ColePowered Games Ltd.

I spend too much time making games and not enough playing them, so I’ve decided to start writing a semi-regular piece on games that I’ve recently played. Hopefully they will force me to think about them and encourage me to play more! See previous ones here.

The year is 1999, dawn is breaking on the age of the internet meme. I’m an internet enforcer: A a virtual sheriff sent to patrol the wild west of the world wide web. I’ve just shut down a primary school teacher’s website for using copyrighted images from a 1960s fish detective cartoon. That’ll teach her. Meanwhile April, my virtual angel hamster, shits on my desktop. This is Hypnospace Outlaw, and it’s glorious.

We’ve lost something, haven’t we? Hypnospace harks back to a time where the internet was largely about self-expression: Without the slick but soul-less social media sites of today, web pages were often complete a mess but highly individual- a labor of love. The creative spirit that accompanied these times really appeals to me, and there’s an underlying sweetness to the writing and humor in hypnospace that magnifies those rose-tinted glasses. Jay Tholen and Xalavier Nelson Jr. have created something special that resonates with anyone online in the 90s. It is, of course, better than the real thing ever was- even the OS colours are vibrant blues and purples instead of grey like the Windows of yesteryear. I don’t think anyone at the time really thought the early internet would hold a place as a cultural touchstone, but it totally does.

The soundtrack is a particular highlight and one that I really cannot talk about anywhere near as much as I would like for fear of spoiling surprises. The game is quite musically focused; every page has an accompanying song ranging from midi sequences to advertising jingles to nu-metal songs. Occasionally it presents me with such a cacophony of low fidelity midi sound that I’ll have to press the mute button. Authenticity! But songs by fictional washed-up 80s rock star ‘The Chowder Man’ represent this game at its absolute best.

Hypnospace is actually similar to Shadows of Doubt in what I’m trying to achieve with the core mechanics: It’s a detective game with an open world of sorts. That world is its killer feature, in that it’s fun to explore regardless of anything else, and you are incentivized to do so through the acquisition and spending of the game’s currency. It has detective style cases that unfold as the main story, but the player is otherwise given freedom. Shadows, of course, will be very different in how you explore the world, but it’s encouraging that this approach works well. Reach the end of certain cases and you’ll jump forward in time; now everything has changed. Pages have been updated, current events unfolded and new zones unlocked. It gives the game a whole other dimension, and I think without this progression the world could start to feel stale.

I don’t have many criticisms; it achieves what it sets out to do pretty damn well. I tend to play for 45 mins or less rather than hours- there’s only so much fluorescent assault my eyeballs can take after all. After a couple of cases the main objectives take on more of a puzzle-like form, and if you don’t ‘get it’ then it can leave you scouring pages rather aimlessly. The detective aspect reminds me of Her Story, but less focused- with a whole fake internet at your fingertips it’s easier to go down the wrong rabbit hole looking for something. Luckily there is a nice hint feature you can access by searching ‘hint’. It’s a great way to handle things as this game doesn’t feel like it should be trying too hard to hold back content/progression.

Hypnospace is a fantastic little game. Completely original, unique and quirky. It’s been a tough couple of weeks working on Shadows lately; progress has been frustratingly slow. Hypnospace Outlaw has cheered me right up…

April died though. I feel awful about that.

I spend too much time making games and not enough playing them, so I’ve decided to start writing a semi-regular piece on games that I’ve recently played. Hopefully they will force me to think about them and encourage me to play more! See previous ones here.

Paratopic is an excellent low-fi indie horror game that lasts around 40 minutes. It’s exactly the kind of game that fits in well with my routine right now- something I can complete easily in one sitting, impactful and interesting. The following will contain some mild spoilers. For such a short game, I consider almost anything a spoiler, so I’d highly recommend you go buy and play it before reading!

I’m not a great fan of horror games or even many films in the sense that I don’t tend to seek out scary experiences. The shining (ha) examples of the genre I do actually really love though- Rosemary’s Baby is a personal favorite. I can appreciate a creeping sense of dread or atmospheric uneasiness much more than I can jump scares, gore, or anything that ventures too far into the supernatural. Paratopic fits in the former category perfectly.

Continuing the cinematic comparisons, Paratopic uses jump cuts to break up its scenes akin to ‘Thirty Flights of Loving’ or ‘Virginia’. It melds perfectly with the horror theme by taking some control away from the player in a way that doesn’t feel unnatural, while letting the game designers control pacing. It’s effective because instead of being frustrated with being forced into something you don’t choose as a player, you immediately want to engage with your new environment. There’s no cognitive downtime. It also means you (usually) don’t have to worry about finding the right path through a map, and thankfully Paratopic doesn’t over-rely on sudden jump cuts for cheap scares. 

It also breaks up its story of 3 different characters with them, with not much in the way of explanation. At first, it feels like a collection of scenes mashed together and can be confusing for even most of the game, but the more you experience the more the pieces fit together. It’s non-linear narrative design with roots in cinema and literature that works to great effect here.

The low-fidelity look and feel of the game is perfect for the genre. It’s so effective here because it so firmly lodges itself in the trough of the uncanny valley: The characters are visibly human but jumbled up enough to spark a strong sense of uneasiness. The resolution of one character’s face even angrily changes right before your eyes. Haunting.

The game’s environments match its characters:  A delightfully dingy mix of run-down buildings, apartments, and industrial sites. Smokey, echo-y rooms with chequered floors and high ceilings: Apartments with hints of a long-faded glory, now completely dilapidated. Dodgy, dimly-lit gas station convenience stores, with dodgier attendants. Everywhere feels lonely, forgotten and broken. Everything is pea soup green.

The sound design is as low-fi as the visuals in all the best ways. Voices are garbled and slightly robotic, just about recognizably human but equally nonsensical. Sometimes they’ll skip like your computer’s about to blue screen. Even the subtitles pulsate and alter shape like they’re going to contort into something sinister. The music is also another high point- I get some strong retro horror vibes from it- Twin Peaks meets John Carpenter.

The car driving sequences stretch on a little long. They do a good job of immersing you into the world, and with that turquoise lighting and blood sky are maybe even the prettiest parts of the game. I also think they’re important for communicating the journey the characters take. Trouble is, first time around at least, they leave you wondering if you’re missing something: ‘Am I supposed to be ‘triggering’ the next scene somehow? Is there something I’ve missed?’ It appears you simply have to wait them out. There is a cool subtle thing the game does with them that I’ll avoid spoiling here, but ultimately I think they could do with being a bit shorter. When the next scene does arrive though, it comes as a bit of a relief- reminding you that the pacing of the game is out of your hands. I can imagine enjoying them more second time around, knowing that they are passive.

I hope I get to return to the world of Paratopic one day, as it’s firmly lodged itself in my memory. It’s a young sub-genre of indie game that’s really found its feet over the last few years: An experience rather than a game, that’s arguably closer to film. I just wish we had a better name for this than ‘walking simulator’. Paratopic is a memorable example of whatever you want to call it, and one I would highly recommend. More than anything though, it’s made me want to create my own short experience.

Paratopic is $5.49 on Itch.io or Steam.