Interactive Noise 009
Trick or treat.
Five Red Mickeys by wriks – https://wriks.itch.io/5-red-mickeys
The ‘90s Happy Puppy shovelware aesthetic is a decoy. Underneath, it is what I can only describe as a sickening excavation of masculine loneliness, guilt, and layered cognitive dissonance. Prepare to feel bad.
SYF by OLSZOJ – https://olszoj.itch.io/syf
A qwerky exploration of societal collapse rendered through clay sculptures. Lots to poke at, prod, and wander through. No ending in sight, unlike ourselves.
The Dollhouse, Sold Out Ballerina, and Monadi.sys by Joonas –https://moijoonas.itch.io/
Body horror through point-and-click interactivity — one via interactive fiction, the other via rhythmic, gnarly articulation of a 3D model. Play both The Dollhouse and Sold Out Ballerina for two visions of morbid femininity. Then rinse with some well-deserved hopefulness in Monadi.sys, a genuinely inspiring game about finding beauty in dithered chaos.
Apparatus Examinus by Figglewatts – https://figglewatts.itch.io/apparatus-exanimus
Several ARGs — Vermis Malum, for instance — fake a video game by staging a Let’s Play. Figglewatts does the opposite: creates a video game that seems to exist only to be recorded, circulated, mythologized. The industrial / ethereal locations it throws you into feel like broadcast leaks from another dimension. Opaque, engrossing. I honestly hope Apparatus Examinus just keeps expanding forever and accidentally founds a new religion.
Concrete Tweet by Gallow – https://gallowjolt.itch.io/concrete-tweet
ASCII eye-strain industrial bleakness braided with Lynchian ASMR-grade white noise.
Exquisite Cadavre by fixgritt – https://fixgritt.itch.io/exquisite-cadavre
Jaw-dropping use of Bitsy’s limitations to unfold a short but extremely effective gothic tale of occult surgery and artistic sacrifice. Proof that constraint can still lacerate.
The Butterfly by Kerineia – https://kerineia.itch.io/the-butterfly
It circles similar themes as Exquisite Cadavre, but with less subtlety. I still recommend it for its domestic horror — especially through the family dog. Imagine Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s The Yellow Wallpaper by way of Stuart Gordon.
The Longest Road by Cyberthreat – https://cyberthreat.itch.io/the-longest-road
Remember In the Mouth of Madness? Timespace-loop fatalism meets PSX top-down vehicular dread (including an excellent use of constrained field of view). Rally of hopelesness.
Descend by ompuco – https://ompuco.itch.io/descend
Brilliant interactive architectural horror that refuses narrative context because it doesn’t need it. Move, descend, submit.
Unwon, undone by Kevin Hutchins – https://khutchins.itch.io/unwon-undone
Past a certain point, “reaching the end” stops being the motivation. Burning your retinas with noisy, high-contrast pixelation becomes the new act of devotion.
Cubist Barbarian by MindApe – https://mindape.itch.io/cubist-barbarian
Textual rotten offal under a dithered sun. It frames barbarism as a sentience that can only speak in an internal language, one that has no way to define what it perceives through mindless violence and devourment.
My Back Itches by Homerduc – https://homerduc.itch.io/my-back-itches
Perfectly captures the obsessive satisfaction of piercing fleshy layers. I can absolutely imagine this adapted for a touchscreen made of pig skin.