Electron Dance Highlights
Penetrate the Night: The Movie
And while you’re mulling these questions over… grind will see you through. Grind is easy. It asks no questions of you. It offers routine. It promises progress. Keep all the numbers rising, players love their sultry numbers. But they are a mere illusion of progress, a distraction from the frustration. And there… there is the trap.
Here is the next Electron Dance film, a theatrical re-enactment of Penetrate the Night, which considers the addictive qualities of Cultist Simulator (Weather Factory, 2018).
Watch the film below or direct on YouTube.
FEATURED GAMES
- Starseed Pilgrim
- Cultist Simulator
- Bonbon
- Overcooked
- Minecraft
- The Sense of Connectedness
- Cookie Clicker
- Domina
AUDIO
- Imphenzia Universal Sound FX
- Albert Clock Bell (https://freesound.org/s/433773/)
SPECIAL THANKS
- Andy Durdin
- Gregg Burnell
- droqen
Status Report: May 2017
This is an update for my YouTube subscribers and includes footage for the in-development Endlight. Watch on YouTube or embedded below:
Links
Music
- Professor Klik "Wire & Flashing Lights"
- Wendy Carlos & Rachel Elkind-Tourre "Title Music From A Clockwork Orange"
The Drake Incident: A Dark Souls Story
Ding dong, the Bell Gargoyles are dead. I ring the bell. Where next for my lonely undead hero...?
Watch the film below or direct on YouTube.
HOW IT WAS MADE
If you're interested in how the film came into being, which is partly through luck and partly through bloody-minded determination, here's How I Made: The Drake Incident.
FEATURED GAMES
- Dark Souls, From Software
- Temple of Apshai Trilogy, Epyx
FOOTAGE
- 1970s Cinema Intermission Intro
- Intermission Time
- Home Alone (audio of scream)
- Odeon adverts and trailer package
- Mecha-Mecha Iketeru!
- WarGames
- No Country For Old Men
- Kill Bill Vol. 1
MUSIC
- Motoi Sakuraba "Firelink Shrine" (Dark Souls)
- Motoi Sakuraba "Bell Gargoyles" (Dark Souls)
- Kokenn "Without"
- Quantic "Common Knowledge"
- Vladimir Platine "Destiny"
- Motoi Sakuraba "Centipede Demon" (Dark Souls)
- Motoi Sakuraba "Dark Sun Gwyndolin" (Dark Souls)
- scntfc "Lost (Prologue)" (Oxenfree OST)
- Robin Trower "Bridge of Sighs"
What I Really Thought About The Witness
Hidden inside The Unbearable Now was access to a secret video. After three weeks, I decided to make the video public for everyone. Here it is, twenty random observations about The Witness (Thelka, 2016) which had no home in The Unbearable Now.
There be much spoilers for The Witness from the very beginning; the focus is more on puzzle mechanics.
Also here’s the audience retention graph for The Unbearable Now! Click the image for a larger version.
The red band indicates the twenty second challenge. I was pleased to discover that the audience who hung on this far stayed for the ride and did not let me down. The green circle seems to be interest in Sokobond, but I can’t be sure. The spike at the end is clearly a lot of viewers trying to solve the mystery of the secret video.
The Unbearable Now: On The Witness
On the theme park island of The Witness, you solve puzzles. Solving puzzles leads to more puzzles. Keep working. Keep digging. Keep solving. Again and again and again. But this process cannot continue forever. Where does The Witness end? And why?
At last, it is here: The Unbearable Now is a spoiler-filled interpretation of The Witness (Thelka, 2016) that’s been months in the making. It is laced with a few choice expletives, but definitely no gore. Or nudity.
Watch the film below or direct on YouTube.
FEATURED GAMES
- Futilitris, Twinbeard Studios
- Braid, Number None
- Sokobond, Hazelden & Lee
- The Talos Principle, Croteam
- Full Bore, Whole Hog Games
FOOTAGE
- The Last Mimzy
- The Karate Kid
- Terminator 2: Judgment Day
- Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back
- 2001: A Space Odyssey
- The Matrix
- The Witness Consciousness - Vashishta Cave Talk With Anand
- MBSR Widening the Circle Video
MUSIC
- Worakls "Toi"
- N'To "Trauma" (Worakls Remix)
- Fauré Requiem Op.48, Angus Dei (perf. by The Sixteen)
- Worakls "Salzburg"
- Edvard Greig, Peer Gynt Suite No. 1, Op 46, Anitra's Dance (perf. by Metropolitan Philharmonic Orchestra)
- Edvard Greig, Peer Gynt Suite No. 1, Op 46, In the Hall of the Mountain King (perf. by Metropolitan Philharmonic Orchestra)
- b.lakes "Cemetary Walk"
- The.madpix.project "Bad Chick"
- Edvard Greig, Peer Gynt Suite No. 1, Op 46, Death of Åse (perf. by Budapest Philharmonic Orchestra)
- Howlround "A Viewless Sea"
- Mikael Fyrek "Bathing in a River of Discordant Music"
- Push-Pull "Liquid Mountain"
- Lecyr "Luminautore"
- Teho "Ade"
- Rémy Bourgeois "Nostalgic Memories"
- Rémy Bourgeois "Few Minutes of Us"
- Boris Brejcha "Lost Memory"
FURTHER READING
- Taming the Inexplicable, Liz Ryerson
- The Meaning of the Witness, Sean Han-Tani-Chen-Hogan
- The Witness: What It Means, Jeff Grubb
- The Witness - A Great Game That You Shouldn't Play, Joseph Anderson (YouTube)
Trailer: The Unbearable Now
As the next film is taking a while to complete, I thought I'd put out a trailer. No game spoilers for The Witness appear in the trailer, although the final film will be nothing but spoilers.
Into The Black: The Movie
How do videogames undermine those players who enjoy exploring virtual worlds? Here is the fourth Electron Dance film, a hybrid of Into the Black and Chekhov's Collectible.
Watch this video below or direct on YouTube.
FEATURED GAMES
- Obsolete, Orihaus
- Proteus, Key & Kanaga
- Flight Simulator II, subLOGIC
- GTA III, Rockstar Games
- Fuel, Codemasters
- Dear Esther, The Chinese Room
- TRIHAYWBFRFYH, Connor Sherlock
- TIMEframe, Random Seed Games
- Secret Habitat, Strangethink
- Bernband, Tom van den Boogaart
- Aeon, Orihaus
- Lumière, Orihaus
- Césure, Orihaus
- Xaxi, Orihaus
FOOTAGE
MUSIC
- Jerry Goldsmith "The Cloud" (Star Trek: The Motion Picture soundtrack)
- Rémy Bourgeois (prev. Aaren Reale) "Bal de Nuit"
- Max Richter "Maria"
- Andrew Hewitt "The Double Theme (Version 2)" (The Double OST)
- Andrew Hewitt "A Boy Held Up By String" (The Double OST)
- Jerry Goldsmith "Ilia's Theme" (Star Trek: The Motion Picture soundtrack)
- Max Richter "November"
Bioshock Infinite Is The Worst Game Of The Year
The original script for this video essay was written in January 2014 and then I spent a mere 18 months thinking about making it. Two years after Bioshock Infinite (Irrational Games, 2013) was released to huge critical acclaim, I finally have a video about it. If you love the game, you're going to hate me. If you hate the game, you're going to have a laugh.
Oh the hyperbole. Not just a bad game. The worst game. Maybe he meant the worst out of those games that get called “game of the year”? That would have been okay. But I can’t think he really meant worst compared to all the crappy clones that are foisted on mobile users every month.
Watch this video below or direct on YouTube.
REFERENCES
"On Videogame Reviews" by Tevis Thompson
"Stanley Scores Reviews" by Joel Goodwin
Counterweight podcast where Eric and I trashed Bioshock Infinite.
MUSIC
The Minecraft Industrial Revolution
A video essay on Minecraft's survival mode.
Proteus indulges the fable of the “simple life” where we co-exist peacefully with the ecosystem. It asks me to lose myself in the majesty of nature and its joyous, playful manner is beguiling... but the code protects the island above all else. We cannot even take a blade of grass or petal of a flower with us and we leave no footprints behind. Violations of Proteus law are forbidden. Nature is immutable. Nature is God.
Watch the video here or direct on YouTube.
Credits
- Video by Joel Goodwin
Games Shown
- Minecraft, Mojang
- Proteus, Key & Kanaga
Footage
- Mountain Men, History Channel
- Space 1999 "Breakaway"
- Space 1999 "Dragon's Domain"
Music
From the album Minecraft - Volume Beta by C418:
- "Alpha"
- "The End"
- "Ballad of the Cats"
- "Mutation"
The Five Stages of Starseed Pilgrim: The Movie
This month we're celebrating FIVE YEARS of Electron Dance!
Just a few weeks ago I told you The Five Stages of Starseed Pilgrim was the second most popular article in the site's history. So you asked for this. You all asked for this with your clicks.
Credits
- Video by Joel Goodwin
- Starseed Pilgrim by droqen available on Steam
Games Shown
- At A Distance, Terry Cavanagh
- Starseed Pilgrim, droqen
- Proteus, Key & Kanaga
Footage
Music
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