Tag: environmental storytelling

Jane Ng
Feature

How Jane Ng turned the real world into Firewatch

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. /// When an architect drafts a design, they dream big. And where there’s an architect, there’s a craftsman—the person who sits down to bring the concept to life. At San Francisco-based independent game studio Campo Santo, that craftsman is 13-year industry veteran Jane Ng. But instead of fully-realizing buildings, she realizes game art, most recently that of the impeccably stylized Firewatch. “I’m like the builder that comes in…
News

Anamorphine and the rise of the first-person narrative game

Georges Méliès discovered filmmaking’s jump cut by accident. By cutting out some of the frames in a single, still camera shot and splicing the two separate parts, it seemed as if objects were teleporting through space when watched back in real-time. In his 1898 short The Temptation of St. Anthony, he uses the jump cut to have women magically appear around the titular character, attempting to seduce him from his faith, before disappearing just as suddenly. Méliès used the jump cut to become the great cinematic illusionist he’s now known as, producing what appeared to be magic through editing alone, and…
Review

Void and Meddler is lovely but lonely

It’s a gorgeous evening in Void & Meddler’s synth-wave nightscape. The downtempo music is pulsing, rain is falling, and I’m guiding my protagonist Fyn through a market of vibrant neofuturistic goods. I click on some fish, stacked near a bobbing robot merchant. “No, just no,” Fyn tells me. I click on the pile of fish again. “No way.” /// Booting up the game, I knew from a single glance that Fyn and I were not going to get along. With her hips perpetually half-crooked and a look of withering disinterest carved into her expression, Void & Meddler’s protagonist is all…
News

The first few minutes of Below shows the start of a legendary adventure

Exploring the depths of a cavernous island, a tiny warrior rigorously battles their way through the unknown, struggling against a stream of enemies. The story of a small hero up against a dark scary world isn’t a new concept, but it’s a powerful one. In Below, this concept is put into practice, and the promise of the adventure of a lifetime is dripping in the atmosphere created by dark colors and wide shots of the world around the character, reduced to a pinpoint of light against the vast backdrop. Below is a roguelike adventure title, where exploration and survival go…
News

The freedom of being a bird girl isn’t without its dangers

A blue sky riddled with floating islands, purple deer, and idyllic waterfalls—the opening scene of Aer’s trailer is a scenic glance at an abstract cubist-esque world. The expanse hovering before us is at peace, but we know that there’s so much more to see. Taking in the view with us is Auk, a pilgrim girl who, after turning to look at us, dives off the edge head-first and transforms into a skybird with a spin and a flurry of light. The bird is reminiscent of The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword’s loftwings, but this world seems like so much more than…