Artist Carson Lynn interrogates the boundaries of photography by capturing and manipulating virtual light within game spaces, creating works that question conventional definitions of image-making while exploring queerness in digital landscapes.
The mountainous terrain in Connor Sherlock’s exploration game Birthplace of Ossian isn’t of this world. I don’t mean that rather than being real, it is virtual—its disconnection has many more layers than that. For starters, its colossal landscape is based on Glen Coe in Scotland, a place that Sherlo
Heterotopias is a series of visual investigations into virtual spaces performed by artist and writer Gareth Damian Martin. /// Videogames have always had something of a preference for islands. These closed spaces, limited by a shoreline, are the perfect conceit for creating an enclosed simulation—an
The power of the engine doesn’t matter—it is the landscape which dictates the speed of a train. Some journeys are staccato and breathless, clusters of urban interest barely spaced, laying down a beat over which the melodies of weather and light might play. Others are long drawn-out sighs, exhales as
We remarked back in July last year that Richard Whitelock’s upcoming “simple stone throwing game” Quiet as a Stone turned nature into your own personal playground. But it seems a better metaphor would be comparing it to the Mesopotamian mud flats where it is thought humankind’s first buildings were
Mirror Lake is a strange little thing. Made in a week for Procedural Generation Jam, it creates static black-and-white landscapes, nestled inside a giant patterned bowl and suspended in space. Sometimes the space is dark, dotted with stars and the occasional sun or moon or comet; sometimes it’s a va
Sign up to receive each week’s Playlist e-mail here! Also check out our full, interactive Playlist section. Barmark (Android) BY Stormhatt Studios The characters in Barmark are all damaged in some way. You can see this as they wander the rigidly-cut pastoral landscapes guided by your finger. They a
We drive into the future using only our rearview mirror. — Marshall McLuhan Ian MacLarty’s Reflections inspired one of those “whoa the future is here” moments in me. I remember years ago, I felt like I was in the goddamn Jetsons the first time I ever Skyped with a person half way across the world. I
For a game with the word “quiet” in the title, Quiet as a Stone is alive with sound, and some incredibly pleasing ones too. There’s the hum of wind and water, the noise of nature uninterrupted, then the clatter of rocks and clay pots shattering as the player interferes with the landscape, and finall
Editor’s note: An earlier version of this article misrepresented MacLarty’s motivations. It has been revised following a discussion with him. Videogame designer Ian MacLarty recently took part in a game jam, as part of the Freeplay festival in Australia, that was themed upon diversity, multiplicity
To a small but very vocal group of people, 2012’s Xenoblade Chronicles was like an all-you-can-eat buffet in the middle of a desert. After the JRPG’s much-ululated decline in popularity and relevance, it was a sprawling, goofy, giving game, with vistas that just continued opening up, revealing new p
