errantsignal

The Slow Burn Arthouse Horror of The Space Between

Added 2019-10-29 20:21:28 +0000 UTC

Hey all! Here's the second Halloween episode of the year! And this time I'm talking about The Space Between, a game released earlier this year by Austrian indie dev Christoph Frey. Like other spooky auteur-types I've covered on this show, he's not only got a penchant for low-fidelity horror but a series of specific design tics that are really interesting to explore. I love how he plays with abstraction and ambiguity, and I love how all of his games seem to... *resist* the player in some sense. I look forward to whatever he does next!

I'm a little frustrated I couldn't really get as in depth with my criticism as Catherine Brinegar was able to over at Rebind.io, but I also think the format and contexts are different - Rebind is singularly focused on in depth analysis of small games, and I have had a very public crisis over whether espousing them to lots of people was more important than rooting around for meaning within. Still, her piece is great, and if you're itching for something that digs more deeply than I could in my piece, I'd highly recommend it. Here's part 1: https://www.rebind.io/tearing-down-the-house-an-exploration-of-the-space-between-part-1-1467/

Oh, and the Patron exclusivity may be a bit short on this one - I want people to be able to watch it on Halloween, so it may go public sometime tomorrow! Unfortunately it does look likely to be the last Halloween game of the year - I have a playthrough of at least one more game recorded, but I simply didn't have the time to get to write it up, let alone edit it together. But maybe we'll find a way to come back around to it before too long...

Anyways, November approaches, and my current plan is another Blips episode accompanied with maybe something more mainstream for once. As always, thanks for your support!