Videogames can get us to experience otherwise foreign concepts without any real negative consequences. But what about death? How can videogame death be made meaningful if all one has to do us reload? Enter Karoshi, a Flash game in which the goal is to die. The morbid, curiously upbeat game about suicide compels J. P. Grant to reflect on mortality and responsibility—his own, and that of those around him. 

GameSpot EIC-turned-EA LA producer Greg Kasavin has many stories to tell—and he wants to do it with videogames. We talk with the man of letters about his upcoming title Bastion, almost becoming an English professor, and what RPGs can teach us about life. 

The fourth wall is broken less than a minute into Cthulhu Saves the World. Turns out H. P. Lovecraft’s ancient squid-faced god of darkness has been eavesdropping as the narrator was explaining the plot. A mysterious wizard has drained his evil energies, and to restore them, Cthulhu will have to become a true hero—saving the world so that he can destroy it. “Foolish narrator!” Cthulhu cries. “Now, I too know the way to regain my power!”

You won’t take arms against it, but you will face a literal sea of troubles in Michael Molinari’s Flash game …But That Was [Yesterday]. An oily, churning wall—seemingly made of memories—blocks your way. Your first objective is to figure out how, by opposing, you can end it.

Ladies and gentlemen, from the flight deck: This is your hijacker speaking. On behalf of your former captain—who is currently hurtling toward the earth at terminal velocity—I’d like to welcome you aboard Panau Airlines Flight 635, with service to wherever I feel like ditching the aircraft.