position in a canon. It’s difficult to talk too much about overarching themes or narrative consistency until the work is finished, but KRZ certainly seems to be making self-contained arguments along the way. Kentucky Route Zero is unabashed about its highbrow ambitions, but it packages them in an approachable surrealist point-and-click adventure game. It borrows heavily from film theory, sci-fi, post-modernism, and art history in a fantastic example of a game that understands allusion and uses it to great effect. For each reference to Waiting for Godot or The Aeneid, we find a reference to Zork, Xanadu, or Spacewar!. It’s an excellent example of what I have called extra-diegetic agency elsewhere: our choices don’t affect the outcome of the story world, but they do affect how the story is told and our understanding of it.īut as much as Kentucky Route Zero celebrates its theater heritage, it also celebrates and comments on its other heritages as well. The pleasure experience of the work is not one of assuming a role in a story, but one of directing the story, choosing character blocking, which bits of dialogue to reveal, how to characterize and frame each character. We control the protagonist, but we also control other actors as well. Parts of the stage light as we enter and dim as we exit while important set-pieces might be lit with a spot, or we might see the characters as silhouettes while inside buildings as if the buildings used a virtual scrim. Each screen is very intentionally framed, sometimes with foregrounded geometry that explicitly recalls the curtain around a stage. KRZ is a hypertext-adventure game hybrid that situates itself firmly into the traditions of theater. Still, Kentucky Route Zero is worth each excruciating wait, and it deserves to be written about. But Netflix has spoiled me on binging episodic content waiting months between each episode is agonizing. I first played Kentucky Route Zero a couple of years ago when only the first act was available, and it blew my mind. This month’s meeting will be March 2 at 6PM at Southland Perk.Part of me wanted to wait for the entirety of Kentucky Route Zero to be released before writing about it, but ultimately I felt I was doing a disservice to the work by waiting. Be sure to play the game in depth, as this will be a spoiler heavy discussion. Gameplay is inspired by point-and-click adventure games (like the classic Monkey Island or King’s Quest series, or more recently Telltale’s Walking Dead series), but focused on characterization, atmosphere and storytelling rather than clever puzzles or challenges of skill.Īll events are free and open to the public. Kentucky Route Zero is a magical realist adventure game about a secret highway in the caves beneath Kentucky, and the mysterious folks who travel it. This month we’re discussing the slow burn narrative game Kentucky Route Zero, specifically Act 1 from developer Cardboard Computer. We’ll take a closer, developer’s eye to really discuss the game beyond just the surface level of “it was cool.” Once a month, we’ll select a new game to talk about and we’ll spend some time discussing the game in greater depth. When this happens, and you want to talk a bit more in depth about independent games, we now have Indie Game of the Month Club. Sometimes a new indie game comes out, and it’s go a little something extra to say.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |