
The Elusive Creator of the Most Terrifying Video Games - jonbaer
http://motherboard.vice.com/read/the-most-elusive-video-game-creator
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technologia
No offense to those who might be fans of Sato's games, but is it just me or
did those games just come off as just plain weird and not at all terrifying?

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l33tbro
I agree. Why does everybody call this game terrifying? I remember playing it
on Playstation 2 (??) and thinking it was interesting and experimental - but
way certainly not that creepy.

I think communites like Reddit tend to mythologize these kind of things into
greater significance. So as soon as I read the bombastic headline I knew it
would be LSD. No surprise, Shane Smith/Vice have built an empire on hyperbole.
Vice News is has awesome scope though ...

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ANTSANTS
I fear I may never get a better chance to mention Garage:

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KwYYFjGtedw](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KwYYFjGtedw)

[http://lostmedia.wikia.com/wiki/Garage:_Bad_Dream_Adventure_...](http://lostmedia.wikia.com/wiki/Garage:_Bad_Dream_Adventure_%28Limited_Release_1999_Japanese_Point-
and-Click_Game%29)

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ddellacosta
Really glad you did! Thanks--what an interesting find.

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talles
More _weird_ than _terrifying_ tbh.

I miss that oddity in video-games. Take for instance _Space Station Silicon
Valley_ for N64, you don't see games like these anymore.

The indie scene saves the day when it comes for creativity in video-games, but
there aren't really _odd_ games like before (AFAIK).

~~~
ashark
You haven't seen the work of thecatamites, have you?

[http://harmonyzone.org](http://harmonyzone.org)

Search on Rock Paper Shotgun for reviews. Or just dig in. If there's anyone
else out there consistently cranking out this much weirdness in game form, I'm
not aware of them.

Also Frog Fractions, which is... certainly surprising, anyway. Read nothing
about it if you haven't played it already. Just GO.

[http://twinbeard.com/frog-fractions](http://twinbeard.com/frog-fractions)

My GOTY for the year for 2012. I'm not kidding. It's so meta though that I'm
not sure it's quite what you mean by weird.

Lots of games in the "weird twist on X" category. Horse Master, Hatoful
Boyfriend, Hotline Miami... huh, that's lots of words starting with H. Tons of
others. Lots of games messing with classic concepts/mechanics in new ways.

[http://noncanon.com/HorseMaster.html](http://noncanon.com/HorseMaster.html)

[http://clione.halfmoon.jp/hatoful-
boyfriend/english.html](http://clione.halfmoon.jp/hatoful-
boyfriend/english.html)

[http://www.hotlinemiami.com](http://www.hotlinemiami.com)

Hammerfight's weird in the way you mean, I think. Steam link because the
official site is _really_ bad. So's the game, really, though the art and
concept carry it for quite a while.

[http://store.steampowered.com/app/41100/](http://store.steampowered.com/app/41100/)

Blendo Games' Thirty Flights of Loving, Atom Zombie Smasher, and Gravity Bone
are all this sort of weird. I can't speak for their other games only because I
haven't played them, but they're likely weird too.

[http://blendogames.com](http://blendogames.com)

There are more. Free stuff tends to be the weirdest. Poke around in Rock Paper
Shotgun's archives for articles about free games and you'll find weirdness in
abundance. Lots of weird-for-the-sake-of-weird but plenty of weird-due-to-
experimentation-and-childlike-fancy too.

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taurath
Its amazing how little we recognize that people value personal privacy and
space. If you do something worth recognition expect to have every unrelated
facet of your life poured over to the extent that it's available. I feel bad
for anyone under 25 right now as they've been using services with only the
thinnest veneer of privacy since they were teens. Should make politics a lot
more interesting as there will be very few people that can pretend to have the
squeaky clean profiles of current politician.

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NovaS1X
Nobody is squeaky clean. Therein lies the problem.

On a devils advocate note. Maybe the erosion of privacy will lead to more
informed voters and honest politicians. For this I don't hold much hope
though.

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RRWagner
Watching the video, I was strongly reminded of the work of Chris Marker, a
film-maker worth coming to know if you don't already. Marker loved Japan and
the affection was reciprocated by many artists, including Akira Kurosawa. The
possible path from Marker to LSD: Dream Emulator is more than I can clearly
map here, but here are some points along the way:

[http://www.theguardian.com/film/2014/apr/15/thrilling-
prophe...](http://www.theguardian.com/film/2014/apr/15/thrilling-prophetic-
chris-marker-experimental-films)

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q7_Hp33euEQ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q7_Hp33euEQ)

[http://artforum.com/film/id=47823](http://artforum.com/film/id=47823)

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busterarm
I'm definitely a fan of the LSD game for Playstation, but Sato is getting a
little more credit for supposedly establishing a genre than he deserves.

Check out the game "Cosmology of Kyoto".

